The Bowling Green in Leicester

What used to be one of the nicer pubs in Leicester is now an absolute dump. Embarrassed that I took my friends there. Drinking a pint at the bar and the till area is full of large cockroaches. Cleanliness is obviously a real issue. Owners don't care either they just shrugged our concerns off and dropped the roaches on the floor. Not even a sorry. Disgraceful. Won't be coming back which is a real shame.

Great prices and lovely pints. They have both pool and darts which is rare these days. Beer is cheap, under £5 guiness. Nice interior nice toilets local to city center. Will be back

Great for a prematch 🍺 Food looked great fast service even when busy

Top place 👌 very friendly staff and customers, highly recommended 👍🏻🍺 (Lee the King Kong of ping pong 🤣)

Not been, but found some drink mixers during garden dig

Breakfast. Warm atmosphere. Thank you.

Nice atmosphere , great building one of the oldest pubs in the area with friendly staff and a good drinks choice.

Good food and good service, ideal foe a pre match beer and snack

Such a wonderful pub! This pub was my favorite place, when I was a DMU student, 20 years ago. The pub is not called Polar Bear anymore but the spirit of the place is still there. Waiters are very nice. Next time I will be in Leicester I will come back in this pub for sure!

To all Celiacs this place used to serve GF Peroni but the new people in charge stop selling it for financial reasons 🤔 along with aload of mainstream beers, can't understand there lodgic as the 5-7 people who i meet up with don't go there anymore (lost revenue)

Great place to eat drink and chill top staff too 🙌🏽

Lovely comfortable place and peaceful to linger and talk over a meal or a drink...

We went there to eat really beautiful dinner before we go rugby match we will go again next time

Great space and venue to hold family events. Wonderful staff, children friendly and a prime location for city shoppers

I see Brenda and Dave have ripped another pub and it's customers off how do these people get licenses 🤔🤔🤔

Nicely decorated Good ambience.

Terrific pub, doesn't look much from the outside but a favourite haunt of my son's whilst at DMU and we had a drink with him there on his graduation day, great service and very reasonable prices plus footy on all the TVs, super

Quaint old school independent pub. Friendly patron and roomy. Decent pub options.

Great pub. Cracking bar staff. Warm, friendly, hospitable. Great range of beer on bar. Very helpful arranging taxi into Leicester afterwards. Very helpful.

The old owners were class and provided a great atmosphere. However, now it’s being run differently and they don’t play music in the pub which dims the atmosphere. Was a great pub though 👍🏻

Went for some drinks here after the football; very friendly and helpful service by Rebecca. Didn't have food but the cocktails were really tasty. Would recommend!

Brilliant pub. Really friendly staff, good tasty food. The chef, Shakill ( I think was his name!) went above and beyond to deliver a veggie meal for my husband. Simple food but cooked to perfection. Outstanding, we will definitely be back xx

On entering the pub we were warmly welcomed by staff. We ordered drinks and found the environment comfortable and clean. The atmosphere was good, football was on the screen's with a friendly crowd there. Toilets were fresh and clean. Would definitely recommend to friends and family.

Top tier pub Reasonable prices on beer Lovely staff

I’ve traveled for a football away day, Bristol city vs Leicester, because it was very last minute on my behalf I couldn’t get a ticket for the game, so I decided to stay here while the game goes on, the staff have been absolutely brilliant very welcoming and great company, beers very good and well price on top of that they’ve got multiple screens for the sports and also do some luvely food, can’t find a single fault. 100% recommend!

Popped in after the rugby. Good atmosphere, very friendly staff. Ideal for match days. Nice pint.

This was a good place to visit with friends and their dog who I had missed seeing for such along time, so it was lovely catching up and ordering my food while waiting for other friends to arrive and meet up with us. The food I ordered was delicious along with my drink and good value for money too, the service was also very good and the atmosphere was great too.

Roomy sized traditional pub ideal for a pre match pint. Timothy Taylor Landlord on for opening football Foxes v Cov so what's not to like?

