You’ve heard of The Orange Tree, right? If you’ve ever been a student or lived in Nottingham for a while then you would have. One of the closest pubs to Nottingham Trent University, The Playwright, 38 is now the new, revamped The Orange Tree pub. Same layout, some of the same staff and same building but a lovely little update. First of all, you can’t miss this revamp from the outside – it is stunning and I love the dark blue and red against the white contrast. It looks super fresh but it’s still got the bar, toilets and garden snug area in the same places.

I actually worked at The Orange Tree for about 4 weeks whilst I was interviewing for big girl jobs after graduating from uni and I’d spent many an afternoon chilling in the sun outside this pub whilst I was still a student. Needless to say, I have a soft spot for this place.

We popped along for a complimentary lunch, (thanks so much guys!) to try out a couple of their dishes from the new menu, some cocktails and their £5 lunch menu. Kicking off with drinks, Luke had a pint of their Charlie Wells lager, a beer that the pub brews themselves and is definitely under £5 a pint which is seriously good value for Nottingham city centre. I tried it and had a cheeky half after lunch because it was delicious, really good, easy to drink, refreshing lager. My favourite kind of beer, I have to admit!

I went for a cocktail from their extensive menu, they have £5 cocktails during happy hour which is Sunday – Thursday at certain times. I tried the Street Lemonade which was mango vodka, orange liqueur, lemon juice and lemonade and it was delicious. So refreshing and perfect for our mini heatwave this weekend.

Food wise, we went to try their Mac Daddy Lunch Menu which is £5 for a generous portion of mac n cheese and a side salad. I reckon they could chuck on a few more leaves to actually call it a side salad as opposed to a garnish but that’s just me. In terms of the actual mac n cheese it was so delicious.

We really enjoyed it and tried two out of the four flavours. We tried the five bean chilli and guac mac n cheese which sounds weird but is really tasty – it’s essentially mac n cheese but topped with spicy chilli!  Our favourite was the four cheese version and it was amazing, really yummy and super cheesey which is exactly what you want. We also shared a salad between us and chose the Bleater salad with goat’s cheese, olives, balsamic, cucumber, rocket and little sweet peppers topped off with rye croutons, this was really lovely and fresh too. I’m 100% recommending this place as a Friday lunch venue for my work gals – I need me some more mac n cheese. I really want to try their leek, bacon and gorgonzola version because that sounds amazing. What do you think to mac n cheese for lunch? Let me know in the comments!