Royal Leamington Spa – The Boiler Room

This looked like an interesting venue on-line, a mixture of craft beer and sausage rolls. I had checked the beer list on Untappd before going and there were numerous interesting options that seemed to be available on tap.

The open nature of the pub, which has an industrial design and numerous power points (I have been commenting on this a lot recently) and was clean and organised.

The interesting little set-up behind the bar added to the character of the venue. The staff member was friendly and helpful, politely pointing out where the list of beers was located as I had managed to miss it.

The keg and cask list is chalked up on a large board (the one I missed until it was pointed out), with this can and bottle selection also available on tables. There were a range of beer styles available, it all felt well curated.

The barman couldn’t get my half pint of Honeycomb Chocolate Stout from Vocation Brewery into one glass, but he did ask permission to pour it across two different glasses so I can’t really complain. This was beautifully decadent, although it didn’t seem quite as rich and glamorous as when I had it before at Vocation’s brewery tap in Hebden Bridge. I think beer nearly always tastes just that little bit better at its source, but it was still absolutely fine here.

The pub has a reputation for its pork pies and sausage rolls, but these have, currently at least, disappeared, leaving these as the sole food option. There is also pizza available later on in the day which they get sent in from a local supplier. I was a little disappointed with the lack of pork pies and sausage rolls, but the crisps were rather lovely.

The reviews are nearly all positive, although there are some such as:

“Expensive for what it was. 5 pounds for a pint? Get out of town!”

I can understand the annoyance of the venue at reviews like this, they sell craft beer and decent real ale, which is inevitably not going to be £2 a pint.

“Do you like being judged by entitled bar staff and have snarky comments made about you whilst having a good time?”

I can’t judge (although I’ll have a go) but these reviews seem to nearly always be written by people who were having a good time that was disturbing everyone else. So I consider this a positive that the staff didn’t like it.

Anyway, I’ve digressed again. A perfectly nice venue, clean, welcoming and with a decent selection of beers. Although no sausage rolls or pork pies…..