The Trent Navigation on Meadow Lane just steps from the Canal and from Notts County is the home of the Navigation Brewery and one of the local landmark pubs in the area. It is a great place to meet up for a pint before a home match and is even a place to meet up before heading off for an away match. They like to show all the sporting events, and always put stuff on for big events like the big Cricket matches when England are in town, but don’t get the wrong idea, it is much more than just a sports pub!
It serves a lot of good pub food and some very reliable and tasty ales from the Brewery that is attached to the back of the yard. At the moment I am drinking the “New Dawn” which is a ‘Light Clean Pale Ale’.
To be honest, if you want a quiet meal it might be a good idea to avoid on a match day in the hour before kick off, but any other time you will be able to find a table and room to swing your knife and fork 🙂
Having said that, even on match days and other big days they often have a BBQ out in the garden so that you can grab a bite while you stand in the crowd with your pint. Something I have done many times.
Today though was a Friday and that can only mean one thing – MyFoodHunt for “Fish and Chips Friday”
Cod and Chips for ‘Fry-Day’
I ordered the Cod and Chips described on the Trent Navigation menu as “Navigation Pale Ale battered cod with rustic chips, mushy peas and tartar sauce”.
I really liked the crispy crunchy batter, the pale ale gave it a lovely golden glow. I liked the juicy and moist Cod, I do prefer haddock, but this piece of fish was so huge that I kind of let my bias slip to one side as I munched my way through the fillet.
I quite liked the mushy peas, they had that crunchy bite in a watery pea sauce that makes them such a classic. The tartar sauce was clearly a homemade effort but it was a bit too much for my taste. If I am honest I like the cheaper stuff 🙂 I was hopeful about the idea of rustic chips, but, I think I would have just preferred some normal ones, these ones were a bit soggy and greasy. I ate them still, I am not that grumpy, just being thoughtful.
On any other day of the week this plate would set you back £7.95 but as today was a ‘fry-day’ (see what they did there) it was just £5.50 which I declare to be most excellent value! Next time I will just switch out my rustic fries for some pub chips.
The Navi Burger
Martin does not share my desire to hunt down plates of Fish and Chips and is still holding onto the belief that someone in this country knows how to cook a burger. Well that is my take on his choices :-).
He ordered the Trent Navigation Navi Burger which looked ok when it arrived but my gosh, it was pretty enormous! Let’s be honest, considering that it contains two 6oz patties what did we expect? It was so big that it was a ‘knife and fork’ job and I am sad to say that it defeated the man 🙁
That was my bonus though as I scoffed half of one of the burger patties, but purely in the interests of research, there was no gluttony in sight!
Officially the menu describes this pub food behemoth as “Two 6oz burgers with two rashers of bacon, cheese slice, onion rings, mushrooms, mixed leaves, burger sauce and Texan-style barbecue sauce”
The Burger menu notes that all of their burgers are 100% beef, ‘cooked to perfection on our grill’, served ‘in soft brioche buns with mixed leaves and burger sauce’ and ‘All burgers are served with a dressed chopped salad’. It looks as though on this occasion the ‘dressed chopped salad’ was in fact a pile of French fries 🙂
It did look too big, and it looked a bit over done, but I have to say that the bit of burger I had was nicely cooked, lovely char from the grill and it was nicely seasoned as well!
I like the Trent Navigation and I have sampled their ales more times that I care to admit or imagine, but plenty times enough to know that they serve jolly good beer!
Food wise I do like their solid pub food menu and I have never left with an empty or disappointed belly. Normally I am drawn towards a Club Sandwich but they don’t seem to have one on offer at the moment so that means I have to think a little bit more when I visit next time.
The Trent Navigation is located right next to the canal
MEADOW LANE
NOTTINGHAM
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE
NG2 3HS
Check them out on their Facebook page and on their Twitter feed
Burger Menu we chose from
More Menu Choices