Dirty kitchen and don't pay their staff

I didn’t want to expose The Bowling Green, Leicester for what it was but after months of a band not being paid for their work I’ve been left with no other choice. This is by far the WORST experience I’ve had with any venue in all of my career. The first gig was me & Benn. They didn’t have enough cash to pay us at the end of the night so we just squared it off and allowed them to pay us what they could out of goodwill. There had only been about 3 people in the pub after all. This should have been a massive RED FLAG but I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. Fast forward to the second band that played for them through Gig Base. As expected, the band arrived and carried out a professional gig. I have been through HELL with this venue trying to collect the bands payment. The communication has been next to none. The area manager has conveniently ‘broken their phone’ and nobody is contactable. On the occasions I have had contact I’ve been given countless empty promises of payment being made but still to no avail. I have visited the pub and tried to speak to staff regarding this, trying to find answers. Only for them to express their shared frustration as they are currently WORKING FOR FREE and chasing their wages also. Disgusting. It has now been nearly 2 months of no payment. The pub is a Stonegate Pub Partners leased pub (nothing Stonegate can do because its leased, although I’m sure they’d be interested to know that the only way they can afford the rent is by stealing the staffs/bands wages). The affiliated company who is running it is called C&A BARS LTD and the operation manager/director is a MR CHRISTOPHER LYONS. The area manager I have been trying to correspond with is called FRASER. It has also come to my attention that they are ILLEGALLY playing music in the bar, having live music, karaoke etc without a valid PRS for Music licence. For those that don’t know, any establishment open to the public who plays music must legally hold one of these. It’s no surprise that The Bowling Green doesn’t as they are clearly above the law and don’t have to pay any dues! Most of the musicians I work with gig for a living. This is how we pay our bills and get by. Times are tough as it is, and then you get venues like THE BOWLING GREEN who think it’s ok to not pay their musicians or their bar staff. It’s not acceptable. I guess the point of this post is to AVOID THIS VENUE. If you are a musician, pub goer, lover of live music then avoid this venue like the plague. Students of University of Leicester and people of Leicester, don’t spend your money here, it’s going into the pockets of thieves who don’t care about their customers or staff. Here’s hoping the band who did an amazing professional job will eventually get paid what they are owed. C&A PUBS SHOULD BE ASHAMED!

Nice pint,called in for a quick one.

Absolutely disgusting Sunday dinner all frozen and tinned veg gravy like rain water beef dryer than a nuns chuff don't waste your time and money. Plus no soap in the toilets

This pub has a nice friendly feel to it very quite when we went in for a couple a few days ago but the bar lady said that it get busy at times there was a Good selection on tap also definitely visit again

Nice bar, good bar staff. Beer was good on draught and they put on live music too

Went on a night out, don't remember much but it was good!

Lovely atmosphere great place to watch the match and good food Or today ,lack of wine

This used to be a amazing pub, now all the original staff have gone, it's not worth going in. Also I've just discovered it only has a 1⭐️ food hygiene rating 🤢 talk about final nail in the coffin....

I’m afraid to say we had a terrible visit , we were a group of 30 who came in at 11 am to watch the coronation, there were no tables reserved so we settled in and and hour and a half later we were removed from the table having been told that the management should have reserved the table for a family of four , so all 30 of us left the pub at the same time. That wasn’t the best commercial decision the management have ever made … left us quite bewildered

Went in with a large group to watch the coronation. Settled in for the afternoon when we were told to move on as the landlady wanted to give our table to others. No reserved sign and no indication that we would have to move when we sat there.We made to feel incredibly uncomfortable. So all of our group of 35 in total moved on to a much more welcoming venue.

This used to be our go to place for food and drink before the rugby. Since the pub changed hands & particularly Maxine left for a new challenge the service, food and drink quality has gone dramatically downhill. Our most recent visit started off with a reserved table not being available, despite the numerous reminder emails sent from the pub. A large group of friends were asked to leave as they had not reserved. The manageress then complained about systems not working m, the pub being busy, being hot and sweaty. Queues at the bar were incredibly long & one of our group had his drink changed twice - perhaps the beer lines are not as clean as they should be? Bring back someone like Maxine who knows how to run a good quality sports pub.

In Leicester for our last night There was approximately 14 of us we were there for dinner nice n tasty compliments to the chef

The pub was empty when I visit, even it is next to university, there was no students and people The good thing is they have Brixton drinks Price are £6, which is bit too pricey. I don’t know 🤷‍♀️ I don’t feel going there again. There a student next to this pub. Not very much recommended 🙏

Great place for food and drink in a friendly.

Heard a lot about the history of this pub (recent history like the polar bear) and its... Ok serves a couple of ales of decent quality and decent food, very much a wetherspoon model adopted by local pub vibe.

