The Beekeeper, Nottingham

The Beekeeper is a large former Kimberly family dining type pub now under Greene Kings Hungry Horse Banner. The pub is strikingly similar in layout to the Corn Mill just up the road but has notice aby worse decor. The pub has a long central bar that bends round to the right with seating all around as well as some up a level with most set out for diners of their cheap pub grub but drinkers are welcome here too. The decor is that of a typical cheap chain pub and is very basic with cheap carpets and lots of cheap wood/plastic panelling. There is also a large square hard wooden floored drinking area with lots of high tables and chairs and loads of large TV screens showing sports. Three long bar and the smaller side bar were it bends round had lots of hand pulls but inexplicably had Greene King IPA and About repeated 4 times each!! I thought this was unbelievable seeing as the hungry horse in Mansfield (a town know for a terrible beer selection had over five different guests as well as the Greene king regulars. I settled for Abbot for a reasonable £3 and it was kept in decent shape for Abbot. The pub was busy with young football fans watching Manchester united on the TV and seeing as I am not the biggest football fan meant I had to suffer with this as well. Overall a very poor showing from a not great chain even on its best days. When visiting several years ago I distinctly remember there being more ale choice so to see it diminish in flourishing ale times and in an area known for good selections of real ale is bad to see. This is definitely not the sort of place to make a special journey for and would only have me returning if I was in the area and I couldn’t be bothered to walk to a better pub.

A Hungry Horse, so you know what to expect. The large L-shaped bar, entered either from the front or through a smoke-filled tunnel from the car park, is on 2 levels. The lower level has a tiled floor and an army of gaming machines facing a pool table. The upper level is carpeted and has a few cheap-looking dining tables, though the large tv screen overlooking them destroyed any semblance of a decent restaurant. On arrival we were nearly knocked over by a rabble of over-fed young children trying desperately to escape from the play chamber party. A cheap and nasty bar/diner, whose one recent improvement has been to place the apostrophe in 'kids' menu' correctly. Two ales on, GK IPA and a guest beer of unknown origin, nothing spectacular to Benefit the ale drinker. Not worth droning on about.

This pub was built by Bass brewery in the early 90s and it was originally called the Meadow. Kimberley brewery bought the pub in the late 90s and did it up making it quite a smart pub to dine in or have a drink in,the pub has been opened out into one fairly large room that is carpeted throughout and has comfortable seating,i have been in this pub a few times with my wife for a meal and have always enjoyed it here. There were three real ales on the bar with Kimberley bitter being a decent drink the other beers were Kimberley mild and a seasonal beer from Kimberley brewery. This pub is now run by GK with their beers on the bar. Pub first visited as the Meadow 17/7/1994 Photo taken of Beekeeper 2006

The Hungry Horse site, which includes no pages for its pubs - www.hungryhorse.co.uk

The Hungry Horse site, which includes no pages for its pubs - www.hungryhorse.co.uk