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Detail Pages
The Vat and Fiddle, Nottingham
Nottingham
NG2 1NB
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 8½ of 10) see review guidelines
Quinno _ left this review about The Vat and Fiddle
A ‘waiting for a train’ stop at the end of a rather boozy day. The classic alehouse interior remains, as does plenty of cask – maybe a little too many as my Bass was a bit flabby (NBSS 2.5) and the bar blockers were a bit annoying. Cheap and hearty pub grub available.
November 2011
The tap for the CAMRA award-winning Castle Rock (the beer is brewed next door and there’s an extension room in the pub that allows a partial view into the brewery), housed in a 1930’s brick building (which divides opinion; I quite like it), with very attractive interior doors. There’s been some sympathetic extension and modernisation inside such as the purple and white colour scheme but it retains the feel of a no-nonsense ale house with basic furnishings and a tiled floor. There are seven to eight Castle Rock beers available (the prices of which increase by abv) alongside a couple of guests plus a couple ciders/perry for the fruities and Belgian/German bottles for the upmarket. Condition of the beer on my visit was top-notch and the prices were wallet-pleasingly cheap though I found the staff somewhat dappy. Good to see bar billiards and a dart board ready to use. Has won plenty of awards and these are proudly displayed on the walls around the pub. Impressive cobs are available to soak up the beer. The back room hosts an unusual picture show of closed and derelict Nottingham pubs. The pub is less than five minutes’ walk from the mainline rail station which makes it an ideal place to start or end a pub crawl of the city. And well-worth missing a train for too. Rated 8
On 5th May 2026
- rating: 7
[User has posted 6166 recommendations about 6146 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Moby Duck left this review about The Vat & Fiddle
A fairly large building fronting The Castle Rock Brewery, handily placed near the train station. There are thirteen handpumps of which the majority were serving Castle Rock beers of course but guest beers are also available, I tried Castle Rock Soft Focus which was fine. Forest were playing at home later in the day so there was a fair sprinkling of footie fans, there was still plenty of room early afternoon but maybe needs to be borne in mind. A decent place.
On 20th November 2024
- rating: 7
[User has posted 2331 recommendations about 2295 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Blue Scrumpy left this review about The Vat & Fiddle
With time to spare between trains, I decided to take the 3-4 minute stroll from Nottingham railway station to the Vat & Fiddle, which is Castle Rock's brewery tap.
It fronts the brewery, but even as a standalone pub, it is worthy of a visit in its own right. Drinking space curves its way around the long bar, which has around a dozen handpulls dispensing both Castle Rock beers and guests. Craft beers are also well represented. A Vault City takeover had recently been held and there was another one from Kernel looming large. Boxed ciders are also available.
With plenty of staff on hand, service was fairly quick in the main. Hot snacks were also being served on my lunchtime visit.
Standard Castle Rock beers on were Harvest Pale, Elsie Mo, Screech Owl, Preservation & Our House. Also from Castle Rock were Door of the Cosmos & Just Can't Get Enough. Guest ales were Loud Shirt Like Clockwork, Turning Point Swim To The Moon & Light of the Elder, Lenton Lane Pale Moonlights & Pentrich Crimes In Citra.
Ciders were Weston's Old Rosie, Snail's Bank Rhubarb Cider, Torkard Floppy Tabs, Sneinton Fifth Element & Newton Court Original Farmhouse Scrumpy, whilst craft beers all from Vault City were Raspberry Blueberry Bubblegum Bottles, Maple Vanilla Choc Chip Stout, Even Cloudier Double Dry Hopped & Strawberry Supernova.
My first visit here in just over 5 years, this is quite possibly Nottingham city centre's best pub. It is well worth missing a train for!
On 14th November 2023
- rating: 9
[User has posted 3511 recommendations about 3509 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Strongers . left this review about The Vat & Fiddle
The Vat & Fiddle is Castle Rock’s Tap with picnic tables in the car park at the rear overlooked by the brewery behind. Seven of the twelve hand pumps were drawing CRB beers, I went for Bold as Love which was well served. The guests on during a recent Wednesday visit were Little Brewing’s Rambler, Northern Monk’s A Little Faith, Cloudwater & JW Lees’ Piccadilly Star and Redwillow’s Faithless. Standard, premium and craft keg was also available and there’s a food menu, the burger is priced at £13. The staff were all very friendly and I will certainly revisit when next in Nottingham.
