Close to the Universities this mid 20th century bar is in a working mans club style. It has two small rooms and does its best to massage the the entertainment requirements of the students with frequent gigs, quizzes, comedy and games nights, practically every night. As far as drinking goes there’s a mix of ale and lager, but a decent selection of both. Can get busy early evening.

We have visited this a few times on our visits to Leicester as it is on the must visit list. Generally we prefer the small room on the left if it isn’t too full. It is in a slightly seedier part of town but really friendly when inside. Really good assortment of beers and I haven’t been through the bottles yet. Very good.

Decent ambiance. Excellent pizza. Good selection of ales. Prices are reasonable. Service is average to poor. The landlord is incredibly rude. Good music on the jukebox. The beers have been in poor condition the last 9/10 times. Will not be returning until cellermanship improves.

Looks dingy from the outside. In fact I passed it dozens of times, saw the sign outside "Selection of Foreign beers" assumed they meant they had Stella and Kronenbourg. Saw it on here, and rushed to visit. Wasn’t dissapointed. They’re got a fantastic selection. Good prices, and don’t mind waiting while you spend 5 minutes deciding what you want to drink.

An excellent, warm two-main room pub with an excellent range of beers, hypothetically always including an Oakham. The casual belgian interesting draught may also make an appearance (Saison Dupont was there) and a fair few bottles for Leicester: Nothing very rare, but certainly a welcome addition. Had a pretty good Chili con Carne there. Certainly a must in leicester, even if you just spend a few hours in the city.

Found this gem courtesy of haddonsman and maieb whom I had met earlier in the day at the Leicester Beer Festival. Couple of rooms, large and small and the music selection wasn’t the standard fare which was a nice change. A few cask ales are available but what really made it for me was the extensive bottled range. On this occasion I had the Dogfish Head Raison D’Etre and the Belgian Export Guinness.

A fantastic range of Foreign beers mostly concentrating on a reasonable selection of Belgians, as well as some rare German stuff which isn’t even in our database. Four or five draught foreign beers and up to ten real ales, mostly from Midlands breweries. Live music Saturday afternoons and Thursday evenings add to the ambience although lunchtimes can see it quiet or maybe even frequented by the odd undesirable. That aside this pub is one of the best half dozen in the country with just the occassionally surly service letting it down occassionally. The pizzas are very good indeed and they now do the odd bit of Chinese food.

Knockout pub, small room (with music on thia occasion) to left then long room at back right with long bar. And an even longer bottle list - good variety and depth. And good draught English beers as well as Paulaner. Didn’t get time to try the piza but will return!

Ah, my local. Kind of...it is one-and-a-half miles away. I don’t go often enough to be honest. This has an excellent beer menu for the foreign brews and up to eight taps for the real ale. Good service and fantastic pizzas from a real pizza oven. Grant has revitalised the real ale scene in Leicester. (adendum, Grant has left but the beer choice remains. Has more bar flies visiting, staying, now.

The sister pub to the more established Swan and Rushes. Despite being just over a year old, this place has already got a great reputation, and justifiably so. A big range of beers, with the emphasis on quality German craftsmanship. The Criterion has a lot of taps and has drawn in lots of Leicester real ale fans, who are wowed by around 8 ever changing hand pulled products (as well as Blanche de Bruxelles and 2 varieties of Paulaner permanently on). This place shares the best attributes of the Swan, and has a large and always fresh beer menu. It really is worth a visit to Leicester to try both The Criterion, and the Swan & Rushes, especially as they are only staggering distance apart! Though the Sixties’ architecture of the Criterion means, that if forced to choose, my heart will always belong to the Swan...