The Knowhere Guide

Eating and Drinking in Loughborough, Leicestershire*

Loughborough, Leicestershire Pubs, Cafes, Coffee Shops and Restaurants

Food

• farm foods
• Mrs Chan's- nice but probably run by triads
• bakers oven. cheap and narsty...actually it's pretty decent. take away is cheap.
• Chicken Cottage on Granby Street in Leicester is pretty good.
• Jacket potatoes, an absolute delight when its fu**ing freezing!
• macdonalds you nitwit (subsub)
• American Pizza. "The best a man can get!!" If I speak to Stan, the proprietor, he always recognises my voice and the address to deliver to. How's that for service?
• Go and eat at The Print Room - it is amazing. Great food, great atmosphere and lovely people. Best place in Loughborough by far!!
• The Cactus Cafe near Argos is a great place for Mexican food and it has friendly staff like it,s Sister restaurant the Mooba which serves Australian Food. But be warned they are popular so book a table in advance.
• The Printhouse is an excellent new cafe/restaurant. Friendly and efficient service with excellent food and also surprisingly good value (main courses vary from £7-12) beware though even lunchtimes can get so busy you need to book!
• mugul i shah, n an effies cheers
• mcdz
• MCDONALDS!
• maccy d's we all klnow that theres suspicious things in the food but we still go there, threy muct be doing something right!
• Star Fish Bar, on leicester road its handy for people who go to southfields
• Herbies atthe EHB The most DIRTY burgers you could ever eat
• Lotus Tang Chinese, American Pizza, Trawlers Catch chippie
• Curryholics - DO NOT GRACE WITH YOUR PATRONAGE unless you want to be be charged the earth for a tiny amount of food served by charmless waiters who whip your crockery away before you've swallowed your final mouthful. Go to the KOH-I-NOOR instead.
• KFC recently opened and has become one of our main food supplies!! lol Oh and 2 Mc Donalds. For Chinese apparently Wans Cottage is amoungst the best (very friendly staff) and for Fish and Chips - Shelthorpe
• ***Amgos take away...it gets very busy at night.....but no wonder this is one of the best places to get pizza...u havnt lived until you have tried it!
• the best place to eat is in the gallery its a bit expensive but well worth it you get a masive plate and the food is gorge. for a take away go to cantonese kitchen on leicester road good prices and food.
• lloyds -yummy !!
• For Indian food -take out or eat in- the 'Taste Of India' is *the best* and well worth a recommendation! The interior design is 'classic indian restaurant' style: fake plants, wooden trellis, coloured spot lights and red swirly-patterned carpet (to hide spills); but this is no bad thing. It's also complete with 'plinky'/'twangy' sitar-like music! Good service and discounts, including student discount and reduction on collected take aways.
• The Cactus Cafe is always worth a visit - reasonably priced, good cocktails and lively atmosphere (best to book in advance, especially at the weekend).
• Koh-i-noor on Nottingham Road for a quality balti.
• friar tuck is a pukka chippy. macdonalds isn't quite as poisonous as others that i have been to
• Wan's Cottage, totally the best chinese in town, although I might be slightly biased knowing the owners! But I have heard from several others that it is the best. As for restaurants, Maxims is a great place, friendly and great food.
• weve got mcdonalds,catus cafe,bakers oven,tjs mr chans the chienese
• The Tai Restaurant is the best. Good food and not too expensive
• Wans Cottage is the King Don of all Chineses, and the Curry Royale is the best Indian I've ever tasted and having lived in Birmingham, I've tried e'nuff! The Cactus Cafe has the strongest cocktails around, the most I've had was five and I was on my arse (quite literally) then!The Thai House is very good and I beleive that Cooking for Friends is veeery good, if expensive
• The Cactus Cafe serves great nachos
• Loughborough is crap for food. Brascoe's (formerly Brown's), is alright, as is Moomba... but after that you are struggling.
