Southbank City, Nottingham

The Southbank is in the former Approach bar and is the second Southbank in Nottingham alongside its big brother at Trent Bridge. As you enter there is a bar along the right hand side that bends around as the room curves with lots of tables and chairs in the centre. There are also many booths scattered around that display smaller TVs. This is predominantly a sports orientated pub with lota of Tv screens all around and a huge one in t centre that vis used for big occasions. On weekends the centre is cleared and it becomes more of a dancefloor with live bands. It is owned or at least managed by the navigation brewery located only a few miles away band so does include a good few of their (in my opinion bland and not very nice) beers. There were six beers available with Britannia and new dawn pale ale from Brittania on alongside Speckled hen, Doomabr, Rocking Rudolph and Oakham Citra. I had the Citra that was well kept for what would have been a scandalous £3.80 in this part of the country except this place along with the other pub has one massive ace up its sleeve in that it offers £30% of All food and drink up until 7pm weekdays, BARGIN! Even on the stupidly expensive craft beers that it sees this makes them very affordable and many under £3! This made the price of my Citra even better. Also if like my girlfriend if you have a student card you can get 50% off food all up until 7. Admittedly it wasn’t the best in the world but portion sizes were good and at an unbeatable price. This is not really my kind of place but with their bargain offer and six ales on the go I would return here for a bite and a cheap pint or a large sporting fixture as I can imagine it having a good atmosphere. Ok for a cheap one but not an all-night sort of place but one that is a bit livelier later on if that’s what your after.

A large city centre drinking barn which was full of some surprisingly civilised Nottingham Forest supporters watching their away game on a drop-down projector screen. Food was being served and there was a congenial atmosphere - the match was fairly low key at the time of my visit, but Forest went on to win 2-1, so I expect the place livened up a little. There are three hand pumps dispensing Navigation beers. I went for the Britannia, which was ok but wouldn't have won any awards. I wouldn't mind calling in again if there was a match I particularly wanted to see, but there are better options for real ale fans within a stone's throw (please don't try it).

This is a large, open plan wine bar style pub with a good city centre location. You enter into a vast, bare boarded area with the bar running down the right hand side of the room. There are several support pillars dotted through the room which have been made to look like metal girders, but they are not big enough to break up the large space. High tables and stools are arranged around the bar area whilst there are tub chairs and standard seating options on the carpeted raised area on the left hand side of the room. Several TV screens are dotted around the room, showing either Sky Sports News or various pub promotions, whilst music played quietly enough in the background. Menus showed a good range of food, albeit a bit pricier than some of the other nearby pubs and bars. Live music is regularly put on in this pub and sports coverage is clearly a big draw as well. It’s worth looking out for the regular ‘An audience with…’ nights, which have seen some top sporting names, many with connections to the city’s two football clubs, do a bit of after dinner speaking. The pub is part of the Great Northern Inns chain, and these pubs are currently stocking beers from the Navigation Brewery, so the two cask options on my visit were Navigation Traditional and Golden (£2.80). There was a wide keg range which I intended to make a note of, but for some reason I only noted the Worthington Cream Flow. The Golden was okay, but I didn’t think it was as well kept as in the Trent Navigation. This is a fairly soulless place and I thought it would probably be best visited to watch a bit of sport when there are a few more people in. It seems that there is a fair bit going on here and the promise of Navigation beers is certainly a draw, but it’s definitely not one for the traditionalist.