The Canal House is a place that has featured a lot on the blog over the years. The first post being back in 2013, the last until today was 2018, but I can assure that we have eaten and drunk here a lot more times since then.

I started working on this post way before Lockdown, which is kind of code for I spent a lot of time eating here over the year and had a lot of photos of meals that we ate as we worked our way through the menu

The last couple of weeks as I have been able to go out for longer walks I have passed by the old place by the Canal a fair few times and I always look down longingly at the empty beer garden, hoping that some day soon we will be able to sit, drink, eat and once more be able to enjoy the pub.

Until then here is the post of all the meals that we scoffed in 2019-2020 all washed down with lovely beer from the Castle Rock Brewery. Mostly with my constant food hunting companion Martin, Mike from North Carolina, and Jen from Chicago. Sadly not all at the same time

Happy Days!

The Canal House in Nottingham located funnily enough on Canal Street by the Canal is another great place to grab a bit of pub food and sup an excellent pint of beer. It is a pub that I often take friends from out of town to as I like to see their faces when they see the canal boats moored inside. That always feels so random as you cross over the bridge to the bar

This post features food that I have scoffed with them over several months worth of visits, some sitting outside in the sunshine within the excellent beer garden, and some sitting in the warmth inside by the canal boats

Gammon Steak with Egg and Chips

One of the options on the specials board at the Canal House that often caught my eye was the “8 oz Gammon steak served with chips, peas & a salad garnish with a choice of fried egg or pineapple” for £9.95

On this particular Friday night I was quite in the mood for a bit of salty gammon with some chips. The decision to add the egg instead of the pineapple was a bit of a no brainer in my mind, so that was what I did.

I actually really enjoyed this meal, the gammon steak was cooked just right, well charred with the grill marks and nicely juicy and tender too. It was good that it was a thickish piece of meat as well as that just gave me more of a meaty mouthful with each slice.

I always love having a fried egg on top of a bit of grilled or fried meat. Especially one with a runny yolk. The chips were basically pub style chips, nothing too exciting about them but they did go well with this dish and once doused in a bit of vinegar and some salt they went down very well indeed

If you like your frozen peas then you will love this plate as well. I have never seem so many peas on one plate, it was quite fun trying not to spill them all over the table. I find that a bit of ketchup or mayo on the plate helps hold them together on the fork 🙂

All in all I would get this dish again here at the Canal House Pub

TRADITIONAL BUTCHER’S-STYLE BEEF BURGER

Traditional Butcher’s-Style Beef Burger for £9.95 described very simply on the menu as being a “6 oz beef patty served in a soft white bun” it comes served with chips and a side salad.

As burgers go it is quite comforting to eat, the soft floury bun and the moist and juicy burger topped with melted cheese does the job in a most satisfying way.

Leave the salad and the chips to one side if you don’t need them. Its a trade off between a pretence of health and a desire to scoff fried potato 🙂

CHECKING OUT THE BREAKFAST BURGER

The Breakfast Burger for £11.95 was listed on the menu as being a “Sausage meat, baked bean and tomato patty, topped with smoky bacon, egg, hash brown and Sauce Shop brown sauce”

The actual flavour of the burger is initially a bit weird as the baked beans make it a bit sweet, however think of it like a breakfast sausage mashed up with beans and tomato instead of a burger, then it all starts to make more sense

I loved having the fried egg with the runny yolk, but was not too keen on the hash brown as that just made things a bit soggy under the top bun.

Although I enjoyed this, I would rather have a breakfast bap if I was totally honest. having said all that it did taste damn good!

Cajun Shrimp Po Boy?

The Cajun Shrimp Po’boy was listed amongst the ‘Rustic Sandwiches’ on the Canal House menu for £7.95. This was detailed as being ‘coated garlic prawns and crisp lettuce, topped with chipotle dressing‘ and as per usual it comes served with a salad garnish.

Now in my mind it is a bit of a stretch calling this a Po’Boy but as a fried shrimp baguette it was quite a tasty effort. The garlic shrimp are quite moreish and the chipotle dressing was a great bedfellow inside the baguette.

I mostly chose this as I love a Po’boy when I am in New Orleans and when I see one over here I have to try one out. If I ever did do a food truck or similar then I think Po’boys would something I would try to flog to us guys this side of the pond

Jacket Potato with toppings

The Jacket Potato was described as being ‘freshly baked’ which I hope means ”was cooked in an oven and not microwaved‘, and was served with a salad garnish with butter for £4.50.

Now in principle that sounds quite healthy but if you don’t fancy that you can make it less healthy by adding cheese, mushrooms and bacon like Jen did (additional toppings for 50p each) 🙂

I did like that Jen piled all the unhealthy stuff on top and to be fair she did have a good go at eating it all. It was one of those meals that was helped with the addition of a decent pint of beer

CHILLI

This particular evening Mike was in town and we were down the pub catching up looking for something to assist with moppnig up the beer we were about to drink.

They had two types of Chilli on the Canal House Specials Menu, a ‘Smoked Five Bean Chilli‘, and a ‘Beef Chilli‘ that was described as being ‘Hot and Spicy‘.

Both came served with White Rice and Tortilla Chips and both were priced at £9.95 which did seem a bit pricey to be honest.

This was Mikes choice and while I was sure I remembered him having the vegetarian version the picture I took looked like it was the beef mince.

Either way he said it was nice enough, but really we were concentrating on supping real ale on this particular night so we were just looking at a bowl of filling comforting food. Sometimes that is what pub grub is all about

PRAWN GUMBO

While Mike chose his Chilli, I had seen the Prawn Gumbo on the specials board so I picked that as I do love a good New Orleans style Gumbo. If I am honest I kind of like ones that are average too, like the Chilli above it is just one of those really comforting meals on a chilly evening.

This one on at the Canal House was described as being a “Spicy Seafood & Chorizo Stew served with rice for £9.95“

That was an honest summary, while it did not look that appealing in the dim lighting it tasted quite good and it did the job of filling me up, which I suppose was the main thing 🙂

Essentially it was a mix of fried slices of Chorizo and fried shrimp in a spicy tomato sauce. It was the kind of thing I might randomly throw in a pot at home and chuck into a bowl when I am in a rush after work.

Both Chilli and the Gumbo were perfect scoffing food that you can just fork down on a cool evening. So on that basis they did exactly what they were supposed to do!

Looking back on those meals out at the Canal House with friends and looking over the water from the opposite bank of the Canal I wonder when we will all meet again.

As I ponder the future of how, and when we will be able to rekindle our love affair with our local pubs. At least for now there are plenty of good memories to recall