The Salmon, Leicester

Decent real ale pub in the back streets. Black Country ale based of which I had Fireside. Friendly barman. I would return.

Central bar, exposed brick, padded benches, low pipped music and sports TV. Typical Black Coutry Ales pub including good beer and choice.

Now part of Black Country Ales chain, the choice and quality of the beers was good yesterday when we called in. Decor is now prints round the walls instead of all the sport items. We enjoyed our beers from Kinver and Fixed Wheel breweries.

Having visited this pub last year another visit this year was a must for this award winning pub. We sat in the larger tiled floor part of this two roomed pub next to a very warming fire for n early December night. A good friendly feel to this place.

Voted Leicester CAMRA pub of the Year for the last two years, with landslide majorities, the Salmon is an essential port of call for any real ale fans visiting the city. The pub has a compact U shape layout with a mix of tiles and bare floorboards. The right hand side of the pub was dominated by some temporary stilage set up for a beer festival and was very crowded during our stay. There is fixed seating around the perimeter and the walls have nice tiling and half panels. The left side of the pub has a decent amount of bench and low stool seating, with the PuG crawlers giving the benches a thorough test as they piled on for a group photo. A lit fire was very welcome given the terrible weather outside and the walls were decorated with various bits of Leicester Tigers memorabilia, with a TV screen on one wall for sports coverage. The servery has a stained glass canopy and a Banks’ mirror behind the bar reminds us of the pubs former ownership. There were five ales available on the bar – Fallen Dragonfly, Elixir Cuzzy Brew, Burnside Blonde, Demonbrew Demon Black and Betjamin Imperial Christmas Stout – plus several more on the aforementioned stilage. My pint of Cuzzy Brew was in fine shape but as others have mentioned, the beers on stilage were pouring flat, which was a shame as there was a tempting line up. Food is available at lunchtimes from Monday to Saturday. The barman seemed friendly enough (although I didn’t have my camera with me, which might have helped!) and talked us through his proposed brewery venture which is set to open soon. Clearly this is a must do pub for the beer tourist, but I thought it had more to it than just a good ale policy. It’s a well set up, homely pub with friendly locals and enthusiastic staff and it will be one of the first pubs I seek out the next time I’m in town.