Halcyon Garden, Chester

Facebook page of Halcyon Garden - www.facebook.com

Facebook page of Halcyon Garden - www.facebook.com

A two-roomed micropub in the student backstreets past the awful concrete flyover that bisects this bit of town. The blue walled and wood wainscotted front bar is really small and cluttered with high stools and tables, meaning you get in everyone's way which made for an awkward 15 minutes, not helped by bar blockers, a pet hate of mine. Four cask from Black Jack (NBSS 3), Heavy Industry, Salopian and Black Edge, plus some ciders. I didn’t really enjoy this one, a good pub is for relaxing in and this one doesn’t work when it’s even moderately busy.

Visited on Saturday evening. The front room was very busy, as you would probably expect for a micro pub so close to a city centre. Thankfully there was a small room to the side/rear to provide a bit of extra space and this is where we retreated to. There was a TV showing sports in the main bar (unusual for a micro pub) so we didn't want to be standing in the way of that. I'd say it had the atmosphere of a small bar rather than a micro but that was probably due to it being busy. Four cask ales at the bar, one of which was off, there was some keg stuff too. I went for Peverel by Thornbridge (on cask) which was decent.