kirkyb

Botanist Gin......it's produced by Bruichladdich a Whisky distillery on Isaly. I got a bottle of it for a present for somebody as their Whisky is amazing. This is the best gin I've ever tasted you could even drink it neat. It's not cheap but very good. You can get it from The Whisky Exhange online and they do other Gins. You could also try Beers of Europe. I would avoid the Dram Shop or Mitchell's yes they are local but they are considerably more expensive than online even with postage.

Tiny Rebel was a new one to me until I went in the Tap 2 weeks ago and saw their beers then ordered their entire range In bottles from ales by mail and have been really impressed they are based in wales. I also love Brew Dog and Kernel beers but its either bottles or Keg and I'm not sure if the OP mentioned kegs. If it turns out to be a punch tavern my hopes for another venue in town to frequent might be dashed!

If you want to make a success you need to serve ales that people will come out of there way to try so a good range of styles and breweries is essential. I will go out of my way to visit places that have a good range for example the Harlequin. Anything from the following breweries would get my attention Raw Buxton Magic Rock Summer Wine Marble Brew Company Steel City Moor Arbor Tiny Rebel Thornbridge If if I knew somewhere just serves bog standard ales then I tend to avoid them. A good selection of bottled beers and some decent whiksy is always a bonus as well.

Costa is going to be opening on the 22nd December it's going to be mainly the old cream staff working there so it will now be corporate chain impersonal service. But at least you can have a skinny decaf sugar free syrup impersonal service!

If you go on the Ego website and click on the join Ego club and complete the form and then they send you an email, in fact you get one every month. You show the email when asking for the bill and 33% gets deducted simple as!

I have eaten here numerous times due to the fact that I seem to be emailed a discount voucher every other day! I can honestly say it is very good in terms of service, food and atmosphere. If you were paying full price then it would be good but with 33% off the food menu which you can use on a Friday night its a winner. The wine menu is very good its not cheap but the wine is worth the money. The courgette fritters that are a side are very good as is the lamb rump.

When do you open?

Not in Sheffield not even in the UK but there is a Chinese restaurant called Zen in La Linea in Spain just across the border with Gibraltar. It's 20 Euros all you can eat and all you can drink. Now that's what we need in Sheffield........actually maybe not!

I went on Friday and the food was amazing. Really good choice, the portions were big for a Thornbridge/Richard Smith place and the food was good value. Staff were really good and had a nice couple of pints of Chiron. Although no doubt the Emma Harrison and Thornbrige bashing crew will end up boycotting out of "principle"

Can you tempt us with any of the beers and ciders on offer?

Went into the white swan the night after it opened it was really really good, well bottle beer wise some of the stuff on cask was a little suspect. I had lots of bottle beers including some you can't get in the tap at reasonable prices. I recommend the de mole mout and mocha it's very good.

Sheffield once the real ale capital of the UK and who ha breweries leading the way are falling behind as most of the beers they are producing are same old same old and non adventurous. Abbeydale and Kelham island went off the boil a long time ago. Bradfield has never pushed the boundaries. Brew company do some good beers but can be a bit hit and miss but when they are good they are good. Thornbridge do some good beers but somebody has said that we can't count them and to be honest I think even thornbridge are looking a bit ropey on occasions. If you look at breweries like Magic Rock, Summer wine, Kernel, Hardknott, Arbor, brew dog Sheffield breweries dont compete. Raw at Staveley are producing some good beers, Acorn experiment but the result is sometimes suspect. I think some or the other Sheffield breweries need to be a little less safe step out of their comfort zone and start producing some stuff to rival some of the newer breweries on the scene.

Greenhill exchange is due to be upgraded by the end if July meaning that you can get BB from sky after the work is complete.

The bottles are 750ml I've not had a pint but I would expect it to be £7-8

Now now Jemson I wouldn't expect Thornbridge bashing from you! To be honest you now how much I love Thornbridge but I when I found out Pond Hopper was £15 a bottle my excitement turned into a serious dilemma on do I or dont I? The cross scythes was a dump so I'm all for it as it will be an improvement. They might need to be careful though as the area is slightly different to their other ventures and I'm not sure locals will stand for being bent over the table on price!

Went in when it first opened. They have done a good job with the refurb inside and they had an ok range of Thornbridge beers but there are better Thornbridge pubs in terms of range of beers. The outside area is really good and if we get some nice weather it will be a real gem. I am going to visit again to see what it's like now it's been open for a bit.

No but I bet anybody with even the most questionable Italian heritage will be out in their Italy shirt claiming that they are Italian all of a sudden even if the nearest thing they have come to Italy is a margarita pizza!

Good choice of pubs good indeed!

Back to sparklers my personal opinion is that I hate, no I actually come over with a feeling of dread when I ask for a pint and I look down and the sparkler is missing. I know that I'm going to get some completely lifeless pint or at best some overly foamy head. I think that it not only affects the taste but the whole mouth feel/texture of the pint with it being thin and flat and bland. This applies to all styles but especially with stouts that should have a nice thick creamy head not some foamy effort. I've been severed stouts in the cat without one although people have discussed on here there are sparklers but not massive ones. If I'm getting a stout in needs a full on massive sparkler that gives me a head that I can put a flake in and get it all over my top lip!

When the thread was removed I received a PM saying it had been removed. I responded asking if every other thread where people had been honest but negative about local businesses would be removed. To be honest I knew that want likely as that would be most of Sheffield forum taken down! The response i got was that the forum had no choice about removing threads when there was The threat of legal action or something like that. I can only imagine the owner of the cat had complained about the thread most comments were not exactly positive.

I'm more impressed with the HOP than when it was first opened. I had a pint of Excelsior and it was terrible but the last 2 times I went I'm recently I've had some really nice pints in there. Had some really good beers in the Harlequin recently and the choice is always really good.

I've got a grievance with any place that serves suspect beer! I'm not the only one who had an issue as there were a number of people agreeing with my observations at the time. Anyway there are plenty of other pubs in Sheffield that I rate and regularly visit and I'm sure me not visiting the cat as often as I used to won't bankrupt them. On a similar note I went into the sheaf view on Saturday and was massively underwhelmed.

Last time I aired my views on the beer in The Cat the thread was shut down as apparently your not allowed to tell the truth on here! I wouldn't risk it head down to dada they have General Sherman on its the big brother to Sequoia it's an 8.3% imperial red ale! That or head to the harlequin or the Shakespeare.

Henry's would be good, The Riverside at Kelham Island, The Hop in West one

They must have assumed it was Portuguese but then again I also saw somebody pulling an Argentinian flag off the wall and try to set light to it!