House of Trembling Madness

Absolute must visit in York. The bartender was such a nice friendly guy and gave us so many samples to try until we finally liked a beer. Fantastic beer selection. Great ambience and nice bar snacks. Highly recommend.

Great name, historic building, and atmosphere to spare. Loved the old half timbered walls, animal heads looking down on you, and windows with a view of the Minster. Great music mix. A very hard table to get on weekends. Large beer and cider list.
And the food… man oh man so good. Steak and ale pie was out-​effing-​standing. Two solid choices for soups, each one with a little special twist to it. We had the tomato, red pepper, and bean, which was almost like a vegetable chili, and the parsnip and butternut squash, which was a little curry influenced. Top it off with a cheese plate, with a wide variety of local cheeses. Just a great pub experience in York.

This place is INCREDIBLE. The bottle shop is not only extremely well-​stocked but has the best selection of gluten-​free beers I’ve seen anywhere. It was so good my suitcase was pretty much just full of beer when we left York! The ale house is an unforgettable experience… that is if you can get a table as this place is always packed. The food is simple and hearty with the combination of the beer, décor and food transporting you back centuries. A must for anyone visiting York

I was sad to hear that the lease is nearly up on this place, and the landlord is not renewing :(So make sure to visit ASAP!
I really hope they manage to stay, as they have the widest selection of quality beers, spirits, and wines I’ve ever seen. The little pub at the top is full of character, reasonably priced, and serves amazing food.
We choose the hunters sharing platter for a light lunch, with two halves of Cloudwater ale to wash it down. The board had two great big chunks of locally baked Red Leicester bread, homemade coleslaw, and various slices of cold meats including venison, prosciutto, and smoked duck. Added bonus; all the charcuterie meats are available to buy on the ground floor.
This place is small and quickly fills up, but if there’s room at the bar it’s worth waiting for a table.

Great little pub in heart of historic York — the area is small, cozy and decorated like a hunters den — we had a nice lambic (strawberry) and a local amber ale with the stout /​beef stew. Everything was delicious and will definitely be back next time

Whoops I forgot to review this awesome beer shop and pub. It’s quite hard to find but totally worth it. It has an excellent bottled ales selection covering every style and country under the sun in the shop below and on top a small but high quality pub including a load of dead animals on the walls and good snacks. Avoid in peak times as it’s deservedly busy but has a lack of standing space in particular.

incredible bottle selection. Didn’t hit the pub, just browsed the shop.

I truly enjoyed my visit to this very interesting and unique pub. I was visiting from Los Angeles, CA. My friends and I threw down a pint or two and then I had a little whiskey. I loved seeing the beer and whisky store downstairs. Such a cool place! Hopefully some day I will visit England again and I will be sure to stop by.

Its been a few months since we came here, but I wont forget how great it was! Its such a cool unique pub! Its upstairs above a pretty cool and packed beer and specialty liquor store. Only so many people can be upstairs at once, because of fire laws, but to be fair it’s a tight space no more then they let up could fit! We went here twice on our trip to York and waited downstairs both times for a bit before some people came down and we were allowed to go up. The food was great and well presented, good fresh ingredients. Cool meat and cheese boards, as well as some traditional dishes. Great beer and everyone there is super friendly. You end up sharing tables and make new friends. Finally the décor is well lets say interesting, lots of animals heads and rustic beams. Except for the electricity, its feel almost as though you are in a pub in the shambles back in the olden days ! Great place to visit for a drink and nibble !!

Good beer, good wine and a delicious Hunter’s platter. I’m not sure though whether the animal trophies on the wall are real… I hope not.

I’m not a drinker– I just came here for the food and atmosphere. I was very satisfied with the food. I had the Madness Platter which was a sampling of various local specialties. The next night I had the Steak and Ale pie which was very filling and reasonable priced. Wish I could have came back a few more times to try more of the menu items. The staff was busy, but friendly at the same time. The pub was a little tricky to find. Walk inside the shop that sells a huge selection of bottled ales– then look for the stairs to go up. Be aware that this pub is small and almost always crowded or completely full. Here’s a few tips:
Avoid the peak hours and try to go early or late.
Once inside, you seat yourself. Just look around for empty seats. Be prepared to wait around for someone to leave and you usually have to share a table with other people.
To order food– find a menu on one of the tables. Ask another table for their menu if they’re not using it. Go to the bar to order your food and pay when you order. They’ll ask you to point to where your sitting– and take the food to you when it’s ready.
The food may take 30 minutes or longer. Also some menu items may be unavailable so have a back-​up choice.
Overall this is a fun place to eat and drink. It’s small, crowded and noisy– so be sure to keep that it mind when deciding to come here. The crowd seemed to be a lively mix of locals and tourists.

First, the beer shop downstairs will blow your mind (I mean, they have Blind Pig cider for heaven’sake!) and when you step upstairs you can only say «whooaaaa» by how surprising it is! It looks like a hunter’s medieval tavern. Big wooden tables and trophies, chimney, wooden structure and bar… That’s it, you are in medieval time! Hipster/​family croud, mostly local, great local food and beer, it’s a must see in York!

We dropped by here every day during our visit to York. This is a small charming bar of yore above one of the finest off licences I have ever had the fortune to frequent.
Upstairs first — the walls of the bar are adorned with animals heads like some kind of hunting lodge. It’s a little bit cramped for space. At the bar there were 3 hand pumps and a handful of keg options. Myself I went for a Wild Beer Bibble, another tasty beer from a brewery I highly recommend. If you cannot find anything you like upstairs (and if the case how is your two handed search for your own buttocks going?) then you can purchase from the off licence down below and bring it back up.
You’ll never run out of new things to buy downstairs — the beer selection was both vast and awesome. Drinkers of lesser booze are well catered for too. This was shortly before Christmas so there were even vodka and whiskey advent calendars, which make awesome gifts! I guess a beer one would be too massive, mores the pity!

