Norwich – The Reindeer

The Reindeer was the first pub on CAMRA’s Friday Five and I haven’t been here for a couple of years. The ownership changed in 2018 and the food menu has become a little more mainstream compared to the previous operators. It’s an Elgoods pub, although they have beers from other breweries available.

The beer choice and unfortunately they’d run out of Elgood’s Plum Porter, a reliably good beer option. I went for the Wild Spice from Wildcraft Brewery, a local operation to Norwich. Apparently this beer is meant to “ooze with cinnamon, ginger, cardamon and nutmeg”, although I struggled to get any discernible flavours or depth of flavour from it. Disappointingly bland.

I tend to avoid live music pubs as it’s not a genre that much interests me, so it’s unlikely that I’d go here again, but the staff were welcoming and keen to engage which gave it a friendly edge. It’s also clearly a popular location for live music and the pub seemed professionally managed, so all rather lovely.