My family and I came in last week for a meal while visiting my daughter at DMU.. The food menu is woeful unless you like burgers and pizza, which are expensive. Everything is priced for students and we was told we don't get the student deals because my daughter wasn't with us. The outside smoking area is cute but very neglected. We won't be returning to a pub that caters for students only. We used to come in 2-3 times a week before covid. It's such a shame to see a lovely pub go to ruins. The only good thing about my visit was the very helpful manager (maxine or beth I can't remember which one it was) and no I've herd they have left 😭 another one bites the dust.

Edge of town boozer, multiple screens for sports fans, 3 ales available, a rather tired interior, needs a bit of TLC.

Never have I been in this established, on this day I was close enough, I entered, drank and lunched to great satisfaction.

Went on Friday lunch. The staff must have been stocking up for the weekend as they kept disappearing for ages. It was hard to get served. The food menu was quite limited but it was nice enough.

Had our staff night Christmas party here. My team loved it, and so did I. Thank you to Beth for arranging it all, and Maxine and Chris for sorting us out on the night. Amazing place :)

Gutted this place is closed. Loved it

I have just returned to the office at the DMU, after having lunch at the pub. I will certainly not return to this place again due to the poor service and low quality food I was served. To begin, I ordered a full day English breakfast. The waitress said that there were no hash browns and that she would have replaced them with fries. I said yes and, after waiting for a while, I got served a breakfast with neither fries nor hash browns. The bread (a slice of toast sliced in two parts) was overcooked and so were the sausages (dry and tasteless). The mushrooms were not fresh and the fried eggs were not cooked properly. The beacon was overcooked too. Food was blatantly cooked in a rush, and served with no attention to detail whatsoever. Lastly, the waitress did not even stop me for a second to check if I was happy with the food or if I needed anything. Overall, in hindsight, I would have avoided stopping here to have lunch and bought a sandwich to the nearby Tesco or student union. I strongly recommend avoiding this place.

Ok staff where friendly....but the facilities where not up to scratch all the urinals where flooding over ....

Great pub, mixed customers from locals, students and sports fans. Proper old pub with modern outside seating areas with screens for sport.

Tremendous. Nice beers and outdoor seating area. The outdoor TVs are a bonus. Quality pizza also.

This pub is ideally situated next to DMU and we always look forward to calling when visiting our daughter - but its unpredictable hours aren't half irritating! When we first visited, one early evening, its closing time was listed on line as 9pm, but on finding it still open later, we were told that was wrong and found on that visit even food was served until 10pm. Just the following evening, with food menus still on the table at 9pm, we asked to order a dessert and we told the kitchen had closed at 8.30. On the latest visit, we turned up at 8.30pm, hoping for a couple of rounds of drinks while we watched a particular sport on TV to be told it was last orders and it was closing at 9. We bought a round and the TV went off at 8.55. So frustrating and off putting for future visits. Such a good pub but such a waste.

Decent pub. Used to be a haunt over 30yrs whilst at Poly.

Great pub atmosphere, with a wide range of classic pub foods at a cheap pub price.

Yes good. Limited menu on a Monday as deliveries on a Tuesday. Quality not bad at all.

Great spot for a pint, 10 mins from Welford Rd, great service - Billie was great - proper pint of Guinness 🤓

My god what a pub. This place is the sort of pub you’d be proud to own. Never change. Bill, Maxine and Beth are the life and soul of this boozer. You’ll never feel more welcome and appreciated as much as this place.

Great food, drinks and atmosphere. Good place to meet up for a drink and a burger before a match at either Welford Road or King Power if you don't mind a bit more of a walk Grace Road too.

Just had breakfast & pint good.

Un pub con encanto, buen servicio, y buena relación calidad-precio. Volveremos.

We always enjoy a visit here, great beers, and friendly staff. Quite a small pub, with an outside seating area. Played quite a few games of Pool here in the past.

I had an hour to kill so I stopped at The Bowling Green, this was my first time there. It is a typical English pub, very quiet when I was there (unsurprisingly for late morning mid week). I decided to order a breakfast while I was there, choosing the largest full breakfast they do. It was perfectly cooked and quite frankly one of the most delicious breakfasts I have had the pleasure of eating. I highly recommend it.

Brilliant experience. Food and servive was great, maxine was very helpful! Be back again very soon!

