Langtrys is a really good spot for meeting up with your mates in the City Centre for the start of a night out. It has a great location when you want to easily guide a visitor from out of town to meet you for a drink. “It’s Just opposite the Royal Centre, 5 mins walk from the Old Market Square and located just across from the Cornerhouse“.

The pub is named after Lillie Langtry an Actress from the Victorian era, why it was named after her? I have no idea. As far as I can tell that all seems a bit random to me, it used to be called The Peach Tree but the name was changed back in 1981 way before my days of real ale supping (well perhaps just a couple of years before my first secretive half a pint).

Anyhow forget the history, why should we come here to eat or drink? First off you can, more often than not, get a decent pint of beer in here. It does suffer for me a little in that they change the 7 or so guest beers pretty often, so that something you really like one week disappears by the next week. Having sad that I can usually find something that I want to sup such as a Deuchars (on occasion), but sometimes it is just a quick half before moving on. They seem to have a lot of ciders in here as well and quite a bit seems to make it onto the menu as part of the sauce for a dish.

Food wise it is fine for pub food, the menu always seems to have quite a lot on it that sounds good, the only thing is that I never really seem to see that many people eating in here. The crowd does tend to be a bit transient at the best of times with it heaving just before and just after the theatre shows start and end, so it can be hard to get a table to eat at.

I have eaten and blogged about this pub before about a year ago when I had a Pulled Pork sandwich (read more here). I have been in many times for a pint since. On this evening, we found ourselves in here on the Friday, actually managed to get table, and as it was the start of the night we felt that it would be sensible to partake of some small amount of sustenance to make sure that we lasted the night with ease.

Menu Example

Since it was a Friday and since I have been trying to theme Fridays towards Fish and Chips, we ordered two plates of said dish. The first (and only) bonus was that there was a deal on and it was two plates of Fish and Chips for £10 (a fiver each)

Fish and Chips

The menu had described this as ‘Classic Fish and Chips’ – ‘A Fillet of Cod in a Lovely Light Batter. Served with chips, peas, and a Home made chunky tartar sauce’. I have to be honest and say that it was not the best plateful I have had on one of these Fish and Chips Friday’s. I prefer Haddock to Cod but putting that to one side for a moment (like the slice of lemon) whichever fish lay beneath I also like my batter to be light and crispy. Here at Langtrys, I was feeling the love of the piece of fish from the depths of some freezer. It was a bit sad and a bit on the over fried and crunchy side, at least that was how it felt as I ate it. The peas were fair enough I do like my mushy peas, they were not as vibrant or tasty as some I have eaten recently but they added something to take the dryness away. The chips were your basic pub food type in keeping with the whole plateful. I mean don’t get me wrong I ate every scrap on the plate and I left feeling full. I just didn’t walk out with ‘Fish and Chips’ joy in my heart.

I did have a really nice pint of beer though and at two meals for a tenner I felt that the Pub Grub Gods had treated my wallet favourably

On their Twitter Feed they describe themselves as a “Beautiful historic pub famed for glorious real ales, real ciders & perrys & delicious homemade pub classics. CAMRA Pub Of Excellence & Good Beer Guide 2014.”

They are located at 4 South Sherwood Street