The Criterion

One of my favourite pubs in Leicester, I’m surprised I haven’t got round to reviewing the Criterion before. It may not look much, but it really is a great place.

The picnic tables outside come in handy although the concrete jungle vista isn’t much to write home about. Be warned though, on a sunny Summer day, by 5pm the sun has pretty much disappeared from the terrace area.

The real joy is the bar. So many real ales and bottled beers from all around the world are available – well kept and at a reasonable price. The Criterion pizza is one of Leicester’s best kept secrets, again not very expensive but extremely tasty. The Criterion also puts on live music to cater for all tastes, including metal on a Sunday night. There are two quizzes a week as well, a music quiz and more general knowledge. The jukebox has a pleasing selection of rock and indie music.

Gets absolutely rammed on a Friday and Saturday night, but can be relatively quiet the rest of the time. A very varied clientele – old man ale drinkers, students, local business people, there seems to be room for all in this trouble free pub.

Very popular pub near the city centre. Had a small school reunion here not long back. Great selection of real ales with some from Micro breweries – always nice to see – and decent bar staff. Don’t often return to leicester but when I do this pub will be on the itinerary.

One of the best pubs in town for beer - if you fancy a pint after work and it's Friday, get there quick because it gets rammed. The beers have real ale fans swooning and the have regular beer festivals too. There's guest ciders as well. One of the great things about the Criterion are the pizzas - delicious, reasonably priced and HUGE.

Real ale pub aficionados in leicester need search no further. This place has 6 on every night (mostly) and the owner knows how to treat his beer with care and attention. Miss it at your peril.

This place can be a little difficult to find but it's certainly worth it. It feels a little like a working man's club but is frequented by a healthy cross section of people.

Where to start on the beers! The selection on draught is always changing and the list of bottled beers needs a menu book. My favourite was Ham Beer. The bar staff know what they're serving too. Just ask the staff what they recommend.

Pizza! They have a good selection of pizzas on offer at cheap prices and they're cooked in a proper pizza oven.

So, great beer and great pizza. Great little place. It's easy to see why it keeps winning CAMRA pub of the year.

There are gigs too!

My first impressions were not so great. I like my pubs a bit quieter than this, but then what do I expect if I insist on going out on a weekend? My initial uncertainty soon evaporated…and not just because we managed to get a table.

What an amazing selection of beers this pub has! Not just all the the Locales (local ales…geddit) that you can get from the pump, but also the amazing blurred selection of bottles in the fridges (the blurring, my own fault for being too vain to wear my glasses out on a Saturday night…I’ll have to come back with them on) and perry (called perry) on tap. They even have my favourite smoked beer…but were out of it during my visit. Luckily there were many other as yet untried options for me to consider. I had a couple of very decent ales.

I didn’t realize that this pub had received so many CAMRA awards until I was actually sitting there, enjoying my pint and reading the local CAMRA pamphlet. Good work, because the pub doesn’t look like much from the outside. Dodgy, ugly, worn…are all adjectives I could imagine being used to describe its external appearance, but then appearances can most definitely be deceptive.

There are a couple of separate bar rooms and a small outside area (very empty in the driving rain that night). The do gigs here too.

Lovely little old style boozer not far from the Charlotte, so perfect for a quick (or slow, it’s worth stopping in here) pint before gigs. It has an odd but welcome mix of regulars, propping up the bar, and quirky twentysomethings, with a selection of real ales that can’t be beat (if you like that sort of thing), and perry on draught! They also have lovely pizza and quizzes a few times a week, where you can win that lovely pizza, or beer or cash if you prefer.

The only reason I’ve knocked a star off my rating is that they tend to be a little ID-happy here, which is hugely frustrating if you happen to be well over the legal drinking age, but don’t drive or carry a passport around with you. I do tend to get a little offended when that happens, but it’s the law, I guess. Anyways, this place is well worth a visit - but if you’re not one of the regulars, or didn’t see in your 18th birthday a few decades ago, bring some ID, just in case…..