The Malt Shovel, Nottingham

A traditional-looking pub in a back street although the interior is a bit of a tacky refurbishment and seemed largely aimed at students. There is a small patio to the front. Three ales on handpump from Shipstones: the Original was a bit hazy but tasted fine.

Official site of The Malt Shovel - pubpeople.com

Official site of The Malt Shovel - pubpeople.com

Tucked down an alleyway just of Beeston high street is the malt Shovel. A large one roomed pub with high ceilings and the bar on the far left as you enter. There were five real ales on the bar with harvest pale being regular at (£3.20). They do have regularly changing guest beers but I appeared to have come on a particularly bland night with Doombar, bombardier and Oakham Citra (£3.30) being available with the final pump unoccupied. My Citra was in good condition but I couldn’t help feeling a little underwhelmed after hearing so many good things. Things were not helped by the pub being rather quiet on my Saturday night visit and were lacking a bit of atmosphere due because of it, but maybe I just caught it at a bad time. Overall I can tell it is a good pub that maintains a good pint that I will call back in again to see if I just happened to catch it on a particular flat night/poor selection.

This is a decent traditional pub with a good relaxed atmosphere, serving a varied selection of well kept ales. The pub consists of a good sized lounge, with the bar situated in the left hand corner. The areas on the right were separated by an internal wall. The barman was friendly and chatty and this was a nice welcome on our arrival. Five ales to choose from, so we went for the Kelham Island Easy Rider and the Blue Monkey Funky Gibbon. The pub also had bench seating out front.

The Malt Shovel is situated on a narrow street just off Beestons main shopping street. This pub used to be a Shipstones tied house with a few different rooms and a very nice drink of Shipstones bitter and mild,i first went in this pub on 2/11/1982. Since its transformation into it present guise me and the wife have been in this pub loads of times as it is a nice pub and handy when shopping on the high street. Once inside there is a single room with the bar to the left,the right side of the pub is divided into two seperate areas,the seating is mainly normal tables and chairs. There are usually around four real ales on the bar with Nottingham Rock bitter and mild being on permanantly,we always have a drink of Rock bitter which is always very well kept here. I quite like this pub and will continue to use it. Pub visited 22/9/2012

Nottingham Brewery Rock Bitter & Rock Mild, Black Sheep, Bass, Davenport’s Cloud9. Open plan, albeit with a dividing wall separating the dartboard area from the rest, one of the local lads on the tour reckoned it was an improvement on the previous layout with smaller individual rooms; surely not?, says I. TV in one corner was screening some drivel that has no right to be on in a pub (no, not the England game!), but otherwise the staff were friendly & found us some darts, & punters nr the board made way & had a nice banter. (review dated Sep08)