The Grand Union, Leicester

This place used to be a free house specialising in real ales called Out of the Vaults before it closed in 2009. It has been without ale ever since, until in 2016 the place was taken over by the Broood team who also own the old Prince of Wales pub in Hinckley. We now have a modern beer bar with a pub-cum-cafe vibe in a premises that is deceptively bigger than you first expect. Steps at the entrance take you up into a bare boarded room with a zigzag layout determined by the positioning of furniture and partitioning walls in an otherwise narrow but deep room. The front part of the room is nice and bright thanks to the light let in through the large windows with their etched panes bearing the pub's awkward name in full. High tables and stools are the main form of seating along with a drinking ledge to the left under a mirror and Jackson Pollock style painting. To the right there are a series of padded benches formed into booths and behind them there is a huge cable spool which acts as a mid height table with garden furniture around it. There is a note on the spool asking people to graffiti it, so there were some amusing jokes, doodles and the like scrawled on it - the sort of humour you normally find on the toilet walls. Some standard tables and chairs appear on the other side of the room under another large plain mirror with a TV to one side showing a muted sports channel above another Pollock inspired piece. The servery is to the rear right with a grey counter, plain bar back and canopy lined with fairy lights. A few more high tables and stools can be found opposite the bar under some art prints and beyond there are sofas and some retro chairs offering comfier seating options. The whole place has half panelled walls and is painted in pastel shades, which makes it feel a bit uniform and lacking in character - a feeling which may change as the place settles down over time. Background music was playing unobtrusively throughout my visit and I noticed some pizza menus with a 9" pizza costing £5.50. There were six beers and six ciders on the bar plus three keg beers from continental Europe and the US. The cask options were North Riding Hunter's Dream and Nue, XT Mild, Instant Karma Brew 2, Ship & Mitre Silhouette and Pig & Porter Skylarking Session IPA. I'm not likely to turn down a beer that references XTC, so I asked the friendly barman for a pint of the Skylarking Session IPA, which turned out to be a pretty decent example of the style. This place rather reminded me of one of Leicester's former ale houses, 'The Pub' - a place with a real focus on the beer but lacking a bit in terms of character and comfort. There is potential for this place to be a must-do on the Leicester pub circuit, but as it stands, I thought it was worthy of a quick visit without doing enough to encourage a longer stay.

Now called the Kings Head, the back entrance to this pub opens out onto New Walk right opposite The Pub. Excellent real ale pub with 8 or so hand pulls on the bar. Popped in twice on a tour round the city, first sampling a pint of Titanic with a delisious ham butty and last thing before the train home trying somthing different but my mind escapes me and I can't remember what it was but it was good. Nice clean place, decent staff who were very tolerant of my Manc mate who is still celebrating the Blues triumph and became a little rowdy. Will call again.

Enjoyed my first visit to the Black Country Ales pub on Wednesday. Good choice of guest beers to compliment their own beers, and all entered up on a board the same as their other outlets with all the info you need to make your choice. Comfortable room and friendly staff. We chose Lincoln Green TorchLight and Broughs Springfield, both in good condition. Seating outside includes iron stairs to a roof garden which could be a suntrap.

I've been looking forward to visiting this Black Country Pub, since I heard about it opening in Leicester. I was definitely not disappointed as the pub was traditional in decor and had a good choice of ales on handpump. Fabulous cobs behind the bar. They had the usual range of Black Country ales, but on this visit, I went for the Coastal Merry Maidens Mild and Morton Brewery Essington Gold. Look forward to spending more time here on my next visit.