On 7th August 2023
- rating: 8
[User has posted 6674 recommendations about 6636 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Will Larter left this review about The Vat & Fiddle
In contrast to the Canalhouse, whose threshold I had not crossed in almost a decade before my recent visit, there has only been one time I've been in Nottingham that I have not gone in the Vat & Fiddle for a beer, and that was when I turned up here half an hour before kick-off at Meadow Lane and found Luton Town fans four deep at the bar. More recently I came in here the day after a Luton Town game at the City Ground, and found myself unexpectedly sitting almost opposite a friend of mine from Luton who had missed the match because of Covid but had tested negative the morning after and got straight on a train to come here.
On a more normal day this time, and last pub of a crawl before my delayed train back to Sheffield, but it was busy enough, with 10 beers on at the time of my visit, and maybe a dozen drinkers, and the beer - Castle Rock Preservation - was superb. In fact I said as much to the young lass who had served me (I could tell that she thought I'd clearly had a few) and then decided to go on WhatPub to give it NBSS 5 (which I have only just remembered to do). As others have mentioned, it's the Castle Rock brewery tap, it's less than five minutes from the station, and being pretty handy for either of the football grounds makes it a must for a pre-match drink - unless all your mates have turned up before you and have completely blocked the bar, that is.
Date of visit: 22nd June 2022
On 8th July 2022
- rating: 10
[User has posted 4804 recommendations about 4399 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Ian Mapp left this review about The Vat & Fiddle
Handy for the station. Tap room for the Castle Rock Brewery. I stared at the many hand pulls on offer. Like a man that stares at the menu in a chippy and eventually goes "fish and chips", I went for a perfect Harvest Pale.
Food menu limited to pub staples but good value and quickly served.
On 23rd October 2021
- rating: 8
[User has posted 1859 recommendations about 1825 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Delboy 20 left this review about The Vat & Fiddle
As described below, the brewery tap for the Castle Rock brewery. You really can't go wrong here with a choice of 13 beers. I made the mistake of not leaving much time before my train so I only tried one here but it was excellent. A must do for me if you are using the train station.
On 18th March 2019
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 1961 recommendations about 1813 pubs]
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Mark Davey left this review about The Vat & Fiddle
17/01/18 Still the original and best brewery tap in Nottingham. However with 13+ brewery's in town, each with a tap, it better keep an eye on the competition. Always the first and last on a Nottingham crawl, it's the law.
02/04/13 Castle Rocks tap is as you would expect excellent. I often call in before a Nottingham Rugby home match at Meadow lane and stock up on decent beer and a cheese cob or two. Always a full selection of Rock brews and quite often a limited edition that do not make it into the main supply chain of the brewery. One of Nottingham's best pubs by far and well worth putting on any crawl of the city.
On 17th January 2018
- rating: 9
[User has posted 292 recommendations about 276 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Al Bundy left this review about The Vat & Fiddle
An excellent pub, especially if you like Castle Rock beers as its the brewery tap for the brewery behind. Its a 2 roomed pub with the main room L-shaped. There is another room to the left of the bar called The Goldings Room. 13 handpumps with the majority being Castle Rock beer. 3 of the pumps also had beers from Dukeries, Newby Wyke and Brewsters. A good place to start/finish a Nottingham pub crawl.
On 28th April 2017
- rating: 9
[User has posted 3487 recommendations about 3390 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Aqualung . left this review about The Vat & Fiddle
As you would expect from Castle Rock this is an unspoilt old school boozer. I didn't have much time here as I had a train to catch. You enter to find a huge array of hand pumps with numerous Castle Rock beers and some guests. I went for the Pheasantry Stout which was excellent and priced at around three quid or so. This place is far better than the trendy warehouse dives by the canal the other side of the Railway Station and I will definitely return next time I get a train back from Nottingham.
On 27th March 2016
- rating: 9
[User has posted 2143 recommendations about 2143 pubs]