Peterborough – Queen’s Head

The Queen’s Head pub is located just outside the Queensgate Centre in Peterborough and it has gone through numerous iterations over recent years. It has been known as HGs (after HG Wells), the Grapevine and Clarkes (which was a fine dining restaurant), but the Charles Wells brewery have now decided to name the pub the Queen’s Head.

Rather a brave statement.

There’s a quirky feel to the pub which I rather liked, with the building being much larger inside than I had imagined.

This is Young’s London Gold, which I ordered before I realised that the pub stocked Young’s London Stout. London Gold is in my view a pretty generic session beer and although it was well kept and tasted fine, I wasn’t tempted to have another.

The interior of the pub was clean and bright, although most of the seating seems to be catering for those customers who are dining. The pub specialises in pizzas and pots, the latter of which is defined as meals cooked and served in one pot such as mac & cheese, lasagne, curry and tagine. I looked at the menu on-line (for reasons mentioned below) and it seemed to offer something a little different which I liked.

The lack of menus in the pub was though a little confusing to me, as they didn’t have any on the tables. This confused another pair of customers who walked back out, and none of the staff noticed them leave. Although I did, I was rather busy people watching. There also isn’t a lunch-time menu in the pub, which I had expected and I’d probably have ordered from if they had it. I’m sure that I could have gone to a staff member and been given a menu, but I have an aversion to go hunting when not particularly hungry.

The pub service was efficient and polite, although I was rather disregarded when a customer known to the barman came in. The reviews for the pub are though really good, so there doesn’t appear to be anything particularly wrong with the management. It was also clean and tidy, so it seemed like a comfortable environment for those dining, and I also felt comfortable in the bar area. I got the impression that the food was pretty decent and it seemed like a reliable place for those wanting to bring a group of people to dine.