A while back we were over in Ruddington trying out the hospitality in some of their local hostelries, or should I just say we were on a bit of a pub crawl?  We found ourselves eventually at The Red Heart Public House on Easthorpe Street.

If you don’t know much about this pub well I can tell you that it is a former Shipstones pub, and still seems to be proud of that heritage as it still has the original iron wrought sign hanging outside as a blast from the past. It also has the old Greenhalls sign on the front presumably from back in the late 70’s when they took over Shipstones.

While we are out and about ahem ‘researching’ for the blog we have been using the re-launch of the Shipstones Beer as the perfect excuse to take a trip back to some of the old Shippo’s pubs to see how time has treated them.

We headed over to Ruddington to find the Red Heart, outside it still looks to be one of your traditional old school style public houses, inside the layout is still old school with a few nook and crannies to hide away in while supping you pint. Having said that there is one glaringly obvious addition to the modern era, the Sky Sports banner outside may give that away?

I have never seen so many televisions showing the football in one place outside of a dedicated sports bar. In the Main room almost the entire wall was taken up by one large screen, added to that were a host of smaller and somewhat misshapen sized screens adorning the other walls and formerly empty spaces. If you like your sport ‘in your face’ then this may be the place for you.

The menu that came in the faux leather jacket was filled with your standard pub fare and without any previous review or recommedations it was tricky to know what to choose or rather gamble on. It was then with a semblance of trepidation that we just decided to play it safe and order an ‘All Day Breakfast platter’.

I could just let the picture tell the story, but lets be fair when you order an ‘all day’ you kind of know that you are going to get a great big plate of brekkie stuff and you don’t really care what it is as long as you feel full and happy afterwards. I cant really rememeber how much this cost but it was not a lot about £5-6 from memory.

The plate was piled wide and high with a couple of fried eggs, two slices of bacon, two herby sausages, a couple of ‘out of the bag frozen style’ hash browns, some mushrooms, and a bit of grilled tomato…..phew full now? oh and a slice of toast as well.

We actually quite enjoyed this, all washed down with some of that excellent Harvest Pale Ale.

To be honest I liked all the TV screens showing the football. It isn’t the sort of place that I usually frequent these days, but in my mind I am thinking “What is not to like? they have footy on TV, good beer on tap, and a great big all day breakfast!”