Salt Sheffield, Kelham Island, Sheffield

Despite my disparaging review of four years ago, I tend to call in here once a year to see what the cask beers are like. There were two on today, White Rat and Barghest, both Ossett beers, with a third pump clip turned around. My White Rat was pretty good (NBSS 3.5, £4.70/pint) and I managed to get a table to myself, away from a noisy pub crawl that turned up just before I did. This pub is generally much better inside than the modern black brick exterior suggests, and the cask beers are fine, if a little pricey compared with my regular haunts on Kelham Island.

Housed in a modern brick extension to the old elegant frontage of Green Lane Works it is a single blocky L shape. The counter is on the right once inside, after passing through a little seating area and a tiny snug like room off to the right. There is some seating near the counter and beyond is a front area with tall seating on one side and chunky reformatory style tables and benches. It has a food servery at the far end serving Korean food from an outfit called Seoul Chicken (geddit?). Beside that is an outside front seating area. Four hand pulls with a few of the Ossett brand which are bookended by keg founts for the Salt range of kegs; a continental style “ceramic” fount at each end have a selection of standard UK kegs. In common with other Salt branded outlets the cask beers are not of the highest order.

Salt is an L-shaped modern bar with flagstone entrance and a serving counter to the right and tables up the left to a street food kitchen hatch at the rear. On the counter are four hand pumps that were drawing Ossett Brewery’s White Rat, Yorkshire Blonde, Silver King and Halo. Leant up in front of the pumps were three real cider clips, two Lilleys and a Pulp. Premium keg was available alongside Salt’s own keg range. I like Ossett beers so I’d pop back in for a swift one, but I prefer a more traditional boozer, the sort that are abundant in this area.