 The pub 
If You Visit, Come on a Sunday!
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Recommendation added: 20/02/2007 14:58
By: dewberry (YSUK rating +817)dewberry has been thanked 2 times for this contribution
"On Sunday I made the trek from Birmingham to Nottingham to buy my pram, well worth the journey as I had a brilliant bargain but come lunchtime me and my mate were starving and craving Sunday lunch. I swore I'd stop at the next pub we saw and I'd treat her to a bit of dinner for coming with me; the next pub was the Crusader in Clifton and I was happy to see they served a proper Sunday lunch as well as a decent menu overall.
The Crusader itself is a large stand alone pub which is situated at the edge of a residential area, in my opinion this is always a good thing as it means there's usually a nice mix of people from the nearby houses. The pub is separated into a bar and lounge/restaurant and food is served throughout so it doesn't matter where you want to sit, we opted to sit in the restaurant area simply because the bar was packed with blokes shouting at the pool table and we fancied a quiet natter over our lunch.
The restaurant is lovely; decorated in neutral tones with good quality and stable furniture, it's nicer than most pub restaurants in the area. There is a good selection of seating arrangements from tables for two, right up to enough chairs to seat a family of six or eight. As it was pretty busy at the time of our visit we were automatically given a table for two when we arrived, as well as a couple of menu's to look at.
The Sunday lunch is absolutely brilliant value at £4.95 each. For this we had a starter of soup as well as our main meal, which included a choice of meats and all the trimmings. The portion sizes are fantastic and when I placed our order I was asked which soup we'd like and also the meat we wanted on our lunches – I was also asked if there was anything we particularly didn't want on our plate, and as my mate is staunchly against any type of vegetables (!) I asked for extra boiled and roast potatoes on her meal instead of the veg.
I had a delicious bowl of tomato soup which was filling and hearty on a cold February lunchtime; this was served with a crusty roll and really filled the hole in my stomach created by a 60-odd mile drive. The lunch, however, was the absolute highlight of my day. I'd opted for beef and it was cooked to perfection; so tender the thin slices literally melted in my mouth and free of any fat or gristle. I could have chosen from chicken or pork, but after glancing at someone elses pork dinner I'm so glad I went for the beef as it just looked to be the best of an excellent choice of meats.
The beef was served with boiled and roast potatoes, green beans, carrots, Yorkshire pudding, stuffing and a thick meaty gravy. The roasters were particularly delicious; they were cooked in obviously good quality fat and were crispy on the outside yet wonderfully light and fluffy inside. I was slightly surprised how good these spuds were to be honest as any other place I've found that serves Sunday lunch on the cheap tends to have greasy and soggy roast potatoes. Not at the Crusader though, they were truly delicious. The veg was all nicely cooked with no sogginess, it was full of flavour which tells me it was freshly cooked and not left to boil away all morning until someone ordered it. The Yorkshire pudding too was excellent, obviously freshly made using a good quality batter – it was light and fluffy with just the right amount of crispiness that it didn't fall to bits when it had soaked up some of the gorgeous gravy.
We didn't plan to have dessert, but while browsing the menu I noticed something called Dark Temptation. This promised to be a wonderful concoction of chocolate and vanilla ice cream, nuts, chocolate sauce, sugar curls and banana slices – this I just HAD to try. And wow, I'm so glad I did. The ice cream was gorgeously soft and the accompanying 'bits' really made a meal of the dessert, this pudding was so huge and sweet that I couldn't finish mine after eating such a large lunch! My super skinny mate managed to polish hers off though, which just goes to show how unfair life can be…
Neither of us was drinking so both opted for a floater coffee, which was basically a cup of excellent quality sweet coffee topped with a rich cream which soaked up the coffee flavour fabulously. We could also have had a liqueur coffee, cappuccino or 'normal' cup of coffee or tea but considering these are all of a similar price you might as well have what you fancy and stuff the cost! A nice touch was the wrapped chocolates which were brought to our table with the coffees as I don't usually expect this in a pub restaurant, only in the more upper class eateries.
The total for our meals, desserts and coffees was just under £20 which I think was an absolute bargain considering neither of us needed to eat again that day! A quick glance at the menu as a whole told me that prices are actually very good for everything, with a good selection of main meals on a long standing promotional price of two for £8 and everything else costing less than a fiver per meal. There's a huge list of side orders and starters with 'pub grub' being the main theme of the menu; at the time of our visit I spotted a guy eating some kind of curry and this both looked and smelled authentic and beautifully spiced – as one of my pregnancy cravings is curry at the moment it was as much as I could do not to race over and nick a spoonful!
The bar is well stocked with a great range of lagers and ciders on draught, together with a decent selection of real ales, top brand spirits and bottled beers. The prices at the bar are on a par with other pubs of this type I've visited and there were a good few special offers on certain drinks that I noticed. While the restaurant area had a fairly relaxed and quiet atmosphere, the bar was noisy and more 'blokey' with the football being shown on a large screen plus a pool table and dart board. I don't mind this kind of environment, but as children are welcomed into the Crusader, I'd recommend that if you're visiting with kids you arrange to sit with them in the restaurant area.
Staff in the Crusader are brilliant. The girl who took our order and served her food was very helpful and seemed to bend over backwards to make sure we were going to enjoy our meals. She immediately knew all the menu options and was happy to give advice on various aspects of our meals, also popping back to our table now and again to check that everything was ok.
Disabled access into the Crusader is absolutely fine. The wide doorways and large spaces between tables are conductive to easy wheelchair access, and there are several disabled parking spaces near the entrance of the pub. There's also a clean and well maintained disabled toilet which doubles as a baby changing area so if you have any mobility problems you're well catered for.
To find the Crusader is a piece of cake. It's located on the main A453 road which runs through Nottingham and this is just off the M42 motorway. The pub is actually situated in a straight line once you come off the M42 so it's really just a case of going straight over at any islands or sets of lights until you spot the large pub on your left hand side. The pub is open daily from 11am – 11pm, with a midnight closing time on Fridays and Saturdays. Food is served until 8pm, although the Sunday lunches are only served 'until the meat runs out' which I was advised is usually around 3pm.
Crusader
Hartness Road
Clifton
Nottingham
Nottinghamshire
NG11 8SG
Tel: 0115 9844534"
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