First time here and it’s the sort of place you don’t mind that the service is slow because it is worth the wait. I’m in the cosy upstairs bar just now where there is a nice selection of bottled and draft ales including Octoberfest beers because it’s that time of year. I could have lunch here but I think the plan is to move on.
Earlier I explored the shop downstairs where they have 600 beers in stock and 1200 featured on their website. A beer geek’s paradise.
The wifi password is «feelingtipsy» and I am after just 2 half pints. They like to serve strong beer here.

I looooove this shop/​pub. I make sure I come here EVERY TIME I visit York to stock up on my mead and other assortments…
This place is great for gifts or self indulgence… Downstairs they have really expensive specialised stuff locked in cabinets which includes rare whisky for a £100+!!
Upstairs its like being a kid in a sweet shop… hundred of craft beers and others to chose from… I always buy my mead and wine here… as they offer things like Cowslip wine, and ginger… the prices are reasonable too!
I literally brought a shopping bag with me and filled it with mead, blackberry wine and elder flower wine… which came to £30.the staff are always helpful and wrap each bottle like a newborn child.
Upstairs contains a compact pub, which is always rammed. I have yet to try here. because last time it was just too busy to sit down comfortably.
Overall a very homely shop, which is extremely busy all the time, but hey worth it for those difficult to get hold of tipples… they are not good for buying generic wine, port or cider from .but everything else… come here!

This place has a very cool setting: situated in the attic of some building right in the center of town, the walls are covered in animal heads and we felt like we were in some old cottage. Would be a great place to go in the winter. It’s a very small space so luckily we got a table right in the corner. They serve a great variety of beer and have a small and meaty food selection. I didn’t like the pie so much though, thought it was too dry. The meat platters looked great, next time if I’m ever back here will definitely try that instead!

By no means am I a beer drinker, but I was blown away by the selection of beers they stocked! Impressive, and I didn’t think it seemed over priced.
Head on upstairs for a bite-​if you’re a fan of pies, you’ll like this steak and ale pie. I admit, I’m not a huge fan of pie in general but this was probably the best I’ve had.
I opted for the starter size for £3, and a bowl of leek and potato soup for £5. Thought it would be a nice light lunch. Boy, I was wrong. The pie was a good size. The soup felt like it was a jumbo bowl and a half, which came with 4 slices of thick bread. I’m usually a fan of potato and leek, but I thought this was bad. Everything was blended, as it should be. But every bite was so stringy. I figure it might be really old celery .
Anyway, the breakfasts are cheap, you can get full for under a tenner, and they’re open till midnight (though the kitchen might close earlier). Also, they sell an assortment of pies to go at the main till!

OMG, WTF — York could possibly have the best off licence that I’ve been to in the UK and that is ‘The House of Trembling Madness!’ Situated on one of the busy windy ancient streets of York, this total gem of a place is in a strange place, more reserved for cream teas (Betty’s smaller branch is next door) and trinket shopping but upon walking past I was mesmerized by the fantastic window display. Did someone say craft beer… and lots of it?
Cavernous, with a small shop up front and a den of delight in the back — the selection of well known but rare in the UK American beers was incredible. On this occasion I picked up a large bottle of Stone’s Black IPA for £7.99 — an absolute dream and the nice thing was that they didn’t just have one bottle on the shelves, they had tons of the stuff!
Loads more Stone, loads more American craft beer, loads more world beer — wow!
If you’re after some presents for beer aficionados then this is the place as they also have a great selection of beery gift packs in the back.
Just as were leaving we noticed that they also have an upstairs café/​bar which serves all sorts of tempting treats — if only we hadn’t already eaten! Oh well, that’s another reason to get back to York pretty soon and get the full set!

What a fabulous place this is.
Talk about a real find?
I walked upstairs expecting to find more beer for sale but no!
Upstairs is a brilliant fine ale pub.
The walls are bare brick with mounted dear, boar and other assorted livestock heads.
Look through the tiny window and you can see York Minster in the background.
This is a very small pub but has a huge atmosphere.
We need something like this in Leeds.
The staff are great too.
The only down side is the toilets are down 2 flights of stairs. But that just added to the quirkiness of this place. Because in the basements, behind glass screens are a plethora of whiskeys and gins and vodkas and the list goes on and on.
Had a great experience here.

Let me just say that any review I write here will pale in comparison to how truly awesome it is to have a pint here and chat with the proprietors.
To start, you can barely tell the place exists from the outside. You have to walk through a small shop and head up the stairs in the back to find it. The floors and ceiling are slanted like any proper York establishment, and the walls are adorned with a cornucopia of the Serengeti.
The beers on draught are flat out amazing. When I was there, they were mostly Belgian beers and of those, mostly Trappist ales. They had both Kwak and La Trappe, which quite literally redefined amazing beer for me.
As if that weren’t enough, the food is also outstanding. I had some garlic sausages on my first visit that read like a billboard for delicious UK cuisine, and on a return trip I had a spicy chicken and sausage gumbo that would’ve made a New Orleans chef weep tears of pure joy.
The staff are also utterly fantastic. Everyone is friendly, talkative and just plain cool. I got into conversations about Trappist ales, about travel (being a digital nomad) and a handful of other topics, all interesting.
A visit here is one of absolute pleasure. Were I to live in York, this would be my weekly hangout. I can only hope every city I visit has at least one place half as awesome.