Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Headingley Pubs - Part 1

While I did an awful lot of cooking on the weekend I have neither (accurate) recipes nor photos to hand so I'll commence my review of drinking establishments in Headingley.

Otley Road is known for the Otley Run - where students stagger up and down Otley Road, drinking.

But just how good are Headingley's pubs?

Sat 8 April 2006

Well fed and ready for a drink we ventured out into the big bad world that is anywhere other than the North Bar. I was hoping that the student population might have gone on holiday but the first couple of places we tried were a bit full for old fuddy-duddies like us. I was keen to visit Arcadia, after my extremely positive experience at Coopers, in Guiseley (also run by Market Town Taverns). However, it was heaving - we even spotted one of the barmen from North squashed against a window.

We peered at the Headingley Taps from the other side of North Lane and made a similar assessment of the Arc before turning our attention towards the ring road.

First stop was the New Inn (68 Otley Road). A University of Leeds information page tells me that famous guests include Monica Lewinsky. Hardly a selling point. However, we got in and found a table. The exciting (ahem) range of bitters included Black Sheep (which was off - at 8pm on a Saturday night?), and John Smiths Smooth and Ruddles County Smooth. Sorry - but 'smooth' just doesn't cut it. It feels like you're drinking post-mix beer and I hate these 'smooth' varieties of perfectly decent beers just about as much as I hate any of my other pet hates (low-fat or out of a packet in particular). So, I went for a pint of Staropramen. The two pints came in at £5 which wasn't too bad ... or rather, wouldn't have been too bad if the beer had been in good nick ...

We found a table (underneath a telly showing some sporting fixture), watched the interesting (in the loosest possible sense) array of people around us, bolted our beers and headed off. Can't imagine we'll be bothering again!

Next stop was the Three Horseshoes - spitting distance from the New Inn and just over the road from Beer Ritz. This is a big open pub and offers you a pint of Tetley's (CASK) for a whole £1.53! OK - it's a bit studenty (possibly a lot so) but we found a table, and got in a round for less than a fiver (thanks to Andy's expensive, fancy, lager tastes - he went for San Miguel).

A few beers and crisps later and we'd even managed to solve most of the world's problems ...
Stumble Upon ToolbarStumble It!

2 Comments:

Blogger Richard Atkinson said...

Ah, the Otley Run. Memories...

5:18 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great beers at Arcadia - shame its totally non smoking. Try Woodies.

3:44 pm  

Post a Comment

<< Home