• Moon and Bell, £2.99 beer and burger meal. Only danger is you end up staying for more than just one of their beers with their decent prices and concequently end up meeting that same burger and chips once again. Although the womens toilets are wicked. Worth a vomit just to have a nice sit down on the couch in there, resting your feet on the coffee tables with the full lenght mirror. Think theyd serve my next beer and burger meal to me in the bogs?
• Go to Wan's. (Not to be confused with Wan's Cottage). It's up the back-streets (Leopold Street), but where else can you get a chinese take-away for 2 for 6 quid? And decent quality too. It's also a normal chippy with chips at 70p, I think.
• Wan's Cottage, Oxford Street. The finest purveyor of potatos this side of Ireland.
• Eastern Garden do some hallucinogenic shit with herbs and spices that Uncle Ben couldnt touch with a big stick.
• Now that Angelo's has closed, there is NOWHERE decent to eat out in this town. Go to fucking MacDonalds.
• A cool place to eat is the near by sainsburys. You can get two huge meals for £4.00
• A new McDonalds in Shelthorpe, a drive thru, which i have the pleasure of working at
• I used to live in Loughborough. Every time I come home me and my little sister like to go and have a meal at Rupeekas on Ashby road. The food is excellent and they do student night where they offer discounts.
• 'Golden Orient', Derby road does a good set of sizzling Chinese dishes. Black Pepper Fillet steak in particular. Not too hot for vegetarian dishes I believe.
• Also the Blacksmiths pub serves GREAT pies.
• Hot Spot (Curry - very good when we left but I believe it has been taken over.)
• Mr. Chans (Chinese - great buffet on Sundays)
• Thai house (highly recommended)
• Momento's, Chappaties, Gita's (far superior to the naff fast-food places above!)
• Wimpy, Don Millers, McDonalds.

Pubs

• The best night in loughborough at the moment is bar europa, every other week they have housebound, the djs and music are quality, its a chav-free zone and they dont rip you on the drinks. generally just feels like a party in there, beats pulse any day!
• 12 degrrees and its fresh faced cliental rocks! they're not 2 annoying and the beer's cheap
• i don't know why people think its surprising lough is full of younger looking 18 yr olds. it's obviously the type of cider sold in the offy, has like an anti ageing thing. phantom's good, griffin went thru a rough patch...is no way near coming out but still good fun actually. orange tree...they do look a bit older in here actually....not as much cider maybe?
• orange tree is fresh
• Phantom, amazing place!
• Yeah right, I got served in a pub when I was 12- think it was called the Royal George on Nottingham Rd.
• We're a group of lads who visit loughie for 2 weeks every 2 weeks. we love the nights out. You rarely pay more than a quid a pint get wrecked for less than 20 quid everyones a winner. True there are a few inbreds lurking in the dark corners of the rooms but avoid these urine smelling nomads and your laughing. Our nights consist of mondays- unicorn, come and watch the old ledgend break dancing like a crazy mofo. Get kicked out around 11 and pop into vice-versa till you drop. By the way our man b@#$$y f*x is lookin for a bit of dj work if the right people are reading this! Thursday is our other regular night out. Get ruined in amber room, turbo shandies for less than 3 dollar. good night mate! The gallery puts up with us for an hour or so belting out some tunes on the kareoke then finish off in pulse or vice-versa which then is the most expensive part of the week. If you fancy joining us come along to one of the venues above and look for 10 rowdy good lookin men singin dancin and gambling(busted). See ya round!!!
• Amber Rooms. Two meals for the price of one. Great. Food's not bad, either.
• The Griffin has risen, phoenix-like, from the flames in the last year and a half, and is well on its way to restoring its fallen reputation as the best pub in town for students and locals alike. Saturday nights and the quiz on Sunday remain as popular as ever.
