Swan and Rushes, Leicesterback to pub details please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
I last visited here almost 4 years ago. It was very quiet that time. This time it was quite the opposite with queues up to 4 deep at the bar. Punters were spilling outside. But the ale range was as good if not better - Milestone Dark Vader & Emperial Ale Strikes Back, Grainstore Ten Fifty, Oakham JHB & Bishop's Farewell, Batemans XB & Riyad Mahrez Mild (not sure which brewery), in addition to Farmer Fear Thirsty Farmer cider (another new one for me). Another good Leicester pub.
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Another of Grant Cooke's former establishments. This was his first and probably best, as it was the traditional two room pub layout. A good number of pumps spread over the two bars, like its former sister pub, The Crierion, presents a somewhat reduced range of ales compared to days of old.
Like its former sister pub, this is also run by a manager with a slightly odd persona, though this one, far from not smiling, smiles (or grins) incessantly, only broken by what can only be described as slightly rough and somewhat unfriendly banter. Apparently they are brothers!!
The beer here, whilst boasting a simnilar range to the Crierion, was by no means in the same good condition. Oakham JHB was passable, but by no means what I would expect from one of the countries finest session ales.
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Granted it was a Monday night but it was a bit dead on my visit. Nice selection of Oakham beers and other local / not so-local ones. Friendly bar service; cheap food; pool table. A tad tired but worth a visit.
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Good pub. Front bar had wood floors and furniture and Bar Billiards. Back bar looked very large, but most people seemed to be in the front.
Approx 5 ales on and some had changed on my second visit.Also stocked a wide range of foreign bottled beers.
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Nice old school pub with two rooms and a few angles to the walls/ceilings and decent ale.
anonymous - 21 Sep 2012 17:59 |
This pub seemed a little off the beaten track. But it's a great little boozer. There are 2 rooms - the main bar with a bar billiards table and a lounge. Both are very worn, with furnishings a little outdated, but all the better for it. The beer range is good too - Cottage Goldrush, Flipside Dark Demonination, Batemans XB & England Expects & Oakham JHB, Bishops Farewell & Scarlet Macaw.
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Lovely pub. Enjoyed just about everything about this pub, not least the excellent Oakham ales. Hard to fault, although I did try. Down to earth in one sense but with a good diverse crowd in attendance. Include it in a crawl and you may well get no further. 9/10 without doubt.
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Enjoyed a pint in here before the Leicester v Saints match, supporters of both teams coexisting if not mingling. I'd recommend this pub for pre-match drinking, good atmpsophere & a wide range of real ale.
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Good friendly pub with a good range of beers. On my recent visit the one I had was past its best, but still drinkable, and the people I was with had very good beers, so I won't hold it against them.
Rare example of a traditional bar billiards table as well, complete with rules for the uninitiated (i.e. most people).
Gets very, very busy when the rugby club is at home.
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Still the best pub in the city for beer quality and great customer service.
You will also find the best selection of bottled beers here. Loads of German and Belgian classics and rarities.
One thing that has struck me of late, however, is the boring range of cask ales. The Oakham Ales are always great and if a Blue Monkey guest is on that's also good news.
There seems to be too much emphasis on Bateman's and Grainstore.
What happened to the likes of Newby Wyke, Dark Star and Brewster's? If we see any of these beers once a year we're lucky.
I've noticed that if a good guest ale appears on the bar everyone in the pub drinks it and it will sell out fast. This doesn't appear to happen very often though.
There's a load of exciting beers out there that should be on in this pub; Buxton brewery, Summer Wine, Marble to name a few.�
A keg font like the one in the Criterion would be good, with�
�rotating guests from US and UK brewers.
Drinkers' tastes are changing. You only have to look at pubs like the Sheffield Tap, The Grove in Huddersfield, Cask & Kitchen in London. And The Pub in Leicester.
