Reindeer, Norwich

The Reindeer was the most disappointing of the pubs we tried in Norwich yesterday. Things were starting to get a little hazy by this point. But I do recall a single, slightly dark room with a bar containing around a dozen handpulls. Sadly, only one of them had anything on. This was Potbelly Hedonism. However, the barmaid informed us that Wychwood Hobgoblin Gold was also available. When asked about real ciders, she said they were on order. They'd had a surge in interest and had unexpectedly sold out. We had a couple of swift halves of the Hedonism before moving on.

This is a large roadside pub on the busy Dereham Road to the west of the city centre. You enter into a vast, dark wood floored L-shaped room with the servery to the right running along the back wall. The bar back has some nicely worked wood including arches filled with pattered tiles. Opposite are pew formed booths serving long tables under the front windows whilst over on the far right side is a restaurant area with formal table and chair arrangements set up specifically for dining. A few antlers hang on the end wall and there are one or two reindeer themed prints, but otherwise this whole front section is fairly bland and empty, with blackboards listing food and drink details acting as the only other visual distraction. The left hand side seemed much cosier, with pew and standard seating arranged around some structural pillars in the front portion before the room extends to the rear where three steps lead you up to a well segmented space with lots of dark wood, bench and armchair seating, cluttered bookshelves and unusual antler light shades. A stuffed fox stands in a display case near to the doorway for the rear room, which is set up as a kind of conference room. A single, large table dominates the centre of the room although there is still space for an upright piano, a nice old dresser, a mounted stag's head and some remarkable timber beams. Some casks were also stacked up here for some unexplained reason and there is access out to a garden area which I failed to explore. This is an Elgoods house and two of their beers - Black Dog and Cambridge Bitter - were available alongside Thornbridge Sequoia, Oakham Green Devil IPA, Woodfordes Sundew and Green Jack Trawlerboys. The keg range included Freedom Four, Elgoods Traditional Irish Stout, Five Points Pale, Bacchus Kriek and Kwak, although whether the latter is served in the silly glass, I could not say. I tried the Black Dog, which was a decent pint, but not quite as good as I'd hoped. This is a smart, well kept pub that caters for drinkers and diners fairly well and makes a good break point if you're walking from the city centre to the classic ale houses in the back streets beyond. I thought this was a solid pub and worth including on a crawl around the area.

This large pub has a minimalist L shaped interior with a long bar facing you as you enter. We arrived on a very cold evening and the pub was well heated. There were quite a few people here on our Tuesday eve visit. The pub had timber flooring throughout and the lighting was low with candles lit here and there. Ten ales on offer on our visit, I went for the Green Jack Trawlerboys and Elgoods Cambridge Bitter.

Official site of the Reindeer - www.thereindeerpub.co.uk

Official site of the Reindeer - www.thereindeerpub.co.uk

A roadside pub on the way out past the inner ring road, which is too large and cavernous to have that welcoming pub feel to it, and therefore verges on being a beer exhibition. There are 10 or more real ales (this was my ninth pub of the day so the counting was becoming problematic), and also what are described as "world keg beers", all listed on a board near the bar. The person serving was very helpful and friendly, and my half of Elgoods Cambridge Bitter was in very good condition.

We called in here as we wanted to try one of the Elgoods range of beers for the Olympics, and managed to get Wheelchair Basset-ball which was very good. It seems to have been up and down over the years which is a shame but we have always had good beers on our visits.