• It's not in Loughborough but the Bull's Head in Woodhouse Eaves has a great carvery a\nd is great place to walk to from the Outwoods
• THE PHANTOM, awesome on a sunday, pound a pint of carling and cider and some bitter, then most bottles are a pound aswell, will have you nursing a hangover for work the next day with just 15 squids in yer skyrocket
• Acaraz is the new one.
• The best place in luffa is Amber Rooms, cheap drinks, wicked atmosphere. Used to love the Unicorn, the old managers have left now so not the same. Kym and Ryan we want you to come back, its crap in there now without you 2. Barracudas ok on a Thursday, only a pound a pint. All the clubs are crap, dont even bother, try Vice Versa. Its a wicked place now, used to be better as Busters though.
• 12 Degrees West, across the road from the ferrari garage. Always a varied range of events going on with some great guest beers AND Hoegaarden on tap..excellent.
• A VERY nice new pub has opened in the new "Rushes" complex called "The Amber Rooms". It's a Wetherspoons owned place and has a smallish dancefloor, big space to drink in and a no-smoking area where it's a bit quieter if you just want to chill and chat. Certainly beats any pub in Loughborough I've been in so far. Drinks are reasonable - cheaper than The Griffin anyway.
• The Swan in Mountsorrel, good beer GREAT food!
• that new place a the rushes looks fancy.
• hm start off down moor lane, on to peggies n bitter end, bit of slap n tikle then off down casa n piked up by mum at 11
• three nuns, phantom
• Orange Tree, but best of all is BAR ZERO on thursday nights, the uk garage,rnb and hip-hop kills it off, im telling you its the place to be before white room!
• the gallery
• EHB shit beer shit price
• The rose and crown..A very overlooked pub that is waiting to be taken over by us..fri and sat attracts an older crowd but the week is free rane and could make for a great hang out. It was just refurnied at the beginning of 03.
• do not go into BARLEYS. its a BAD place. Drunk 40 year olds in miniskirts and tight jeans (and thats just the men) hugging you and singing kariokee badly. *grimace* The Griffin is where most people go, but its over priced and they don't mix the drinks properly (or indeed at all!)
• I used to work part time aftr college in the maltings and can report it is a dump
• Garton Inn - under new management. No longer shit.
• The Moon and Bell. Unbeatable prices for the Reef Challenge.
• ***three nuns has a great amtmosphere....even thought the rugby team can take over now and again. theres a great punk crowd and beers cheap. Also the blacksmiths or as its called now TAT or something. it had a rad punk night and it also has a punk crowd even though some dick heads go in there
• Llodys, gallery, unicorn and vise versa all the others are full of goths or kids.
• Barley Mow went steeply downhill after it's latest change of landlord: gone are the Giant Jenga, live music nights, colourful paintwork, decent prices + offers and the friendly welcome. It's time may come again, it's just not what it used to be! Warehouse bar is now Barracuda bar and v.nice - live music (Thurs), cheap, decent cocktail offers (Tues, I think). It's a good bar to sit and chill with mates in, plus does good food during the day. Used to be quite townie, but becomming more student-y (but not too much tho!). The Swan (opposite Moomba in 'The Rushes') is a lovely place! Quite a 'traditional', 'old-man's-pub' but that's part of it's appeal! Holds beer festivals. The Albion (along the canal - lovely situation) also a 'traditional' pub. Does GREAT home-cooked food; has lovely friendly landlord; and is a 'Real Ale' pub. Also has aviary in the beer-garden housing birds and a large rabbit!
• BEST PUBS IN LUFBRA ARE THE PHANTOM AND THE HOBGOBLIN. NO DOUBT ABOUT IT. DONT GO INTO THE BITTER END - THEY WILL CARRY U OUT IN A BOX.
• no-one mentioned barracuda bar,its expensive but kareoke on monday is pretty cool. And everyone HAS to try the choc/mint vodka in the custard bar,yummy
• a new place called "The News House" has opened, it's a bit Central Perk and a bit snobby, but the food is nice - they do great chiabattas for about four quid (a little expensive, but they are NICE!). the drinks prices are extortionate. not much seating either, but they do have live music once a week. but then, if you want live music, you can go listen to the tramp with a sax near the statue of the bloke with a sock.