Slake - 16 Jul 2011 13:35 |
I have to say I visited this gaff with some trepidation, (well, a little)...only on account of the fact that when I lived in Leicester, the Swan and Rushes was a rough and ready pub lacking in any atmosphere and beer. It was frequented by an element of the 'unsavoury'. I'm sure there were one or two 'salt of the earth' types but it wasn't somewhere on the list of desirable pubs /venues to visit.
Now, however it's changed, good range of well kept ales, unpretentious and courteous bar staff and a friendly atmosphere. Also has a full size Bar Billiards table, when myself and my mate arrived on a Saturday afternoon just before the Tigers were due to play it was packed with Tigers fans, but quickly emptied one kick off loomed.
Good pub...
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It's safe to visit now the most boring man in the universe appears to have been barred again. Let's hope it's for good this time. Pizzas will soon be on the menu too.
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*** BEER FEST UPDATE ***
I've been advised that the Swan will be holding a Beer Festival coinciding with the Leicester Castle Park Festival (and Peterborough Beer Fest) which is due to commence on Thursday 26th August and running through to Sunday 29th.
The festival will feature a Hog Roast on Friday and Saturday (first time for a city centre pub in leicester???) and promises an assortment of new and unusual beers plus old favourites.
Couldn't find any info on this in the Leicester Drinker, but the Swan website has date / time info plus a festival beer list...
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This is now the best pub I have ever been to, proper old mans place....but with loads of bottled beers from Germany Austria and Belgium, along with wheat beer on tap several bitters and ales and cheap but good food, and cooked snacks for less than London crisp prices. Music was descreet and varied, 80's trip hop, jazz this that and the other and just made it all the better.. what a pub! The Dog and Bell in SE8 has just moved to number 2
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The recent Cider & Cheese fest and this weekends German beer festival here afforded us the opportunity of a couple of visits, and once again we found ourselves impressed by the place.
The Cider & Cheese event offered approximately 25 ciders and perries complemented by the same number of (rather excellent) cheeses; the cider / perry selection was very good, although a handful of the ciders were not available yet when we were there, and the prices were very reasonable.
The cheese were possibly a little on the pricey side, but I guess you pay for quality, and there were some real gems amongst the selection, particularly on the blue side of the spectrum.
The German fest was also very good, with nine beers on offer in the courtyard served straight from the barrel, including Bock, Export Dunkel, Pils, Kolsch, Kellerbier and Rauchbier (smoked and meaty dark beer).
Also worth mentioning here was the food - really tasty (and reasonably priced) bratwurst hotdogs with the best sauerkraut I've ever tasted, along with 'schweinhaxe' - pork hocks cooked to a traditional German recipe.
Staff were very friendly and seemed to be enjoying themselves despite the place being pretty busy on both visits - we certainly no complaints.
Sadly didn't sample any of the draught ales on either visit as we were too busy with the fest selections, but hopefully there'll be a Real Ale festival here soon which will give us the chance!
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Beer quality top notch again. 9/10
Slake - 14 Mar 2010 14:22 |
Sad to lower my rating from a 10 as the quality of the ale has not been up to scratch of late. Served too warm. What's going on?
Slake - 31 Jan 2010 20:55 |
Good selection of beers, but the decor could do with looking at (Green ceiling, plastic flowers in the external hanging baskets).
Friendly & cheerful barmaid.
Word of warning: Avoid this place pre-Leicester City or Tigers matches!
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The Swan and Rushes is probably the best traditional real ale pub I have visited so far on my jaunts up to Leicester. Two bars either side of a central serving area, both with an assortment of comfortable wooden seating and one bar sporting an array of posters of previous Jazz events.
Very good ales and seven hand pumps on the go during our mid week visit. As well as the usual Oakham JHB and Bishops Farewell, and Batemans XXB, these included Microbrewery beers from Potbelly Brewery in Kettering and Crouch Vales Brewers Gold.
