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Disappointment of the week with Gann
on the Pub Forum
Image posted by peter ashworth
Submitted on Thursday, 30th June 2022
With picture contributions to 26844 other pubs
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Detail Pages
Craft & Cleaver, St Albans Central, St. Albans
St. Albans
AL3 5BU
Reviews of Craft & Cleaver (Average Rating: 6½ of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Bucking Fastard left this review about Craft & Cleaver
A former failed pub revived as a craft keg outlet,but with a wait to be seated policy at the front door.I enquired if only drinking was allowed and was shown to a free table. It's a triumph of style over substance,with neon signs,heavy wood topped tables,some high with bench seating to the right,while to the left has the feel of a dining area.On my visit this was full of buggies with babies everywhere and their young professional parents enjoying a meal and a variety of drinks and coffees but very little beer.An NCT get together ? Drinking in a creche is not my idea of fun.And the muzak was mindless.
There are 10 craft keg taps but the style range seemed limited to lots of hazy ,high strength IPA's. My two thirds of Lost & Found Box of Dogs DDH was not very mermorable.
IMHO craft keg is becoming boring,so much tastes the same and this pub offers nothing to excite. Leave it to the young and impessionable .
On 8th January 2023
- rating: 5
[User has posted 2727 recommendations about 2727 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Clive Thompson left this review about Craft & Cleaver
A decent craft beer place with 4 regulars and 6 changing taps. They have some interesting stuff here, including a beer from Three Hills in Northamptonshire, which is a brand new brewery to me. Expensive in that four halves set me back £14, but they were all 6%+. Friendly and efficient service from both staff members. I'd come here again if looking for something different.
On 26th January 2022
- rating: 6
[User has posted 777 recommendations about 697 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about Craft & Cleaver
This pub has gone through numerous names and makeovers in recent times, currently finding itself set up as an in vogue craft beer bar. The main bar has exposed floorboards and a rough hewn, pewter topped bar counter along the back wall. Any signs of the pub’s history or character have been pretty much erased, with a grim scaffold bar back symptomatic of the situation. The nicest area for drinkers seems to be to the left where a mix of sofas, high stools and standard chairs serve a range of tables with a small fireplace on the end wall which weirdly had bottles of Adnams Copper House gin stacked on the mantle. Board games stacked in the rear window and a pump clip collection snaking its way from the wall across the ceiling added to the feel of somewhere suited to settling down with a pint, which was less easily said by the right hand side of the room. Here, a lone banquette opposite the serves tables set for dining and beyond this, past a partitioning wall with an open, arched window, there is a space with a much longer banquette under bare brick walls with very little in the way of character. Clean, pastel shades predominate, but the decor is so minimal that it all feels sterile and difficult to love. There must’ve been some sort of garden out the back, as most customers vanished around the far end of the bar, never to be seen again.
The pub doesn’t serve cask ale, but does instead offer a great range of small batch keg products from the likes of Weird Beard, Camden, Brooklyn and loads that I’d never heard of. I tried Mad Squirrel De La Creme Milk Stout, which set me back £2.60 for a half and was quite a sweet brew that didn’t really appeal to me. The staff were a bit stand-offish with pretty much all their customers and I just sat in the left hand part of the pub on my own, sipping my beer thinking about the next pub on my list.
I didn’t really get much from this place, but it’s a reasonable enough compromise between a modern craft bar situated inside a traditional pub. I’d come here on occasion if I lived locally, as it’s always good to dip into the craft world now and then, but the town has loads of great, characterful pubs with bags of atmosphere that beat this place hands down.
On 13th November 2017
- rating: 5
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
View more reviews of Craft & Cleaver (9)
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- Official site of Craft & Cleaver - www.craftcleaver.co.uk
- Facebook - Craft & Cleaver
- CAMRA WhatPub :: Craft & Cleaver - whatpub.com
St Albans Abbey, 0.98 miles, 18 min walk (show)
Park Street, 2.4 miles, 46 min walk (show)
Pub Details
Pub details supplied by members of this site to the best of their knowledge. Please check with pub directly before making a special trip.
- Accommodation : No last updated 13 November 2017 by Pub SignMan
- Bar Billiards : No last updated 13 November 2017 by Pub SignMan
- Beer Festivals : No last updated 26 January 2022 by Clive Thompson
- Beer Garden : Yes last updated 13 November 2017 by Pub SignMan
- CAMRA Discount : No last updated 26 January 2022 by Clive Thompson
- Car Park : No last updated 13 November 2017 by Pub SignMan
- Child Friendly : Yes last updated 13 November 2017 by Pub SignMan
- Darts : No last updated 26 January 2022 by Clive Thompson
- Dog Friendly : Yes last updated 13 November 2017 by Pub SignMan
- Function Room : No last updated 26 January 2022 by Clive Thompson
- Hot Food : Yes last updated 13 November 2017 by Pub SignMan
- Jukebox : No last updated 13 November 2017 by Pub SignMan
- Live Music : Yes last updated 13 November 2017 by Pub SignMan
- Live TV Sports : No last updated 26 January 2022 by Clive Thompson
- Micropub : No last updated 13 November 2017 by Pub SignMan
- Pinball : No last updated 13 November 2017 by Pub SignMan
- Pool Table : No last updated 13 November 2017 by Pub SignMan
- Real Ale : No last updated 13 November 2017 by Pub SignMan
- Real Cider : No last updated 13 November 2017 by Pub SignMan
- Wheelchair Access : Yes last updated 26 January 2022 by Clive Thompson