• Gotta mention the Swan in the Rushes. It's predominantly a locals pub but is one of the few REAL pubs left in town. Sells good beer and excellent food; the jukebox is ok too. It's got a good atmosphere and you can actually sit down and have a good laugh with your mates without having to shout at the top of your voice!
• Barley Mow. Pap. Clientelle? Fat arsed, rosy nosed and swaying. Serving this town's single figure IQ scally morons was a a particular pleasure; just knowing that the vast selection of deep fried shite from Iceland they shouvelled down their gullets was denying them thier golden years. Oh and the University Sub-culture mentioned above.....How ironic
• so....... ur guide completely ignores the SWAN IN THE RUSHES......by far the best pub in town, opposite the cruddy new australian bar thingy..Part of the camra approved liberated free house TYNEMILL GROUP, has gr8 food, fantastic beer , nice but crowded at times atmosphere, live music , accomadation. Check it out!
• plenty of pubs but the three nuns is always chillin
• Well no one seems to have mentioned the wonderful Royal george. the pub that we didn't go to when we were 16. a class place that had a shit brown ceiling, but 40p a game of pool and classic signs behind the bar such as 'don't take the piss out of the beer, it needs all the flavour that it's got!' take a visit and it'll make u appreciate the rest of Lufbra. Th three nuns (aka 6tits) a pub i was very fond of (apart from the bitch barmaid) the place that you would always see Mr Gay, the Burleigh math teacher alcoholic. lovely place with the wierdest mix of people.
• A very up-to-date update on the best new pub to hit Loughborough has to be The Phantom, (used to be the Phantom and Firkin) up past Pulse and Amigos. An It's a Scream pub with great prices for students and great atmosphere!
• Nearly every pub in Loughborough is full of nazis who've had one to many(and I'm not saying what of!) The only ones worth a look these days are The Orange Tree, The Newshouse, The Garton & The Phantom. The only place going after 11 is Bar Europa, but only to see Gary and dance on the tables (know what I mean)
• The barley man - bright, expensive, and rarly packed - good place to get pissed in quickly
• The Swan in the Rushes for a chilled out night, brilliant juke box and a real beer drinkers pub, Wans Cottage is just over the road too.
• The Griffin Inn. It's an institution.
• Big fan of The Blacksmiths... has been a cracking pub for years. The Garton Inn used to be alright when it was the Tap and Spile but it's a real doghole now. I went in there for the first time in ages the other day and had to paddle through half an inch of piss to take a leak! Like The Warehouse, The Swan in the Rushes and The Orange Tree, but if you want a really good pub in the Loughborough area, go to The Swan in Mountsorrel... fantastic ale, fantastic food and the staff are ace.
• New pub, the news house, weird shape inside but i could see it becoming a regular for students and the more mature drinkers in Loughborough-over 18's then. Serious lack of signs in there now, yetme and a good majority of a group of my friends all have bedrooms called the news house. strange that.
• Don't go to the griffin if you are a skater my mates dad owns the place so he knows most of us and will ask his son if you are old enough and if he lies hell get flogged So don't Yet Go to the Three NUns MAny skaters Spend their drinking money here. Plus its right next to the graveyard so you can tell some spooky storys.
• Can I just say that Flan O`Brians is no longer it is called bar 32 now and it dose a pint picher of vodka and redbull for only £7.00
• Busters is no more. What a tragedy. But wait...what's this? A huge new pub in its place known as Vice Versa - surely it won't have the same crowd of "fresh-faced" young people and scumbag mutants? Well......
• The Griffin Quiz (Sundays, 8:30pm) is the best of its kind in town, by about a million miles. If you like winning money, beer, crap t-shirts, and hearing the quizmaster swear profusely and take the piss out of all the teams (and even his own questions), this is the place to be.
