The Crafty Crow up on Friar Lane is a great real ale and craft beer pub. It is the tap house for the Magpie Brewery so you should expect to see a good selection of their beers, but you can also expect to find a really good selection from all across the country.

They also do some pretty tasty scran as well with Coal and Lace their partners in the kitchen serving up ‘locally sourced seasonal food’ some of which features that Local Magpie Ale.

The Breakfast Menu section

I walked in at midday and I was in need of something to help my brain with a situation it had found itself in this morning post Saturday night.

So essentially it was going to be all about some sort of All-Day-Breakfast situation.

“Full Cooked Breakfast”

This was a serious plateful of food! I was pretty happy when it arrived even though I was feeling a little bit over-faced. I mean this was massive, it was so big that I could not even see everything that was supposed to be on the plate! My mind was in overload!

The Crafty Crow menu describes this officially as “Locally Sourced Sausage, back bacon, black pudding, grilled tomato, baked beans, fried eggs, hash brown, toast, and field mushrooms – vegetarian sausages are available”

OK so it might not look that pretty, but it was really very satisfying. Lets start with the most important item on the breakfast plate, the sausage. These are pretty decent; big chunky solid and very meaty would be the story. I liked them a lot and Bonus you got two of them! Are they too herby for some? Not for me, but maybe they could be a little plainer for the basic peeps.

I loved the slice of black pudding! It was a great big half inch thick disc of soft rich decadence, and I loved the great big juicy field mushroom which made it’s own earthy sauce on the plate as you cut through it.

I was very happy with the slices of fried back bacon, although the fat could have been a bit crispier, there was also a nicely done fried egg with a very yellow yolk.

Yes I have to say that it was all going swimmingly well as I munched my way through lunch.

If I am honest I will say that for my personal preferences you could have left the crispy fried hash brown off the plate, I would have preferred some proper breakfast potatoes instead.

I didn’t need the fried tomato either the beans were enough for me, and the toast would have benefited from a bit of salty butter.

It is though, a really good breakfast, there is a lot of really excellent stuff happening on that plate and it certainly should keep you going all day. Price wise it is pretty good value at £6.95!

Magpie Beer

What I also like about this pub is that they really try to make sure that you get the beer that you want. We all know that disaster when we pick a beer and wished that we had only picked a half.

If you want to try lots of different beers from breweries near and far then this is the place for you. On their website they boast that they have 24 beers and cider on tap at any one time.

Last time I was at The Crafty Crow I wasn’t sure what to pick and the very helpful barmaid guided me through a few samples until I found the beer to make me happy. Excellent Service.

I ended up with this rather tasty pint of from the Magpie Brewery, the chalkboard listed it as a ‘hoppy pale’. The brewery website describe it as having a “Citrus Fruit Hoppy Nose with a balance of hops and malt in the mouth with a smooth hoppy aftertaste” It went down well with my breakfast but was a bit hoppy to make a session out of.

Other stuff to eat!

I was quite pleasantly surprised as I read through the rest of the menu at The Crafty Crow. The first time I wrote about this place it was mostly serving up bar snacks and simple fare, now it seems to be a lot more grown up and there are some really interesting dishes on there that I honestly do feel the need to pop back in to sample.

In particular I have my sight set on those “Magpie Ale Braised Beef Cheeks” described as “Slow braised red tractor sourced ox cheeks in a Magpie dark ale sauce with seasonal vegetables, creamed celeriac and creamy mash potatoes”. This feels to be quite an adventurous item to put on a pub menu. Lots of kudos and praise to them for doing so!

Chances are though that I will probably end up getting that Crafty Beef Burger!

I do come here quite a lot for a pint or two, but realised that it was about two years ago that I last posted about their fare “The Crafty Crow – Real Ale and Craft Beer and Local Food”.

I am glad that I made another MyFoodHunt trip through their doors!

The Crafty Crow is located at 102 Friar Lane about a 5 minute walk from the Old Market Square Tram Stop.

You can follow them on their Twitter Feed and see what they are up to on their Facebook page.