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Three Fishes, Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury
SY1 1UR
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 8 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about Three Fishes
Housed in an attractive 16th century half-timbered building, down a charming cobbled street opposite the Church of St Mary the Virgin, the Three Fishes is one of leading lights in the town’s ale scene. The single room layout sees you enter into a fairly open space with standard seating along the front and right hand wall and a good deal of room for vertical drinking at busier times, such as on my Saturday evening visit. Moving past the bar, which is on the left hand side, you reach a quarry stone floored area where more seating options can be found. Dark beams and whitewashed walls throughout the pub give it a traditional feel although it doesn’t really have as attractive an interior as you might suspect on approach. A few old pictures dot the walls in amongst a selection of brewerania and above the bar there is a row of old hand tools which prompted a couple of blokes to have a classic pub argument about what each of them are used for.
On the bar there was an excellent selection of local and national ales comprising Salopian Golden Thread, Taylor Landlord, Sharp’s Doom Bar, Hobson’s Up n Down, Stonehouse Station Bitter, Oakham Bishop’s Farewell and Three Tuns Stout, with the latter displaying an award for it being voted ‘Beer of the Festival’ at the Shrewsbury Beer Festival. That seemed like a good endorsement to me, so I tried a pint of the Stout (£3.10), which I found to be excellent and very moreish. A whiteboard opposite the bar listed six real ciders which attracted a lot of attention from the customers and the bar staff seemed very knowledgeable about them, helping people to make their selection.
Although this place does food, it still felt very much like a drinker’s pub and the fine range of ale and cider attests to this. The Three Tuns Stout turned out to be the best pint I found in Shrewsbury and I would suggest that this place gets included on any serious tour of the town’s hostelries.
On 5th May 2013
- rating: 8
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Anonymous User left this review about Three Fishes
I came in here following a recommendation from the landlord of Loggerheads. I sampled a good amount of Three Tuns Stout, brewed by Bishop's Castle and it was gorgeous!
Sadly the exterior was far better than the interior, but these are only minor gripes. Again I ended up chatting to the regulars and great craic was had!
Definitely worth a visit.
On 8th October 2012
- rating: 8
[User has posted 0 recommendations about 0 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
John Bonser left this review about Three Fishes
In a cobbled side street in the heart of medieval Shrewsbury is The Three Fishes, yet another of Shrewsbury’s attractive looking black and white timber framed pubs. Fish Street, where the pub may be found, takes its name from the open fish market once held there and once had a total of 4 inns, of which, sadly, only The Three Fishes remains to this day.
Outside we see that the pub lays claim to being “the original smoke free public house”. We also see that it’s a former Whitbread pub.
Inside a smallish L shaped bar serves a largish single room with fixed seating round most of the perimeter of the room with ceiling beams and leaded frosted windows contributing to a traditional, if somewhat unremarkable interior. A Southam Ales mirror is a survivor of days long gone. A number of nooks and crannies give us the feel of a pub that was once multi roomed although nothing remains to directly confirm this.
Food has a good reputation here and, on my recent Monday evening visit, a good trade in meals was evident, although it’s definitely a pub first and foremost.
6 real ales were on – Landlord, Doombar, Stonehouse Station Bitter, Abbeydale Absolution, Oakham Citra and Three Tuns Stout.The Oakham Citra went off and was replaced by Fyne Ales Rune. I though the Three Tuns Stout - £ 3.00p – was a fine tasty moreish pint. The pub is a CAMRA Good Beer Guide regular.
Not a must visit pub by any stretch of the imagination, but one worthy of inclusion in any crawl of Shrewsbury’s hostelries. Finally, note that it closes in the afternoons, even on Sundays in summer.
On 4th October 2012
- rating: 7
[User has posted 560 recommendations about 560 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Real Ale Ray left this review about Three Fishes
This traditional one room pub is well worth a visit. Eight ales on offer, the Phoenix White Star and the Oakham Endless Summer were both superb. Will defo return.
On 22nd July 2012
- rating: 8
[User has posted 3382 recommendations about 3381 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Oggwyn Great left this review about Three Fishes
The last remaining pub on Fish Street , The Plough , Bear and Half Moon all long gone , known as the Three Fishes since 1838 the name is believed to come from the Abbott of Lilleshalls coat of arms or more likely from the Fish Market that was held on the nearby Bear Steps .
Once a two room pub it is now a single room as described in previous reviews .
