Cross Keys - Nottingham — Restaurant in Nottingham

The Cross Keys is allegedly the only city centre real ale pub which you can't spot another real ale pub from the door of. Every time someone's reminded me of that I've tried to think of another example, but I'm usually too far gone by then.

The Keys is a little gem with its selection of Navigation ales. A city centre location with a heavy local bias as well as welcome to tourists, it's reliable either as a place for a pint or a prelude to a party. Well priced for the city centre, it has a decent stand-up bar area and a quieter lounge which doubles as the day to day restaurant, though there's a funnier Alice in Wonderland room upstairs.

The outdoor seating is in a lane that's often filled with local art from the little studios that line it, giving this a momentary continental boho feel that adds to the ambience.

Staff are charming and add considerably to the venue's appeal, which can be something of a rarity in the city centre.

Food comes plentifully and reasonably priced. Several nights are themed and there's a loyalty dinner club scheme.

The crowd varies. Locals seem to predominate but the proximity of a number of mediocre hotels sees hungry tourists wandering in seeking refreshment. The venue shows sport, but there's never an overpowering sense (or smell) of sports bar. It's very popular with the city centre after-work crowd.

The Cross Keys has a great feel, good beer and spot on staff. And at these prices, you'll definitely stay for...

I don't know the typical clientele here, tonight there were lots of gents and beer drinking. Should have realized this wasn't a good pub for food. The good: Beer was great, staff kind and helpful to myself and family, gave our dog a water bowl. The Bad: food was rubbish. We had 4 different plates: fish and chips, worst I've ever had unfortunately. I hate leaving food on my plate, couldn't finish the fish, Chips were undercooked and soggy, mushy peas seemed old. Burger didn't taste good, veggie burger maybe took two bites before pushing it aside. My wife complained and only got a slight shoulder shrug. No discount off bill. I'd like to give the place more stars for the good, but the food aspect is too important in this case. Sorry about the poor review, definitely have to check your kitchen, i don't know I'd want to know the state of the kitchen, I feel like this could be on Ramsay's kitchen nightmares. I wonder if the food is old, stored too long, I could only speculate. Sorry, but I...

The blurb states best roast dinner in nottingham, well maybe we chose the wrong day today, my wife and i were totally underwhelmed by the whole experience, the staff are friendly but the food we had today was adequate at best and that is being generous, certainly they cannot claim to produce the best roast dinner on todays evidence. I am all for undercooked vegetables but the broccoli, cabbage and parsnips were hard to cut let alone eat, the roast potatoes lacked any colour at all something i expect to see with roast potatoes. When i asked for horseradish it came in a largish dariol mould with no spoon or anything to get at it. We ordered a side order of cauliflower cheese and that was hot in one half of the dish but not the other this also came minus a serving spoon to get at it easily. The pudding was better and my pint of bitter was good but was the food worth the money we paid i can honestly say sadly no it wasnt, When we left my wife just said well we wont go back...