The Lincolnshire Poacher up on Mansfield Road about 1o minutes walk up the hill from the Victoria Centre is without doubt one of the best pubs in the City Centre. Great beer, excellent food, and a warm welcome are just three things to bring you here.

On the Castle Rock website they ponder that “The Lincolnshire Poacher has been part of Nottingham’s real ale drinking scene for so long that it’s easy to forget that it only opened in the late 1980′s”.

It is true, I think it has been a constant in my real ale boozing life as I have come and gone from the city over the years, the Poacher has been an ever present welcoming me home each time, cheers 🙂

If you are planning a pub crawl, a proper pub crawl where you go to drink proper beer in real pubs, then this will, or should be on your list! There is a great beer garden, and super selection of proper beer and a lot of nice normal people quietly enjoying a pint, pub nirvana 🙂

I met my mate Martin up here for a pint (well several pints) and a bite to eat.

The beer was as always spot on and the food was pretty damn good too

Rabbit Ragu

I always love looking at the Daily Special board at The Lincolnshire Poacher as you can always find something a little different. Today my eyes were drawn to the offering of a bowl of Rabbit Ragu with homemade Tagliatelle. This was described, as I recall, as being served in a sauce of tomato, garlic, carrot, rabbit. (there may have been more stuff in there but, sorry I forgot to snap the food chalkboard)

Who cares anyway, all we care about is how good it tastes! I can tell you it tasted pretty amazing! If some of you had been served this at a fancy restaurant in town I would be hearing you bang on about it for ages, it was that good it cannot be described as merely pub food 🙂

I was just expecting a bolognase type affair with some minced up rabbit bits, but I got so much more. The ragu was packed with big chunks of rabbit, plentiful enough to tell you who was star of this sauce show.

The sauce was sweet from the carrot, garlicky enough to keep the vampire away but not garlicky enough to scare your girlfriend away, and just tangy enough from the tomato sauce to make your mouth water a little bit and ask for a sip of beer.

The pasta was much thicker and wider than I expected, I would have described it as being closer to a pappardelle. It was also al dente’ on the side of chewy, which I was loving! it made for a right  meaty feast! All in all, I really liked it. It held its own on the plate and was the perfect vehicle for that joyous rabbit ragu!

My only downer was that I really needed a spoon to help me eat this with a modicum of decorum! I splattered myself with flecks of juice as I forked it up into my big fat gob with much gusto and little aplomb 🙂 Most excellent! (note “I could have quite easily gone and asked for a spoon”) 🙂 #mybad

The irony of a rabbit searched by a ‘Poacher’ was not lost on me 🙂

The Lincolnshire Poacher on Mansfield Road is a true stalwart in the family of Nottingham pubs. If they gave out awards for best proper pub in Nottingham? Well it would be right up there on my list. It is a pub that I like to take my American friends to, so that they can see a real pub, after I have taken them to all the ‘must see tourist ones’. Luckily they all like beer and pubs.

The last time I wrote about this place I was chowing down on another excellent chalkboard special back in 2015 when I posted “Lincolnshire Poacher – Great Beer, Good Food and Today a little ‘Meatball Mania’”

That was also a mighty fine evening out!

The Lincolnshire Poacher is located at 161-163 Mansfield Road

Check them out on their Facebook page and on their Twitter Feed too

For the record Martin had the Burger of the Day

He ate it before I arrived but he said it was nice 🙂

I like the look of those chips!