Old Oak, Reigateback to pub details please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
I liked this pub before it was done up, but happily it has survived quite well. They still have bar billiards! Worst thing about it is that it''s a bit out of the way.
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Punch have applied for planning permission to build two houses in the garden - which would have four spaces in the already small car park.
Locals are not happy and are raising a petition - like the customers of the Limes and Garibaldi, not far away.
However, unlike those two pubs, Punch say the Old Oak will continue to trade - albeit without it's nice beer-garden.
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The food and music has arrived!
A most pleasant boozer, with a friendly governor.
Decor - and facilities - are of a high standard.
With Sky Sport, free Wi-Fi, weekly quiz and parking.
Best pub for miles.
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New manager, £270k refurbishment and reopened a week ago - after a month.
Good news for locals - with food and music on the way.
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Quite; it will almost certainly be all-change if and when Colin and Pauline ever decide to hang up their beer towels and retire! They're well-overdue so make the best of it while you can.
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The kind of oft-undervalued community asset one assumes to be threatened en masse by cheap supermarket booze. By contrast, here you can buy expertly kept quality ales that are reasonably priced, and drink in a genuinely welcoming atmosphere. It's not all about chocolate-box country classics, identikit pub chains or pseudo-gastropubs - which the Old Oak proves very convincingly. Use it, or you may one day blink and have lost it.
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Almost like stepping back 20 years to what local's used to be like, and that's not a criticism.
Very old school but friendly will certainly go back.
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We stopped by this pub on Boxing Day, and were pleasantly surprised by the friendliness of the locals and staff alike. It was a delightful find, with a cozy atmosphere and a decent selection on tap.
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This is a great pub for bar billiards (teams from Sussex and Kent come to play here, and there is a "thank you for the hospitality" framed certificate on the wall from a Northamptonshire touring side).
And besides that, it's a great pub anyway !
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Brakspear, Adnams Bitter (�3.05), Doom Bar and Youngs Special. Came in just after 6pm on Saturday as they were gearing up for a 50th birthday do. Down to earth locals pub and seemed a decent boozer.
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Recently visited here after a gap of 22 years. Remarkably, the same landlord and lady were in residence, although the pub cat was clearly of a younger vintage and the layout of the bars was distinctly different.
A useful range of beers in evidence and the Sharp's Doom Bar was in good and smooth form.
Would recommend as a venue for some convivial drinking.
Further visits may not have such a gap between them.
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My favourite pub in the area. Colin and Pauline run a friendly happy pub and always make you feel welcome. They do a tremendous amount for local charities, keep their beer in tip top condition and is the best place to go and watch an Arsenal game as Colin is a Gooner. A proper local.
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I was somewhat surprised to see this one not already added, so I took the liberty of recommending it myself - in August '09. My, it only took them 7 months!
The Oak is a by-word for traditional, earthy pub values, and is a much-loved community local used by an engaging mix of punters. Run by veteran publicans Colin and Pauline Batt for what must be getting on for 25 years, if not more, it exudes a kind of comfort that one enjoys from a favourite arm-chair that has always been in the same family, and the same corner of the lounge. A little worn, and in need of modest re-upholstering, but all the better for it as it represents not only reliable service for its purpose, but lived-in character.
On paper the Oak is nothing special; for a start it is now owned by the often terminally-average boa constrictor of a pubco, Punch Taverns. It is a pretty enough Victorian structure which has had a recent lick of paint, but nothing exceptional, and with some might say a rather unsympathetic 1950s conservatory added. The interior has been steadily modernised down the years although happily the spectre of appalling overhauls that characterised some pubs in the '70s, '80s and '90s did pass it by.
But irrespective of all this, there is a decency and honesty about the place and its customers which one does not always sense in smarter, slicker outlets. The small things are what make it. There is a mutual, organic respect between customer and licensee. The bar area is littered with odds and ends of old memorabilia, and some newer items for raffling. It's all tat - but that's the beauty of it! Colin has been known to don a waistcoat when serving - another sign of a sadly dying breed of landlord. There is a series of celebrity photos above - maybe a naff provincial nod to the inaccessible world of celebrity and glamour, but for me far better that than some pretentious outlandish artwork so beloved of the more money-than-sense crowd of Reigate. Reverence is due to the beautiful game - darts - with plentiful provision of space at the oche. And also the other - rugby - many Reigate clubsfolk have and do drink here and there are pictures to prove this longstanding connection.
At brass tacks level, what about the ales? One would expect the pumps to be awash with the usual bland ubiquitous offerings, but there's always been a relatively good spread, and in recent times Colin has managed to pressgang Punch into yielding further and now up to 6 can be offered simultaneously. Young's Ord, Fuller's L Pride, Adnams Bitter, Brakspear Best are usually found, but Woodforde's Wherry and Purity Mad Goose are recent examples of this welcome guest ale trend, and both were on peak form. Prices are reasonable and do still dip below �3 - thank the lord for small mercies.
I can't speak about food; indeed, I'm not even sure any is served! But if it is, it will surely be simple, cheap, hearty and tasty fare suited to a pub, not a pub with restaurant leanings. And there is nothing wrong in that.
Trade can vary; I only hope it's sufficient to keep this most enduring and honest pubs alive. Car parking can be trying but persevere, or just walk, as I believe that if this is the kind of gritty-but-not-dowdy boozer you instinctively want to visit but so often fail to find, you'll feel right at home. And make the most of it before the Batts inevitably retire, and the pub will almost as inevitably go to the wall in the absence of a saviour....
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