All beers tried were in excellent nick and although fairly early evening and not particularly busy, the barmaid was courteous and efficient and we encountered none of the service issues referred to below.
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My previous review still stands to an extent but the bloke behind the bar needs to remove his head from his backside. I think he was the landlord, and he decided to berate my mate for ordering a lager - now I am very much a real ale man, but I don't bear a grudge towards lager drinkers - this bloke clearly does. Why doesn't he have the guts to take lager off the menu if he has such a problem with it? No doubt the Yawnion crowd is too important too him to take such a step.
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Still the best pub in Leicester in my opinion. The beer is always top quality. The staff are always friendly and welcoming. My review of May 2008 still stands, but the Friday night fish and chips are even better! It's a shame the Saturday night Blues gigs appear to have ceased. I don't know the reason for this. 10 out of 10.
Slake - 28 Sep 2009 20:51 |
Had a decent selection of beers. Fairly well kept. Not the best service you will recieve in a pub but not the worst either. Will visit again on next visit to Leicester.
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Good choice of ales, but varied service. Seems on occasions to be understaffed although the young barmaid is excellent and knows her beers!
The locals do seem to get priority and on a recent visit a group were allowed to use the most offensive and foulest possible language describing as loud as possible their exploits in Ibiza in earshot of a mixed company lounge without censure by the staff.
Extremely busy on home rugby and football days.
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A wonderful place, exactly what I look for in a pub. Great ale selection, & staff who know their beer. Bar billiards table, but otherwise no frills, just a fantastic place to drink beer and talk. 9/10, would give it 10, but I'm saving that for my perfect pub. This comes pretty close.
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great little place, excellent range of beers, barmaid was very good !!
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Visited The Swan today and I have to say the customer service left a lot to be desired. Firstly, there was a customer being served in the other bar who as far as I could tell, was deliberately messing the landlord about, ie not deciding what to order and making a big deal of "having a laugh" with him.
A joke is a joke, but there were 4 of us (together) waiting to be served in the other bar, spotted fairly quickly by said landlord, and completely ignored while Matey had his laugh and joke which went on for a good 10 minutes or so.
That's right, the landlord did not say "hello, I'll just be a minute," or excuse himself from Funnyman to serve us while he made up his mind. No, we were made to feel like the Outsiders at The Slaughtered Lamb.
Shame, if this small-town attitude is par for the course at the pub, because it did have a good selection of ales and other drinks.
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Great pub with a wonderful range of real ale and an amazing range of bottled beers from all over the place. The place was packed on my visit as both the football and rugby teams were at home and the six nations was on the TV. Given the number of people in I thought the service was actually quite good. Definitely worth a visit when in Leicester.
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The third pub in the Golden Triangle of Leicester Real Ale, the Swan & Rushes is probably the most traditional and homely, with well established regulars and visitors mixing comfortably in a way you seldom find these days.
Retaining the appearance of a traditional boozer within a stones throw of the High Cross centre, this charming two roomed pub offers a solid selection of well kept real ales with up to 11 handpumps in use at any time, complemented by a trad cider (and recently a perry). The core range (Oakham JHB and Bishops Farewell, plus Batemans XB) are supplemented by guests drawn from micros both local and further afield - usually including a stout, mild or porter.
The Swan also offers an extensive bottled continental and world selection, which includes a good range of lambics; the pub also has a vintage bar billiards table (a rarity in this city) which is very popular with locals and visitors alike.
As with the Vaults, the pub enjoys a strong sporting following, particularly on the rugby front, and can be very busy on match days; generally however the atmosphere is relaxed and comfortable, and I've always found the service to be excellent.
Food is offered at lunchtime Monday to Friday, with excellent beer battered fish and chips on Friday evenings and, of late, Winter Warmer meals at around a fiver a pop on Wednesday nights.
As with the Vaults and the Criterion, the Swan & Rushes is an absolute must for any Real Ale foray into Leicester.
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I am landlord of the Swan & Rushes and would like to reply to "Sparts73" and "Blob".