A long standing GBG pub with eight handpulls , TT Landlord and Doombar are the regulars , the other beers coming from smaller brewers , i had an Arran Dark , Salopian Lemon Dream and Oracle all in exellent nick , there is also a decent range of ciders , mostly Westons .
Service was good and the locals a lot friendlier than on previous visits when the atmosphere could be a little cold .
An exellent pub , a must do when in Shrewsbury .
On 13th May 2012
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 797 recommendations about 683 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Malcolm Martyn left this review about Three Fishes
Sells an excellent pint of Doom Bar so gets a 10 from me
On 19th October 2011
- rating: 10
[User has posted 1 recommendations about 1 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Old Boots left this review about Three Fishes Inn
A lovely, low ceilinged, half timbered, building in a tiny street much as described below, although I think it’s the ceiling that slopes rather than the floor. The service and the beer quality is immaculate and one window has a carefully arranged run of GBG stickers from 2002 to 2011 (the 2012 sticker obviously hasn’t been delivered.) A good range of beers on when I called, Sharps and Timothy Taylors plus four much smaller breweries . The beer pumps are lined up on one face of the L shaped counter while the cider pull and the standards on keg are arranged on the other. A mix of clientele but tending towards the more mature, it was especially busy as I caught it on its monthly quiz night.
On 16th September 2011
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 3276 recommendations about 2982 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
I L left this review about Three Fishes Inn
A superb back street old boozer that well deserves it's CAMRA Shrewsbury pub of the year 2010 award with seven ales which included Brewdog Trashy Blonde, woodlands Midnight Stout and after drinking the Holdens Old which is 7% I want too sure whether it was me or the stone flagged floor that wasn't level.... Will have to come back again to make sure once an for all!
On 30th December 2010
- rating: 9
[User has posted 287 recommendations about 284 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Ale Monster left this review about Three Fishes Inn
This is a lovely half timber olde worlde pub which is owned by Enterprise Inns, as mentioned in the previous review, the building dates from the 15th century and a brief history is framed on the wall. The simple interior is a single small square room with authentic low beams, the L shaped bar counter is in the middle of the left hand wall, a small food counter is in the back left corner and there are old maps and paintings on the walls with replica flint lock pistols above the bar. On a central pillar next to the bar was a trophy shield awarded by the local CAMRA branch for the Shrewsbury pub of the year 2010.
Regular ales are Timothy Taylor Landlord, Sharps Doom Bar and Bath Ales Gem with four changing guest beers mostly from Shropshire and the neighbouring counties (GBG 2010 and Cask Marque). This pub has a well deserved reputation for keeping consistently good beer, the landlord really knows his stuff.
A great traditional pub with genuine olde worlde character, it was packed with discerning ale drinkers on my visit which speaks volumes about the place and the atmosphere was very friendly. The beer selection was varied with both hoppy and malty ales to suit all tastes and a real stout from one of the small independent breweries. My friend had a draught Perry that he said was the best he had ever tried which is really saying something. This pub and the Loggerheads near by are a must if doing a pub crawl in Shrewsbury.
On 13th September 2010
- rating: 9
[User has posted 199 recommendations about 199 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Roger Button left this review about Three Fishes Inn
This Grade II listed pub dates from 15th century and was first recorded as an alehouse in 1780. The pub is situated in a peaceful and picturesque cobbled back street opposite a church and yet is just a few steps away from the bustle of the town centre.
The single room interior has beamed ceilings, a sloping flag stoned floor, lots of old pictures and plenty of old world charm that you would expect from a pub of this age. The bar is in the centre of the pub whilst there is a separate food bar to the rear although we decided in the end that the prices were a bit too high for the lunchtime snack that we were after.
No such problems with the beers with 8 ales on hand pump (Millstone True Grit, Cairngorm Nessie Monster Mash, Oakham JHB, Timothy Taylor Landlord, Sharps Doom Bar, Purple Moose Dark Side of the Moose, Bath Gem) as well as 4 ciders and a perry (note the humerous anecdotes on the wall listing opposite the bar). They are Cask Marque accredited and the score sheet is proudly displayed on the front door for all to see.
The knowledgeable landlord was very approachable and the ambience very relaxed with no distractions such as TVs or music. This was also a non-smoking pub long before anyone started to talk about bans.
There is a quirky edge to the place which can be summed up by a sign on the wall that reads “If you like my beers, drink more. If you don’t, bugger off.” As one of Shrewsbury's finest pubs, I’ll take the first bit every time.
On 20th August 2010
- rating: 8
[User has posted 1239 recommendations about 1233 pubs]