The best beer garden in Sheffield

Best beer garden in Sheffield? It’s probably the Kelham Island Tavern, isn’t it. But where do you go if you’re slap bang in the middle of the city, the urge overtakes you for some alfresco pint, and you can’t be arsed walking out there?

The Rutland Arms is one of few city centre pubs around these parts with a good beer garden. But the other day I met some work buddies for some teatime refreshment in the garden of the Interval café bar at the University of Sheffield’s students’ union. And do you know what? It was bloody wonderful.

(And so was the beer: Acorn Hoptathlon. It still perplexes me how the Acorn brewery isn’t getting mentioned in the same breath as Thornbridge and what have you. Smaller marketing budget, maybe.)

A few days earlier I’d done likewise at the Dam House (pictured above). Indoors, there’s something insurmountably sterile about this place. Outside the summer months I will never go near it. But on a nice day, perched on the patio, you can enjoy your pint with a sumptuous vista of Crookes Valley Park chaser.

OK, maybe those aren’t quite in the city centre. But what do you reckon? Where are your favourite beer gardens – in town, elsewhere in Sheffield, or in other places entirely? Shout up and share in the comments section. We need to make the most of this sunshine while it lasts.

Photo: Jose M Vazquez (cc by-nc 2.0)