Sparts73 seems outraged that the Swan was a bit smelly when he visited en route to a comedy event. By the time of his posting I guess he visited on the evening of Sat 14th Feb. On this day we were packed until about 7pm with football fans so I imagine that the smell was of B.O. and spilt beer (probably not so stale) but not of our canine friends. Next time I will open a few more windows. Thanks for pointing it out, I wasn't aware of the problem.
As to Spart's brightness comment, this is something I don't "get". There are only bright lights at the point of service. I would expect more people to complain that the pub is underlit than the other way. We have bright lights shining down at the bar so that customers can see what good condition we present the real ales in and also to help us pour the sedimented beers most effeciently.
Spart, all I can say is you should visit us on a more normal day and you might find our surroundings as pleasant as our regular customers do. You might even find a few "spectacular" pump ales.
Blob and any other football or rugby fans we might have pissed off with being a bit short with them on match days: I put my hands up and admit that match days stretch our operation in many ways. The large volume of customers that demand rapid service in a short period of time places demands on the staff that seems to constrain our ability to deliver the level of pleasant personal service that we normally pride ourselves upon. We really value the sports day trade though and the last thing we want is that our customers think that we take them for granted or feel unwelcome. So: sorry, we'll try to improve but please read on...
Please understand that the priority for all the staff, when there's lots of people waiting to be served, is to process the orders as quickly as possible in order to be fair to those who are waiting. It's nothing directly to do with maximising income it's just obviously the right thing to do when you work on a bar. So what staff want is a clear order that allows them to deliver it efficiently, take payment then move on to the next customer. This often doesn't happen and customers will queue for several minutes, get to the bar, get the attention of staff and then start to work out what drinks they want, often adding a pint of Guinness for the bloke they've just seen walk through the door. Why does this piss us off? It's not because we sell any less it's because customers pissing around stops us getting the queues down and any queue is a measure of how behind you are in your work.
I mention all this because I think your problem is with our apparent attitude (and I can understand this) and not really with our food policy (we sell loads of food on match days, we sometimes run out, we sometimes have surplus, this can't be such a big deal).
If you have been subject to poor service or attitude from myself or any of my staff and have done nothing to provoke such then I can only apologise unreservedly. If you have been subject to same but have been inconsiderate of the fact that the place is packed with people demanding immediate service from your bar attendant then perhaps we might agree that things could have been handled better on both sides.
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In leicester for the comedy festival and wanted proper pint of real ale & had parked near here.
This is one of those pubs I just 'dont' get'.
Whilst the beer choice was decent, the bottled selection would be no interest (I can drink a good Aventinus at home) and the pump ale I had was unspectacular. (must mention bargain tariff though!)
Additionally, its really bright in here & I nearly didn't go in due to the overwhelming odour as I walked in (couldn't decide if it was stale beer, BO, dogs or a combination of all 3!).
I did get used to this smell, but in balance I would rather have a third of the selection in pleasant surroundings.
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This was always a popular pre-footy match pub with us, but (of late) we've been made to feel unwelcome by the Landlord and one of the bar staff. Ask for food and it is as if you are asking for the death of a first-born - it's a shame and I hope it gets sold quickly to someone who appreciates customers better.
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Excellent range of cask ales, real cider and an enormous range of foreign bottled ale which is supported by a bottled beer menu with tasting notes. Regular cheese and cider festivals as well as German beer festivals. Not to be missed if you're in Leicester.
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Fantastic boozer located near the hospital. From what I have read the lease has been taken over? Well you would never have known, the two blokes running things behind the bar were friendly and knowledgable. 6 or 7 real ales that I could see available, I enjoyed a Tollgate offering and a fantastic pint or 3 of Oakham Bishops Farewell. Not just the standard selection of Belgian Beers either with numerous small bottles and also many unusual 750ml bottles that I haven't come across before. Was gutted to leave in the end, especially as the Bar Billiards table had become free once more (we had played several times earlier in the evening). We were invited back to participate in a tournement. Might just do so.
