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Reviews (Current Rating Average: 7 of 10) see review guidelines
Blue Scrumpy left this review about The Strait & Narrow
After a sly half of cider in the nearby Cardinal's Hat, I was content to end my night in this late night craft beer and cocktail bar on the lower reaches of Lincoln's Steep Hill.
It was busy at the bar, but I enjoyed watching the bar staff preparing some very interesting cocktails. This place featured in the Good Beer Guide as recently as 2021, but no longer stocks any real ales. Craft options on draught included UnBarred Bueno Shake (used for some of the cocktails), Lervig House Party, Verdant Sundialer & Neon Raptor Crushing Blows. There was also a vast menu of craft beer in bottled and canned form.
Inside was very much a young crowd. The decor is a bit garish. Toilets are upstairs. I'm getting a bit too old for these kind of places!
On 12th June 2023
- rating: 5
[User has posted 2452 recommendations about 2451 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
ROB Camra left this review about The Strait & Narrow
There's no cask ale here anymore, the handpumps have gone
01/10/2019
L shaped bar over two levels of The Strait. All very nicely decorated with several seating areas with different seating options including high stools, comfy sofas and standard dining tables and chairs. All 5 handpumps in use on our visit, including a real cider. I went for the Northern Monk Striding Edge which is effectively hoppy chicken soup and whilst it's only 2.8% it has loads of flavour. I've tried this beer in several of Manchester's beer institutions including Beermoth and this was as well kept as any. Called in the following day as well as Ms CAMRA really liked it here.
On 3rd March 2022
- rating: 5
[User has posted 3224 recommendations about 3135 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about The Strait & Narrow
We managed to get in here at the third time of asking on a busy Saturday evening when this smart modern bar, loosely themed as a Belgian beer bar, was doing a roaring Bank Holiday trade. The pub, located on Lincoln’s iconic Straight, at the bottom of Steep Hill, looks like it might be a shop conversion spread across three units which now form three distinctively separate rooms. You enter via the left of these three spaces, where a doorman explains that you need to text your name to a phone number written on a board at the entrance. Once this is done, a greeter appears from nowhere, greets you by name and takes you to your designated table from which table service is the order of the day. The servery runs down the left-hand side of this first room and has a bare brick counter front and lots of red neon lights across a simple bar back. The room is bare boarded and has high table and stool seating opposite the bar and some comfier options to the rear of the room next to a DJ booth. Moving to the right, you find yourself in the pub’s mid-section, where a large shop-style bay window accommodates curved button backed banquettes which face out to the street, making you feel a bit like a shop dummy if, like us, you find yourself seated here. To the rear, a raised seating area house a couple more tables underneath some huge display cases full of wine, spirit and beer bottles. A third and final space can be found through to the right, where more tables and chairs fill a spacious rea with a brick fireplace, fancy wallpaper and an attractive mirror. A large, detailed beer list was written up on a blackboard on the back wall here, but each table was supplied with a beer menu, which made it much easier to decide what to order. The main from of decoration throughout was in the form of Belgian breweriana including a couple of pub signs that were lit up. Amusingly, the toilets were signed as ‘Madames’ and ‘Van Dammes’!
There was no cask ale available on this visit, but the keg selection was pretty wide and included Thornbridge Jaipur, Taylor Hopical Storm and Tiny Rebel Clwb Tropicana alongside plenty of Belgian favourites. An extremely comprehensive bottled beer selection was detailed across numerous pages of the menu and a two-page cocktail list had been designed to look like an Argos catalogue, with waitresses taking the orders on Argos style pads with stubby pens, which was a bit of fun. Orders could be placed with the waiting staff, but also via old telephones which had been put on each table, allowing you to ring the bar, or indeed any other table in the pub, allowing punters to flirt with or talk bollocks to whoever they want without flouting any social distancing rules!
This place was doing a very good trade, mainly with student-types, which meant there was a loud, vibrant Saturday evening atmosphere when we were finally allowed in. It felt a bit like a characterful All Bar One or Slug & Lettuce, if you can imagine such a thing, with some interesting décor and plenty of Belgian beer. I enjoyed my time here despite not really being the target market and whilst I’m sure Lincoln has plenty of better pubs, this was a fun way to round out a Saturday night and worth adding to an extended crawl of the city centre.
On 3rd September 2020
- rating: 7
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
custodian 42 left this review about The Strait & Narrow
Large place with two bars to the left. Seating at right and rear. Five hand pumps and countless craft & keg options.
On 17th July 2018
- rating: 5
[User has posted 1693 recommendations about 1691 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Old Boots left this review about The Strait & Narrow
A newish venue in Lincoln and probably the most pretentious, and there's some competition for that title, however the four cask ales are excellent and I defy anyone to find a better choice of Belgian beers on draught , draught mark you, this side of the Channel. In addition there's an array of European stars in fridges, to one side they have shelves displaying the beers plus the branded glasses behind glass. Naturally the pricing is very craft and the uber trendiness continues in having cocktail menus in fake VHS boxes. The furniture is an eclectic mix, tending to the tall. To the right down a few steps is a more traditional dining area lit by a chandelier, there's the expected exposed brick and some ancient timber in this area too.
On 31st May 2016
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 3269 recommendations about 2978 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Alan Winfield left this review about The Strait & Narrow
The Strait & Narrow is at the bottom of the steep walk up to the Cathedral.
Once inside there is a largish single room which is divided into different areas and on different levels,the bar is on the upper level,this area is oblong shaped and bare boarded,there are a few tall tables and chairs and comfy bench seating in bays,the lower are has normal tables and chairs.
There was a good choice of real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Roosters Wild Mule which went down very well,the other beers noted were By The Horns Lambeth Walk,Thornbridge Jaipur,Taylor Landlord and Idle Valley Imagination.
Food was being served and background music was playing.
As the other two reviewers have said,this is well worth a visit if in Lincoln.
Pub visited 1/8/2015
On 1st August 2015
- rating: 9
[User has posted 6113 recommendations about 6113 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Harry Verchi left this review about The Strait & Narrow
A must visit with so many varieties of beer styles for sale, Bottles etc. from all over the globe. Gets really bust later on in the evening.
On 13th March 2013
- rating: 9
[User has posted 10 recommendations about 10 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
A B left this review about
Pub opened in 2012. A large pub just off the strait, with big windows looking out. Reasonably open plan with large bar on left and some raised and lowered levels.
Bar serves a range of excellent real ales and over a 100 different bottles of international craft beers, including many that you wouldn't find anywhere else in Lincoln. Prices were a pleasant surprise. Also had cider, fruit beer, and an extensive wine and cocktail list. Live acoustic music on the Sunday night I visited. I'm not sure whether they serve food
I would highly recommend to anyone interested in beer.
On 8th January 2013
- rating: 9
[User has posted 27 recommendations about 26 pubs]