Leicester – My Favourite Three Good Beer Guide Pubs
I don’t normally write blog posts in this manner (list type ones), but since I was asked, I’ll oblige. My friend Ross and I managed to visit every Good Beer Guide pub in central Leicester this week, and I’ll eventually write about them all on my little Good Beer Guide page.
In reverse order (I like adding to the anticipation for my five readers)……
3 – The Blue Boar – A winner of CAMRA’s Leicester pub of the year in 2018, 2019 and 2020, there was a friendly and immediate welcome from the staff member behind the bar even though they were busy. A clean and comfortable environment, but it was the quality of the beer options that really stood out. Helpful staff, excellent beers and a really well curated beer list.
2 – The Real Ale Classroom – A bit of a walk outside of the city centre, but absolutely worth it. This is a micropub with quirky decoration themed around education, namely because the owners swapped a career as school teachers for running a bar. I thought that the beer options were some of the best curated that I’ve seen, I wanted to try most of the beers listed on the clearly displayed blackboard. Pro-active and enthusiastic staff, with a new beer garden to help deal with the number of customers who want to go here.
1 – The Two-Tailed Lion – This was my stand out pub of the week, another with an Untappd screen with numerous interesting and intriguing beers. A clean environment, perfectly well-kept beers and an informal atmosphere. The customer service was excellent, close to the levels that are offered by the Hop & Vine in Hull (my benchmark of the perfect pub), with the barman here being conversational and engaging. I liked his genuine welcome and farewell to every customer and also his help in explaining which he thought the best pubs in Leicester were when I asked. It transpired that the ones he mentioned as the best were also the ones that I liked the most, and I’m grateful he recommended the trip out to the Real Ale Classroom. I can forgive a pub having faults if the staff make me feel really welcome, but this one didn’t have any faults. Quite wonderful.
