cheese sandwich's Qype profile

Legendary Norwich music venue...best live music pub around, they really concentrate on the music side of things and on a friday or saturday the band will be one of the best. Drinks are not brilliant, if you like ales and wine theres a limited choice but you come here to listen and dance so they get away with it. Staff are great. 

Characterful place badly let down by 90% of the bar staff. The lad working there was ok, the others need to be taught what customer service is.

Thought we would call in today and test this place for a spot of Sunday lunch. Big mistake!
Reading reviews on here it seems the place must have gone downhill badly in only a few months.
We arrived about 4 and took a table upstairs after some confusion between the staff as to whether the upstairs section was open or not. Most of the downstairs tables were taken though the place wasn't packed out by any means. There was another group upstairs so it must have been open.
We ordered coffees and food, the coffee was good but unfortunately it took an hour before the food arrived. The place wasn't busy, so god knows How long it takes if it is.
Fish and chips was awful, cold chips and mushy peas alongside the smallest piece of non descript Iceland own brand frozen fish you can imagine. The waitress did replace the chips but it really wasn't worth waiting a long time for the fish to be heated up so we didn't bother. Beef and ale pie on the other hand was good. Packet mash and raw cold vegetables It was served with wasn't.
All seemed like it was frozen to microwave fare which made it even more bizarre that it took an hour to prepare.
The place itself is ok (I spent many an evening on the beer in here in the 90s) with an interesting layout and slap bang in the city centre, but avoid the food at all costs, even though it was half price food day and £12 for 2 meals and coffee we felt completely ripped off.

Why serve food if you really can't be bothered? Do everyone a favour and stick to being a pre club drinking hole if that's what you are good at. ;-)

BEER! MMMMM!
This has got to be the best ale / beer pub in the country bar none. And ive tried a few. Its half hour walk for me but still worth a weekly trip. its not all wooly jumpers and beards, though nothing wrong with that, but its got a whole cross section of the Norwich community with one thing in common they love this pub. Theres always new faces and old friends and its never anywhere near empty even on sunday, monday nights. Theres no live music, in fact no music at all,no game machines or big screen tv, little food, and ive never seen any trouble there even though its quite easy to drink yourself stupid . there are plenty of places for those in the area and they are as dead as the pint of john smiths springwater they all serve. If you introduce a visitor to norwich show them this place along with the castle and cathedral and with as much pride that we support it as we do. The prices are good. Excellent bar staff, always know whos turn it is even when its packed and pour perfect pints, and thats all i want from bar staff. Surprising how many other places employ rude monkees then put them as the front of house for there business - but thats another story -

The Shed has been going in its present form a few years now, having previously been "the wherry" then closed down for a while before being completely refurbished to a whole new pub.

During the time its been reopened its gone through periods of being popular and others of being completely dead.

They put on live music at weekends, usually of the quieter folky or jazz variety. Some of this is excellent, (the now defunct jazz jam was very popular) some of it (such as the unfriendly weekly irish "session") a bit stale.

They seem quite choosy about the acts they put on who on the whole tend to be accomplished musos.

Bar service is a bit hap hazard, depends whos working, sometimes friendly and quick (unless they are really busy, which tends to be a friday night).... or sometimes its made quite obvious you are being a bit of a pain wanting a drink after 10pm when the bar staff are desperate to pack up and go home (after 9.30pm on sundays gets you tuts etc!).

The surroundings are interesting and certainly diferent to any other pub ive been in, though it can be a bit brightly lit for my taste.

To end on a high,The beer is always excellent, a huge selection, including some brewed on the premises and reasonably priced. Definately worth a visit, especially as part of a crawl of the other pubs in the area:
Recommended route forwards or backwards=
Duke of wellington
The Whalebone
The Denmark
The Shed
The Cottage (recently rehashed too)

Stopped here for Sunday lunch after a long walk. Didn't arrive until 2pm but they were still serving, although they had ran out of the cod and chips which looked lovely as another couple were eating it and we all sneaked a peek. Choice of roasts was on the menu and we all had beef , which was fine and reasonably priced for this area of the country. The veg was good general pub fare, the beef itself was nothing special but ok. Pub was fairly lively with what seemed like locals but we all felt comfortable enough. The adnams and the White wine were good. Would pop in again no worries. A little later we heard them offer someone the fish and chips but we will give them the benefit of the doubt they could have got some more from one of the fishermen across the road:-)

Popped in here on Saturday night as I was staying with friends for the weekend. Was a bit wary at first as the place was empty and we had to deal with the usual bored teenager taking the order. But all turned out ok, there is no Szechuan beef on the menu :-( but apart from that the food arrived quickly and was reasonably priced £30 for 4 gave us plenty. Not outstanding but adeqaute, would use again.

Used to use hughes a lot for white goods, but recently had a item go wrong after only 5 months use, and they refuse to replace or refund. The manufacturer has sent someone out to attempt repair 3 times over the past 2 months and it still doesnt work, so after being without my new purchase for 2 months now i dont think its unreasonable to offer to exchange it but when i try to discuss with them they just waffle about contracts with the manufacturer (not the customers problem i would have thought?) and "how things are built down to a price nowadays"????!!!! perhaps they should have told me that BEFORE i bought it! I try to support local retailers but may as well just get the cheapest possible from the internet in future, seems the hughes customer service has sadly gone the way of the big bad boys like comet, et al....

Thought this place would be cheap and cheerful as it looks so rough. Certainly not cheap though! Gave it 2 stars because they do seem to have actually done the work required ok, but the labour charges are a complete rip off. Over £100 for some thing i would be surprised if it took Much more than 1 hour. Guys there were ok and pretty cheerful. so would i be if i was on that hourly rate.

I guess a great attraction for children 6 - 14 or so. Adults will prob find it a glorified ghost train. (this is not an actual historical place where things really happened just mocked up scenes)The dungeons are really dark, i know they are meant to be but they were so dark you cant make out what you are looking at most of the time. Actually quite difficult to walk in a couple places. The actors were really good especially the judge! All a bit disjointed at the start you just wander from one queue to the next but ok later on when the actors start guiding and abusing you! quite expensive £40 odd for 3 and we had a 2 for 1 ticket. The bit at the end where you get hanged is good, will scare EVERYONE on their first time.

Wouldnt go again and not worth queueing for more than half hour for unless you have kids to entertain.

Over all was ok but never felt real. Seem to remember york had a place similar but much more shocking for being more realistic rather than fairground like this.