One of the best pubs around for quiet lunch or full on match day hospitality! Staff go above and beyond for a enjoyable friendly time even if your on your own. Such a loss to see another one bite the dust...

Can't fault it to be honest.Staff excellent and the food the few times I've eaten in there.Cracking breakfast before the Lions game a few years back.Now our go to before the football if we're not on Narborough Road.

Top quality beverages, great staff, nice little outside area, great place

Had a drink in the garden, very poor, scruffy.

Been regulars here for a long time always looked after and the pub has a nice family feel. Maxine always makes us feel welcome and puts up with us day in day out and we enjoy every minute we spend here with the team :))

Come here all the time, it is one of those places where the staff know who you are, and you feel part of the furniture even if you've been once or twice. Treated like family and makes somewhere to go for a couple of drinks just taken to that next level. Beth and Jamie always look after us.

One if the cutiest pubs I've found!. Good menu with decent priced meal deals and Friendly, helpfull staff. Whether your a family eating out or looking some somewhere on a day, this is the place 5⭐️

Great pub, great food, great beer and great prices lovely atmosphere. The staff are very polite and accommodating definitely recommend this pub 👌

Top place to drink and quality liquids

Great pub ,great atmosphere really friendly staff as a saints fan and the majority where tigers most definitely visit again and I came over from ireland for the match congratulations a great team effort from all involved.keep up the good work.

staff are always willing to go the extra mile to help, very good atmosphere and cheap drinks! student deals and discounts

Been visiting since 2017 and always a great time with friendly service especially the bartender Jamie. Burger meal is a must have with extra burger sauce from the lovely chef Sarah.

Popped in for a visit with some friends recently and we've found our new favourite predrink stop. We all had fantastic food and it was really good value for money. I had the chicken katsu, it was banging! Great selection of food with a good...

Third time I have been here and again, a wonderful experience. The breakfast was delicious, well presented and speedy. Great start to a Thursday morning . I highly recommend this pub.

Brilliant pub. Great food and drink which is reasonably priced with good student deals.

Great place for catching up with friends, easygoing atmosphere and yummy food! Really close to DMU too - perfect place to go for a post-lecture drink!

Best pub in Leicester. The staff are very kind and helpful 👌

Such a wonderfully historic pub.Great beer garden.Friendly staff and locals.

Great place food and staff are brilliant proper friendly pub especially little goose (beth)

Wide range of drinks and good quality food staff are friendly and always ready to help small but good pub

Staff are really helpful and food is great quality great place for all

staff are so lovely and easy to get on with. food is incredible, and drinks are a very good price most definitely worth the trip ❤️

So this place yh its bad boy, no joke I'm not a comedian yh so there's no jokes coming. A bartender called Shezra (not related) was like "yo come here for a drink..." I was like " I dunno." But he was like "nar trust me you gotta come here." So I went there and I was like "why you bring me here???'" little did I know that it's a hidden gem, I'm being honest Indiana Jones couldn't find this gem and his all about finding stuff. Like stuff that melts your face, to this day I've never found the covenant... In other words this place is pretty nice would definitely go again.

Fantastic pub and really friendly staff , will definitely be back

Fantastic atmosphere, prices and staff!

Great little place with variety of food and drinks! Love your beer garden! Amazing for sports too! Thank you for looking after us!

Viihtyisä paikka, hyvä ruoka ja perus brittiläinen meininki 💪

They sell beer and the TV,s are everywhere. Friendly staff

went in for dinner the other day and had the mac and cheese with jackfruit top, definitely worth getting! also 2 for 1 on cocktail pitchers!! the staff were really lovely too

A little gem of a pub dating back to the 16th century. Cute sun trap beer garden, wide range of ales and ciders. Dog friendly and welcoming staff. The food was hot and quick. The steak is to die for. Fun match day pub that...

Value for money, delicious food and a good ambiance. I would recommend the hidden gem. Also has a beer garden.

Spent the last 7 years of my life in the place and don't intend on stopping any time soon. The staff are all super friendly, lovely and amazing, Queen's and Kings if you ask me. Wide range of beverages, Neck oil and Guinness on tap...

One of the best pubs in Leicester, variety of customers from students and match days fans. Cook hot food, fast service and lovely beer garden. One 💯 return

Lovely pub. Friendly staff and tasty food. Fantastic matchday atmosphere and a chilled weekday lunch venue. Highly recommended 👌