EBG Rating: 8.2/10

Choice/Quality of Drinks:
❤️❤️❤️❤️
A pretty decent selection of beers on cask, keg and bottles, which can be safely described as ‘superior mainstream’, similar with the cider that will not impress specialists but still offers a degree of respite from the dreck.

Style/Décor:
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
A sympathetically preserved quirky pub of non-standard rooms. Small compact Georgian bar and side snug with musical instruments and street view. Wood-panelled baronial backroom/parlour with fireplace and stained glass. Beer garden to the rear.

Atmosphere/Character:
❤️❤️❤️❤️
A characterful venue that makes a distinctive impression. Atmospheric in the rear room even when completely empty, but the social atmosphere peaks on summer days or on busy winter evenings, especially on music nights.

Amenities/Events:
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Rooms, food, snacks, outdoor seating, board games, musical instruments, quiz night, chess nights.

Value For Money:
❤️❤️❤️

Description:
Trading as Worcester’s oldest pub, but not content to rest on those laurels. The Cardinal’s Hat is a period building on a plot on historic Friary Street dating from the 14th century. A recent restoration helped refresh the interior sensitively without spoiling the majority of preserved features. It’s a pub of small rooms. A compact bar, snug room with piano, guitar and window views, and a baronial style rear room with wainscoting, fireplace, candles and stained glass. Removed call-bells are another feature that hint at the more class/gender-divided social history it has seen. While operating as a pub for centuries, it has seen a few names and incarnations before reverting back to the original. Believe it or not, in modern history it has been an Austrian themed pub!

As for today’s experience, you’ll find a pretty decent selection of beers on cask, keg and bottles, which can be safely described as ‘superior mainstream’. These can be enjoyed in preserved Georgian surroundings which on summer days with the doors opened up appear to blend seamlessly with the ensemble of houses on this most historic of streets. In winter, the cosiness and clandestine contentment of the backroom will be more suitable.

Their array of amenities and events is impressive and speaks of a business trying their level best to give people a reason to be here. We’ll tip the eponymous hat to that.

It may appear ‘obvious’, being a more famous destination, but it shouldn’t be missed on your trip to Worcester.