BITE user comments - wheatsheafregular
Comments by wheatsheafregular
Was in there last night (Tuesday 20th October). Bini the friendly landlady is doing all the right things - great array of well kept ales (nicest Harveys I've had)which you can try before you buy, eccentric and eclectic art on the walls and hot sausages readily available. What more could you wish for? Congratulated her on having the best pub in London. Richard
21 Nov 2007 20:29
Great little pub with the best pint of Badger First Gold I've tasted. Unique wood-crafted tables and Ben the pub dog. Jukebox and pool table. It's a proper pub!
9 Jul 2007 16:56
Well kept beer, relaxed, friendly atmosphere and the most accommodating landlord and landlady you could hope to meet. Keith and Angie do a great job of keeping this traditional pub ticking over and it's the sort of community boozer that needs to be supported. Thriving darts team and plenty of charity events including my own particular favourite - the meat raffle. Unlike many other pubs in the area it's also open all day over the weekend. Cheers!
2 Jul 2007 11:52
Great situation and good pint. Sat in the garden by the river and had Sunday lunch. Food was good but overpriced. Menu said 'home made chips' but they were frozen with a few herbs sprinkled on them. Traditional roast beef lunch was over a tenner so expected carved meat. It was pressed meat which we thought was a bit of a cheek. Seems to be selling itself as a gastro (ie overpriced food) pub but should be a little more true to itself and its customers. They'd rake it in that way. This isn't London, y'know.
16 May 2007 19:09
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The Royal Oak Inn, Great Wishford
Oh dear - this great pub has changed hands a few times recently. The last time I visited it was welcoming and had an unpretentious restaurant serving good english fayre. I walked in a few weeks ago (September 2009) and was greeted by the sound of jazz. The sniffy barman had a big fat silver tie on and seemed in two minds about letting us sit in the restaurant. He eventually acquiesced but having seen the unimaginative and overpriced bar menu (lasagne, burger etc) and the resturant (which was empty) menu we lost our good mood and our appetite. Resturant menu consisted of usual gastro garnishes to trad dishes to bump up price. We had a drink and watched somebody's buger arrive on a trendy platter with a few chips in an individual bucket.
The Royal Oak is in a great village and its lay out is ideal for being a friendly local for a convivial drink and a nice restaurant if you fancy treating yourself. Unfortunately the people currently running it have forgotten this. It doesn't matter how much you tart things up (I heard somebody ask for a bag of crisps and they were offered 'sea salt and crushed black pepper') it's still a pub. People pay top whack for the ambience of a restaurant - not for the dubious pleasure of cramming themselves along a wooden bench even if the frozen chips do come in a bucket. The biggest turn off - as always - was snooty bar staff. Where does that attitude come from? It ain't Chez Bruce, fellahs. Sure the locals must be biding their time until somebody with a handle on the current recession reality takes over. We left and went to The Swan at Stoford. It was still overpriced gastro food but at least the welcome was warm. It's an entry level requirement if you want people to come back and pay through the nose.
1 Oct 2009 08:48