The Great Northern, Mickleover

i went for a meal only last week the food was brill and the specials board really is special, i had a kipper pate and stuffed chicken one of the best meals i have had for a long time. thank

The first time I visited this put was for a wedding. The pub had a marquee attached to it and this was used as the wedding reception. It was made to look really lovely and held approx. 65 guests. The food was excellent and the staff could not do enough for you. The service was first class from them.

The room looked fantastic, they did a really good job and it was warm too. I expected it might be a little cold with it being a marquee but it wasn't at all.

Definitely recommended for private parties, weddings etc. Iris was in charge and she was fantastic. A really great night had by all.

I went to the Great Northern with a group of friends for a pre-Christmas dinner, although we didn't actually eat from the Christmas menu as it had to be pre-ordered. The Great Northern (a Marston's house) is a typical 'dining pub', with a pared down, contemporary interior with lots of pale wood, wooden floors, leather seating and cream walls. The vibe was busy and lively, without being rowdy, with a good mix of party groups, families and couples present. The bar and waiting staff all appeared to be in their late teens/early 20's and on the whole were friendly and efficient. I was, however, highly unimpressed at being served my gin and tonic in an enormous glass, topped right to the brim with tonic water which effectively drowned the gin to the point of extinction, complete with a plastic straw through which to drink it! Since I am not (a) five years old or (b) in the local intensive care unit, I failed to see or appreciate the point of this.

The menu was the usual Marston's brewery in-house effort, with all the pub food regulars on offer and the choice was wide enough without being overwhelming. Whilst the service at our table was fast and polite, the food was poor. My starter of prawn cocktail consisted of soggy, stringy prawns in an a bad, acidic, catering seafood sauce concoction, accompanied by a piece of red-hot, microwaved-to-death baguette, and an unimaginitive salad which was inedible due to the revolting, vinegary dressing it had been drizzled with. I ate the prawns and had a bite of the bread, but that was it, the rest was left on the plate. For my main I chose the 8 oz rib-eye steak which I asked to be cooked medium-rare, served with chips and salad. The salad was exactly the same as the vinegary mess I had had with my starter, only a bigger portion, the chips were colourless, tasteless, dried-up oven chips and my steak had been badly and unevenly cooked with half of it being practically bleu and the rest somewhere approaching medium. Again, most of this course ended up being left on the plate, although I did eat most of the steak. Dessert was a kind of chocolate brownie which I had with cream and this proved to be the best course of a bad lot, although it was over sickly with not much in the way of a good chocolate flavour. Whilst there was an extensive list of fussy cocktails which none of our party wanted, we were very surprised and disappointed at the lack of a wine list. House wine by the bottle in either red, rose or white was all that was on offer and although none of us are connoiseurs by any means, I thought it ridiculous to have no other choice than this!

The whole dinner came to around £20 per head between five of us, including two bottles of wine and tip, which was fine, but I would far rather have paid more and had decent food. Generally I tend to avoid eating at chain or brewery-owned pubs because I've found that 95% of the time, the food is poor and I would just rather not bother. The Great Northern wasn't my choice of venue but having said that, we had a fabulous night out and we found that the pub provided a great and relaxing atmosphere, with generally good service and nice surroundings. I would definitely go back for drinks, but not for food.

I first came to this pub on a working lunch, and was very happy with the range on the menu, and have been back many time since.

The staff a very helpful and friendly.

The starters are a generous portion

My rare steak was cooked to perfection.