Sharp - 13 Nov 2008 22:52 |
Went to recent Cider & Cheese fest. Usual high standard. Sorry couldn't have stopped longer.
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About a 10 minute walk from the city centre and train station. Triangular-shaped two roomed pub just off Oxford Street. The kind of pub that caters for all kinds of tastes, and does so successfully. Very comfortable feel to the place. You wouldn't be out of place here with your mates pre-game at the Tigers, post work with colleagues, on a Saturday night watching live Blues, or working your way through the extensive bottled beer menu reading your newspaper.
The bottled beer menu covers Belgian Lambics, German smoked, to American super-hopped. Very impressive. Draught beer has regulars of Oakham JHB, Oakham Bishops, Batemans XB or XXB, and there are up to 4 or 5 guests from the likes of Abbeydale, Grainstore, Newby Wyke, Oldershaws... Very well kept at Sensible prices. Keg is Warsteiner lager, Blanche de Bruxelles, Barbar, Guinness, and Samuel Smiths cider. I almost forgot the real ciders from the cellar. I've been coming back here for the 7 or 8 years the current landlord has been running the place and never had a bad pint. The staff are polite.
Food. The Sunday roasts, and fish and chips on fridays are winners, but the Wednesday curries are rather disappointing (they appear to be warmed-up left overs).
Regular German beer and Cider & Cheese festivals.
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Nice dark wood bar, solid light wood tables, two-roomed pub with great ale selection and, apparently, ~140 bottled beers in the many fridges which wind around behind the bar. The �menu� may not always be bang up to date but, from reading a tda review, the prices seemed fair, eg Rochefort8 �3.20. On handpump Oakham No Bully Dozer, JHB, Bishops Farewell, New-K-Ham Brewery Puffin, Bateman�s Salem Porter, Burton Bridge Festival, Sam Smiths OBB, Bees Amber Ale. Bar billiards table, soundtrack included Adagio for Strings followed by some cracking blues. Friendly, and beer friendly, barman who was happy to chat, great value Sun lunch suggested roasts (beef/pork/duck) at �6.95.
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Up for sale at present, but hopefully the pub [lease?] will be taken on by someone as beer-knowledeable as the present owner. Belgian-influenced to the point of having a beer menu. Welcoming and friendly
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Gorgeous young barman called Paul. Good selection of real ales... What more does a girl need from a pub?
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Finally listed on BITE and thank the Lord it is so � I can inform all you eager punters that an excellent selection of extremely well-kept ales along with a well-stocked fridge of continental fayre awaits you.
Inside is stuck in a late 70's timewarp, all dark wood and dark green. Can make the place feel a little depressing unless there's a few people in, so not necessarily one to do at 2pm on a wet Tuesday afternoon.
Landlord knows his beer and is good for banter - would wholeheartedly recommend this place for an evening session when it gets a bit more lively.
Short walk to the Criterion as well, so the city centre�s two best alehouses are within a Geoff Capes stones throw of each other. Bliss. Hope to get a good few visits chalked up in the near future.
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Well maintained traditional pub, with a spacious bar area , lounge to the rear, and small outside space to the side (noisy due to the location). Like its former sister pub The Criterion, it has a wide range of imported bottled lagers (specialising in Belgian), and a rotating selection of well kept ales. Food is okay for the price. Staff are usually friendly and helpful. Generally low key and relaxed during the week, it does get very busy on match days. Wide age range of punters and does the simple things well. Highly recommended.
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Glad this one has just been added, as it's in GBG not sure why it wasn't before.
Anyway, came in here on Sat 1 December after seeing Saints at Leicester. Only a flying visit as we were going back to the station but it seemed excellent. 6 or more ales on draught, I had JHB, and a super selection of foreign beer.
Top marks, hope I get spend more time in here.
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