IN SHEFFIELD, EVEN THE HUNGRY HORSE IS DECENT

June 2025. Sheffield.

Having invested £3 on a bus trip to Abbeydale to try a doughnut stout I was hardly going to walk straight home was I ?

The industrial area below Sheffield isn’t as scary as Bradford, or as exciting as Duisburg, but there’s a bit of history,

and a shy Hungry Horse, tucked between the A-roads south next to Heeley Retail Park.

Why do a chain Greene King diner ? Why not ?

I can only recall two Hungry Horses make the Guide, and the fact they were in Colne (Burnley) and Spalding (Spalding) tells you a lot.

At least here, unlike in a Harvester or Beefeater, you can make your way to the bar without being “greeted”, and in the Hardy Pick you get the sort of cask choice that would have guaranteed GBG entry 25 years ago.

Two LocAles from indies, and the CAMRA Premium Bitter of 2023 (honest) !

And still someone will say “Bor…ing“. To be honest I’d been hoping for Doom Bar, but it seems that’s so rare it’s reaching cult status.

I take my pint of Abbot and steak McCoys into the “18s & over” room, where they’re playing Amy McDonald. I presume that’s what they’re protecting the children from. Some blokes are waving snooker cues about but the cricket is on, always a soporific influence.

Let’s not make great claims for the Hungry Horse. It’s got less character than the Spoons. BUT the Abbot is genuinely good, a rich NBSS 3.5.

And it should be good. Pint and crisps SIX pounds twenty-one ! Where’s an open Sam Smiths when you need one ?

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

16 thoughts on “IN SHEFFIELD, EVEN THE HUNGRY HORSE IS DECENT”

      2. We had an interesting discussion in Macclesfield about which well-known beers, outside of Doom Bar and Landlord and London Pride, you’d now see around the country. Certainly in the west and midlands you’ll see more Wye Valley and Hobsons, but with Greene King IPA withering it’s hard to say which are the well-known beers anymore. The Gales (Fullers) HSB was the star of that Chichester trip.

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      3. The beer scene does seem to be more regional post Covid, IMHO. Abbot seems to be more visible than GK IPA (at least in Spoons). Is Jaipur slowly turning into a national beer? Plum Porter was threatening to become national, but seems to have slipped back a bit in the last couple of years.

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      4. Good analysis, Scott.

        Definitely more Abbot than IPA; are the beers on the bar becoming stronger on average ?
        Thornbridge can’t maintain Jaipur at that price to Spoons, surely, but if they can I don’t suppose many will complain.

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      5. Which would people typically consider the best beer: Doom Bar, Landlord, London Pride or The Gales (Fullers) HSB? The HSB we ran into was normally in really good condition. Landlord often wasn’t. I leaned HSB by a wide margin as to the best of the four under common conditions. Maybe people are choosing the better beer when they can?

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      6. I hadn’t seen much of the HSB until those few days down in Chichester. I guess Landlord is the beer with historically the best reputation (close to Harvey’s) but as you find it’s become a “premium Doom Bar”, often served too soon or by dining pubs with slow turnover.

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      7. Firebird Heritage Sussex Best is the top selling cask beer now.
        According to the WhatPub site it’s in nearly every Shifnal pub, and other towns too.

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      1. Neil,
        I knew that as Ansells’s Star and Garter over fifty years ago.
        Very soon after Allied Breweries refurbished it as the Winking Frog it became known around Wedges Mills as the Tossing Toad.

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