• 3 Nuns for goths, rockers, sk8ers and the like. Watch out for the grumpy barmaid!
• The White Horse used to be good for pool, also the greyhound had a good Juke Box. I also remember a large pub on King Street with a full size snooker Table upstairs. ..Ah good years..
• Busters - NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO. The Moon And Bell - Great pub but busy after 10ish. Prices are crazy. Blacksmiths - Good beer and the place is nicley quite during the week.
• Custard Bar sells Absinthe which is a bonus. Unfortunately, they've put the price up to 4quid a shot! The Orange Tree is nice - big sofas, great cocktails.
• Best places to go include Rickenbackers ( watch out though- gay night on tuesdays and toplees bar-girls night on thursdays...)if u like noise- and the tacky american diner interior, the rose and crown if u want a quiet drink and the bitter end if u don't.
• Orange Tree - decent live music sometimes on sunday nights and funky cocktails. comfy sofas and a wicked heated beer garden. Weatherspoons - no muzak, plenty of drinks (doubles £2.00) nice people work there Garton Inn (Its a scream) - Student deals fly every where at this place. cheep beer,big screen TV etc etc.. Bar Europa - God Damn Funky. Blacksmith Arms - Good traditional pub Moomba - 'Australian' (bollocks it is) Custard Bar - Little too pretentious Griffin - Decent Lloyds - Townie but ok White Heart - friendly landlord, cheap drinks Firkin- Decent pub,everything £1 on tuesdays, not too studenty Flanny O'Brians - old womans pub Tap and Mallet - Don't even go there Greyhound - ditto Barley Mo - not what it use to be Gallery - Weatherspoons wannabe Warehouse - trying to bring chic into lufbra (dream on baby)
• For many years, the Griffin has been the haunt of Grammar School boys and girls from the High School and Convent. The trouble for us poor sad bastards that work in the Griffin is, as we get older, the more difficult it is to decide who and who not to ID. Remember, we will get you in the end. Sadly, you'll probably be 18 by then, and it'll be too late. Dammit.
• Do not go in Busters fun pub, ever. (Assuming it is still there that is)
• The Gallery, run by Tony Hart. (ho ho)
• The new Australian pub/restaurant is absolutely bloody awful, Ailsa, run by flamin' galahs. The only bloody music they play is INXS, AC/DC, Natalie Imbruglia, none of that pommy shit, and the beer is repulsive. Stay away.
• All Shite, every last one of them. Used to have one or two but they fill up with either thick sporty rugger bugger students or fifteen year old drug dealers from local council estates. Great.
• There are only a few decent pubs in Loughborough, - they are the Hobgoblin (formerly Black Lion), the Warehouse, the Orange Tree, the Blacksmiths Arms, and the Griffin.... Here is a brief advert for the latter. - Lots of beer and food, mostly not poisonous. (Did I spell that right?) - Three fruit machines, a quiz machine, a Megatouch machine - this is the place of the discerning addict to electronics, although there are too many fat, greasy, unwashed wankers going around with their pockets bulging with pound coins, so if you fit this category, stay away! Bring on the clean cut gameheads, for God's sake. - Prices are reasonable, you know. People moan all the time, but they aren't as bad as, say, the Warehouse or Busters. - Staff are utterly fantastic....oops. Did I give it away so easily? Anyway drink here, or any of the other places I mentioned. Don't bother anywhere else, as they are entirely shite.
• The Generous Britain and The Griffin Inn are good for students. The old Pack Horse is a quiet pub for locals.
• If you want to pull then go to matts bar. need i say more
• New place opened in Market Street - The Warehouse, nice inside, food reasonable price - supposed to be good, extremely busy Friday and Saturday nights. New in place.
• If your into amateur theatre try the beacon on friday nights
• Swan Inn, Mountsorrel - a small village 4 miles south of Loughborough. Cracking Theakstons and Guiness, excellent company (Tim from JUST MUSIC drinks in here too. My.) URL = www.jvf.co.uk/swan.
