The City Tavern, Chester

Official site of The City Tavern - www.thepeoplespub.co.uk

Official site of The City Tavern - www.thepeoplespub.co.uk

I got off on the wrong foot here by mistakenly asking for a cask beer that wasn't on sale yet, having failed to spot the rather small and hard to read luggage labels attached to two of the five hand pumps. The barman was not amused, or perhaps he is always grumpy on Mondays. Faced now with a diminished choice of Wainwright Gold or Amber, or Brains Rev James, we both plumped for the latter, but this was a little stale with a hint , just a very subtle hint, of vinegar about it. We really didn't fancy tackling the barman about this - what if Monday is the day he brings his chainsaw into work? - so we supped up and kept quiet. It really was a very subtle hint, but it didn't put us in the right frame of mind for saying what a lovely pub this is.

Much as described previously, there is an upstairs area (not explored) and I didn’t check out the “secret” beer garden with astroturf. Five pulls on the corner of the central servery, three with beers from small localish breweries plus Wainwright, one beer was doubled up. Beer quality was good without being outstanding but I was surrounded by lager drinkers and dining codgers on my lunchtime visit, the staff however were outstanding and I was enrolled into their cask club loyalty scheme - ok I was given a card to get stamped. It’s a decent well run pub with no frills making a lot of effort.

The City Tavern is a large L shaped pub with seating down the right-hand side towards the rear. Plasma screens are found throughout for watching live sport, which was muted in favour of some low background music during my recent Tuesday afternoon visit. Live music was advertised for the weekend. I counted 5 hand pumps in amongst some standard and premium keg products. Three of these pumps were unused leaving Greene King IPA and Navigation Brewery’s Patriot as the cask ale options. Pub Grub is available all day and there are meal deals such as two mains for £9.99 throughout the week. Out the back is an enclosed beer yard with covered and uncovered seating. Strangely there is a plastic grass carpet on the deck. I would have no problem popping back in here to watch a match.