The Garden House, Norwich

Blue Scrumpy left this review about The Garden House

Norwich has to be one of the best cities in the UK for pubs. There are too many excellent hostelries to fit into a one-day crawl. On my Thursday evening visit to 6 pubs in the city I hadn't previously visited, I only found one that I really enjoyed. The Garden Gate was the one.

Supping my half in the nearby Warwick Arms, I noticed that the Garden Gate is listed on the Real Ale Finder app. There seemed to be a huge selection of ales and ciders to choose from. However arriving at the Garden House, things didn't initially seem to look promising and I know from experience that you can't always trust apps such as Real Ale Finder and Untappd to be up-to-date with the current selection of beers.

I was surprised to see a bouncer on the door. He asked me which match I wanted to see. To be honest, I hadn't even realised there was any football on and I replied "none of them". As it was, I ended up in the rear room showing Manchester United. The front room was showing Tottenham.

Approaching the bar, I could see only 2 handpulls clipped with Brain's SA & Bread Of Heaven. I asked the young barmaid if there were any more and she said we have Bass in the rear bar too. I enquired about the beer I'd fancied from the app (Saltaire Move In Herds) and she pointed out a large number of casks lined up against a wall, with even more boxes of cider. In fact, there was a staggering 15 cask ales and 28 bag-in-the-box ciders. The app had been correct after all and the Saltaire beer I was after was actually on a second handpull alongside the Bass in the rear bar. Those on stillage were Saltaire Plums In Tums & Cascade, Tiny Rebel Five Dollar Shake & Stay Puft, Mauldon's Magpie, RedWillow Vatted Porter & Wreckless, Grain Winter Ash, Wildcraft Bill Hiccup, Purple Moose Elderflower Ale & Brain's Boudicca.

Ciders were Celtic Marches Thundering Molly, Lily The Pink & Tutti Frutti, Cockeyed Cock Bird, Lilley's Passion Fruit Martini, Pina Colada, Pineapple Cider, Raspberry Mojito, Elderflower Cider, Santa Cider Cheeky Pig, Crazy Ghost, Cherries & Berries, Bee Sting Perry, Mango Zero & Apples & Pears, Gwynt y Ddraig Farmer's Pride, Two Trees Perry, Celtic Warrior, Dog Dancer, Farmhouse Scrumpy, Black Dragon, Welsh Warrior & Happy Daze, Snail's Bank Very Perry & Orchard Dry, Pulp Cosmo & Thistly Cross Whisky Cask.

Despite the excellent beer and cider selection (the Garden House can be found in the Good Beer Guide), this is very much a sports-oriented pub with multiple TVs and screens in each room and in the rear garden areas. There were Six Nations buntings in the rear room and a framed England rugby shirt on the wall, as well as a couple of St George's flags. There were also a couple of games machines. A separate room to the side had a pool table. Children are allowed in.

On departing, I asked a barmaid if the pub had just had a beer festival or if this number of ales and ciders were normally available. She confirmed that the range of drinks was just normal. I then walked out and discovered it was actually a Craft Union pub. Well, if there is a better Craft Union pub than this one, I would be very surprised. I definitely need to get back here and if you want to watch televised sport in Norwich, it's the obvious choice.

On 16^th March 2025 - rating: 8
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