Why a Greene King gift card is the best Christmas present idea
In the name of ‘festive research’, we gave five £25 gift cards to Rachel Bates, and asked her to spend them at a few Greene King pubs in the East Midlands – all found through our handy pub finder of course.
Let’s hear how she did...
First things first: where can you buy a Greene King gift card?
So, if you’re thinking of buying a Greene King gift card for your family, friends, or partner for Christmas, your first question is probably going to be, where can I get one from? Through the Greene King website, you can order your gift cards in three different ways. If you’re a lover of all things digital, you can choose to have your gift card sent via email or text directly to your recipient, delivered instantly with a personal message of your choice.
However, if you prefer to keep things classy, you can opt for a physical gift card, which can be sent through the post to your lucky recipient for just £3.50 postage. I love any chance to make my purse feel a little heavier, so for our ‘experiment’, I opted for five traditional gift cards and began planning which Greene King pubs I wanted to visit while I waited for them to drop through my letterbox.
Let’s take our gift cards for a spin!
There’s no doubt about it – five £25 gift cards is definitely a great early Christmas present, so I’m more than happy to take one for the team and take myself on a merry jaunt around the Midlands in the name of Greene King research. But I won’t be doing it alone: I’ll be bringing my friends and family along for the (sleigh) ride and sharing the festive love with them too.Sips and fully-stacked sharers: Ye Old Trip To Jerusalem, Nottingham
Most East Midlanders will know Nottingham is an excellent choice for a lazy afternoon of Christmas shopping, with a vast selection of clothes stores, book shops, gift emporiums and cute little delis all mish-mashed together across the city centre. It’s a must-visit city for the Nottingham Winter Wonderland alone, but if you fancy kicking back and relaxing somewhere a little quieter during the festive season, you’ll be pleased to know there’s some fantastic Greene King pubs in Nottingham too, including my personal favourite, Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem. Sitting just a stone’s throw away from Nottingham Castle on Brewhouse Yard since 1899, the ‘Old Trip’ (as it’s known around these parts) is a pub close to the hearts of locals, visitors and ghost hunters alike, with plenty of cosy little nooks and crannies, weird and wonderful features and a bar stocked with everyone’s favourites.
After dragging my beloved mum from shop to shop for over three hours, I decided it was high time for a break – and what better time to use one of my Greene King gift cards? We popped in around lunchtime and decided to soak up the lively atmosphere with a seat near the bar. There’s a mouthwatering selection of starters, mains and desserts to choose from on the food menu, but we opted to share a plate of Loaded Nachos (£9.75) (piled high with nacho cheese sauce, 1833 Barber’s Vintage Cheddar, guacamole, sour cream, pickled red onions and sliced red chillies), plus a side order of Triple-Cooked Chips (£3.50), because well, it’s nearly Christmas after all. In true mother and daughter fashion, we toasted to a shopping trip well done with two glasses of prosecco (£12.00). An extra-special lunchtime treat for just £25.25? Perfect, and I was more than happy to cover the difference with a few coins.
Beers and burgers with four-legged friends: The Harrington Arms, Long Eaton
Unpopular opinion: winter walks are better than summer walks. You don’t have to slather yourself in suncream, you don’t get all sweaty and uncomfortable, and you don’t have to have a water bottle attached to your hip at all times. It’s a lot more pleasant if you’re a dog too, and there’s nothing we love more than taking our dog Coco for a stroll along the canal near Trent Lock, Sawley. Often nicknamed ‘Water’s Meet’ by boaters, Trent Lock is a major Midlands canal junction where the River Trent and the River Soar meet the Trent & Mersey and Erewash Canals, so there’s plenty of great walks in the area– and some brilliant pubs to visit too.
The runup to the festive season is always a busy time for our family, so my husband and I took advantage of a rare free Saturday and donned our hats, scarves and coats for a stroll along the canal, stopping at our regular haunt, The Harrington Arms, along the way... and you know I snuck a Greene King Gift Card into my purse before we left!
