The Vat and Fiddle on Queens Bridge Road in Nottingham is one of my favourite boozers in Nottingham. I have been supping a pint or three here about as long as the Castle Rock Brewery has been filling the place up with barrels of beer.

It has been our traditional Friday night starting point for many a year, and even in the years when I was overseas, my mate Martin always sent me pictures of his beer just so that I didn’t get too homesick or maybe it was to taunt me from afar 🙂

The Pub Classics Menu

I always find that this is a pretty reliable place to grab a bit of food before supping or preferably whilst imbibing a decent pint of Beer from The Castle Rock Brewery.

This being a Friday evening I needed something quick and filling to eat, and I was finding myself at a loose end before my Mate turned up to buy another round (I was contemplating drinking his pint if he didn’t get there soon)

I am not sure if the Vat and Fiddle has a new menu or if they had just taken all the stuff in the old book like one and turned into a laminated one 🙂 I think that they have just filtered it down a little bit so that it really is a list of Pub Classics.

I perused the menu and found myself in the mood for a bowl of chilli. I let my mood win 🙂

Chilli and Rice

The Chilli that they serve up here at the Vat and Fiddle is warming and comforting. It is spicy enough to be recognisable as Chilli, but it is just mild enough that it will not scare off your Aunty Mable who gets nervous when you suggest something that didn’t come out of her British Cookbook from 1950.

I really like it, there is plenty of meat, nice spicy tomato sauce packed out with a bit of pepper and plenty of red kidney beans. The rice is kind of there to make sure that you have some carbs, well that is how I see it anyway, I need something to mix the sauce into 🙂

What I really did love about this nice simple plate of food was the ‘home-made crispy tortillas’. These are a mile away from the ones that come out a bag and look like nachos. These one are flaky, lightly crunchy and kind of soft and a bit buttery too. If I am honest I could trade my rice in for a load more of these and just scoop the chilli sauce up with these instead.

I guess it is no secret that I love the Vat and Fiddle and to be honest if I wrote a blog post about every time I had a pint here or ate some of their food the this Blog would probably be all about this Pub 🙂

The Vat and Fiddle is located at

2 – 14 Queensbridge Road Nottingham NG2 1NB | 0115 985 0611 | vatandfiddle@castlerockbrewery.co.uk

Just search through the blog for more food and beer recommendations 🙂

Until next time