• The Blacksmiths Arms is by far the best pub, their Threakstons 'Old Peculiar' is really good.
• Don't forget the Barley Mow, where Subculture (the Uni's alternative music soc) socialise at weekends. They have a good CD jukebox and it's a cool little place.
• The Three Nuns (Six Tits to Students - goth), Loughborough University Campus Bars, Blacksmiths, Griffin, Phantom and Firkin.
• There's a few good pubs in the town, The Three Nuns at the end of Churchgate used to be an old biker pub, but it's now full of studies, recuperating ravers, pissheads and Jason White (He owns the Left Legged. Get him pissed and enjoy weeks of licensed shoplifting.). The Griffin seems to be the choice of the discerning clubber, as it is quite pricey. The Greyhound.

Cafes and Coffee Shops

• Marios is Gone; Long live Francos! The fruit machines do pay out you just have to time it right and watch the locals.
• Try the Bayaboab cafe opposite wilkos, its the best
• Baobab!!!!
• bakers oven......not tryin 2 advertise the place...but the staff would *love* some entertainment on a saturday..other than old people dying in their...the staff r cool...bring in some cool customers. just don't eat the sausage rolls...
• Rialtos in Leicester is great, near Casino, dunno what the actual adress is.
• boabab cafe does class milk shake
• the baobab, or however u spell it is the trendiest place for a working mans lunch!
• The Boabab cafe is the best place in Loughborough to eat and drink. It's relaxing and is very multiculteral. I ofen see french, italian,american, swedish etc in there. It serves great foods from around the world and rich coffies. Their cookies are the best in the world!!! It's opposite wilkos.
• birds
• coffe pot or Jennys
• Dont go the fatty thumb, its rank, dont go mcd's its a dump
• Francos. Definately the most atmospheric, brilliant place to spend a wet, cold Saturday morning with your mates. Wondering what the hell that card game is that the old Italian boys are playing so violently at the back. It's like taking part in a scene from a bond movie.
• Party Pieces every time!! The food is great!! Seriously great!! lol
• Francos, Ashby square, To get the most of this cafe you need to spend at least 1 week in there, it is worth it you will get tales of strange folk you grandkids will not beleve. From the Loughborough Mob playing snap, The Strange regulars, The two micks, One the friendliest bloke you could meet Likend to the bear in the big blue house, the other the resident genius quiet synical and sinister, but hes cool. George been in there for ever with shouts of Pa-ul to all the Mob, cant forget Maz say the word free and its like garlic to a vampire, but after about a week he will insult you like a regular. thats just some theres hundreds, a saint (I kid you not), Some even play the banjo.
• best coffee shop is Coffee pot if ya wanna fag too. good service and good for the money.
• The Coffee Pot is most certainly NOT the best place in town to go! Try the Warehouse for an afternoon coffee or the like.
• Go to the coffee pot, its dead cheap, and friendly, even though the smoke chokes you!!!!
• weve just had had a new cafe shop open called caza cafe which is up churchgate in town its really quite trendy and attracta all age groups. we also have marios cafe near the carillion court car park
• Visit the COFFEE POT cos the sausage sandwiches are to die for.
• The Coffee Pot is by far the best eatery in Loughborough. The food and coffee are ace and the prices are fair.
• The coffe pot is a groovy little place- a bit on the smokey side but they have hot-chocolate to die for.
• The one near the library is the Coffee Pot - superb bacon toasties and tea.
• Nice quiet one near the library Granby St.
• Franco's is seedy and marvellous. The fruit machines never pay out, though.
• Madge and Harold's coffee shop, 1.40pm and 5.35pm.
• Custard Bar is a cafe, but Mario's is the best - it's got a pool table, gambler, jukebox, Lambrini and foul fucked up food.

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Last updated: 2006-12-22