With a huge beer garden and plenty of cosy nooks and crannies inside too, the Harrington Arms is the perfect place to stop all year round, and the pub has been a popular landmark in the area since the 18th century. Originally a coaching inn, it was used as a stopping point for coaches before they crossed the river by ferry. Now, it’s the perfect pit stop for cyclists, walkers and boaters alike, with a tasty menu of pub classics new and old– and some pretty good weekly deals too. After a long hour’s stroll, we were feeling pretty hungry, so I treated us to burgers: a Crispy Chicken Burger (£12.95) for my husband, and a Beyond Burger (£11.95) for me. Served in soft buns with fries on the side, they definitely hit the spot, and at £24.40, they were covered by a gift card too.
Lazy lunches and long chats: Seven Wells, Etwall
As someone who likes to start Christmas shopping in July (what can I say, I’m just really organised!), I love the process of wrapping gifts and getting the opportunity to spend a little time with my friends and family when we meet to exchange presents. When it comes to my best friend, this also involves a lot of catching up and swapping stories, so I like to book the afternoon off and meet up with her November or December. This year’s choice is the Seven Wells in Etwall, perfectly situated between my office and hers. And as for lunch, it’s on me!
Close to Mercia Marina and a short drive from Derby city centre, the Seven Wells has a classic country pub feel. The team go all out to make it look full of festive cheer at Christmas, with a big tree and plenty of decorations – if you’re looking for pubs serving Christmas dinner in the area, this is it.
In the week, you’ll find a great selection of lighter lunch dishes to choose from. Once we’d found a table and finally stopping chatting for long enough to look at the menu, we opted for the Grilled Salmon Fillet (£9.49), served with baby potatoes and lemon & chive sour cream, and Hand-Battered Fish & Chips (£8.79), with tartare sauce and a choice of peas or mushy peas.
If you ask us, it’s not a proper catch-up without a little something sweet too, so with a bit of space left in our stomachs, and £6.72 left on my Greene King Gift Card, we treated ourselves to a Chocolate Fudge Cake (£5.50) to share.
Much needed girl time and a delicious meal for a wallet-friendly price? Now that’s the perfect Christmas present.
Clinking glasses at Christmas: The Broad Oak, Strelly
Just as I predicted, the group chat began to bubble with activity at the start of November, with our friends trying to arrange the yearly get-together. With so many Greene King pubs between Leicester, Derby and Nottingham, this problem isn’t finding a suitable location, it’s choosing one from the many excellent choices. This year, we chose The Broad Oak in Strelley, a short drive from Wollaton Hall and Potters Lock.
With a welcoming atmosphere, big beer garden and live sport on the TV, the Broad Oak is a great place to visit on any day of the week, including Christmas drinks with friends on a chilly Saturday evening. There are loads to choose from behind the bar, including local ales, international lagers and plenty of wines and spirits too.
With my Greene King gift card at the ready for my round, I decided to treat the table to a nice bottle of white wine, finally settling on a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc (£21.49), a New Zealand wine known for its big, fruity flavours. As predicted, it received rave reviews from my friends, and I even had a little spare change on my gift card to buy a glass of lemonade, which I used to make my own little white wine spritzers.
No one does Christmas like Greene King
I might be ever-so-slightly biased, but there’s a whole ‘sleighload’ of reasons why no one does Christmas like we do, and our amazing gift cards are the start of a very long list. You’ll find an amazing Festive Menu at our pubs all season long, with delicious starters, mains and desserts for family meals, work parties and more. You can catch the whole of the December football season live and in full colour on our big screens and celebrate the big day in style with a Christmas dinner and all the trimmings.So, what are you waiting for? Come and explore more pubs in the Midlands and further afield by heading to our pub finder now.
(Please note: individual dish and drink prices may vary between individual Greene King pubs and over time. For more information, please visit your local pub website.)