Saltbox, Nottingham

Vast room with bar to the rear. No real ales - just keg. As if that was bad enough, there was a group of noisy suit types in the right hand room. Not a good place at all.

Saltbox is a brand new bar/restaurant right next to the Nottingham Arena. Inside everything is in a very sleek modern style with loads of metal and polished wood and plastic. This is a ginormous square four sided bar in the centre that takes up loads of space and serves from all four sides. There is also an upstairs function room with its own smaller bar. This bar seems a little confuses as it has a lot of sports screens and it trying to tap into the high end fine dining (with its large food menu and many dining g tables) as well as sports fans for the football as well as passers-by to the concert hall. Because of this it was absolutely dead as a dodo on my Saturday evening visit for a private party with just a few diners inn which I though was a pretty poor effort considering the millions they spent on it. Beer wise I instantly noticed a hand pull and asked for a real ale only to be told they don’t sell it and that people had been asking but the management has not listed, WHY!!!?!?!?! Anyways I was left with the Stella choice of Worthington’s Cream flow rubbish or an outrageously expensive craft beer so I went for the former and expected to be rinsed for it but was pleasantly surprised to only shell out £3.40. In a wanna be glam place like this I was expecting a lot more and although a terrible keg bitter it was quite fresh. Overall a pretty soulless bar that was not helped by the lack of customers or a decent beer. Really no reason to ever come back here but if you find yourself at the Arena and in need of a quick pit stop I suppose it could fill its purpose but then again you would be better off walking an extra ten seconds to the Nottingham legend on the other side of the stadium to enjoy a much better beer in pub surroundings. I probably won’t be back.