AV IT Bar, Sheffield

I can't really add to the previous review. The pub may have excellent beer, but for the traditionalist it lacks. Add to that the presence of many students above, which probably explains why the place has the feel of a student bar. For the record, my half of Abbydale's Deception New Zealand Pale Ale was very good and at £1.65, was bang-on average price for day. However, when in a pub, I prefer to have a thatched roof above my head rather than students.

As a good example of the fact that pub appreciation is a very subjective thing I have to say I did not warm to this one. I am not in a position to pass judgement to whether the modern makeover of a few years back has improved the place or not, but it just left me all a bit cold and gave me the feeling that I was drinking in a student bar, which given the fact that it is now located below a Unite Student living accommodation block is probably not surprising and a strong steer to who the target demographic of this one is. I also didn’t appreciate the fact that the 12 ale pumps are spread around the central square bar and you have to do a complete circuit to see what is available. For our visit there were seven ales on in the form of four from Abbeydale ( Deception, Daily Bread, Heathen and a vegan friendly Huckster Cryo ) Mallingsons Flight Risk, North Brewing co. Sputnik and Five Points Railway Porter. And when I did find the beer listing board above the entrance to the toilets it looks like Wills observation from the review below is being recognised in that it wasn’t accurate and up to date. The Heathen was not on there and Abbeydale moonshine which had gone, was. Also half the cask boards had the beer followed by the brewery and the other half were the other way round, a small point I know, but a bloody annoying one. And as also mentioned below the keg boards were so busy that the reader would have benefitted from having access to the Hubble telescope. But my biggest disappointment was that the Five Points Railway Porter is one of my favourite beers but I decided to duck this Hackney Brew for something more local in the shape of the Abbeydale Daily Bread, which turned out to be thin and lifeless. I’m not sure if that was the fault of the beer or the pub, but either way it left a bad taste in the mouth, literally. I can see why others hold the Dev Cat in high esteem, but on the strength of my experiences of two days in Sheffield there are a lot more other pubs above this one on my list for a return visit.