Dog & Partridge, Sheffield

My resolve to come here more often in 2018 amounted to 14 visits that year, but they tailed off after the summer when the regular beer changed from Balck Sheep to Barnsley Bitter. It was still that way on my first visit this year, but on my latest time through the door there was a pleasant change: Blue Bee Hillfoot Bitter, a very well made and properly bitter beer brewed here in Sheffield. If it's the same next time, I'll be back to making this a regular haunt.

One of my new year's resolutions - in fact, probably the only one - is to go to the Dog & Partridge more often, after having several perfect pints of Black Sheep Best Bitter here last year. I know, it's not everyone's cup of tea, but to my taste buds it's a pretty good substitute for the long lost Leeds Tetleys; when well kept, as it always is here. Black Sheep is a well balanced session bitter with a lingering, dry, bitter aftertaste and that well-known hop flavour that people with strange beards deride as "twiggy". Well, I love twigs - bring them on! And I'll be coming here more often in 2018.

A very impressive pub,on entry their is a front lounge to your left,a corridor with original glazed tiling,a tap room,a rear room with it's own bar access and a charming side snug with a serving hatch.The snug is worthy of close inspection with wood embellished with carvings by cutlers,bell pushes,Victorian fireplace yet a discreet flatscreen.Muzak was playing at a sensible volume and the welcome from the barman was genuinely friendly ,proud of his pub and committed to serve decent real ale.There are 6 handpumps,with four working on our Monday lunchtime visit serving Stancill Porter,Kelham Island Easy Rider,Black Wolf Lomond Gold and an excellent Blue Bee Hyphen,my pint of the crawl. This pub should not be missed on any crawl around town,I plan to spend a lot longer in here on my next visit to the area.

My first visit here since I posted the review below. I'd noticed in passing that the exterior had been smartened up, and on entering it was apparent that the inside has also had a good deal of money spent on it. There are four hand pumps on the bar, one serving Black Sheep Bitter and another Clarks Blonde. The front room is now dominated by a pool table, with a bandit in one corner and a DJ's booth in another, with a TV screen above it. When we came in, just after 9pm on a Tuesday, there was one other customer watching the TV and a DJ doing a sound check. We took our beers to the small room just to the left of the entrance, where there is now a high table. (The snug referred to in my previous review was plunged in darkness; perhaps they just use it for over-spill when it gets busy.) About 9.30 the DJ suddenly stopped his testing and blasted out a record at top volume and our previous conversation became a shouting match. We didn't hang around to see if anyone turned up in response to this call for action. It's hard to know who this loud music is aimed at. The pub will always be what my daughter is kind enough to call a "creepy old man's pub", i.e. seen as totally uncool by anyone under 25. Although the music is probably loud enough to get the attention of those doing the West Street circuit bars in their underwear, it seems unlikely they'll want to turn this into the next place to be seen.