Old Royal Oak, Hillmorton

We visited this Hungry Horse, primarily family eating pub on Easter Saturday afternoon during a narrowboat cruise on the Oxford Canal. The staff, although busy, were very friendly and efficient, especially the young man who looks as though he works out a lot!
There were 3 real ales on - Greene King Abbott, Old Speckled Hen and Greene King IPA. The Old Speckled Hen was very good and a very reasonable £2-89 a pint.
We didn't have a meal ourselves but the menu was typical for pubs of this type and reasonably priced. The dessert display was attracting a lot of attention!
The loos were warm, clean and functional.
All in all not a bad place to shelter from a hail storm!

30 Mar 2013 19:29

The Highwayman Hotel, Kidlington

This is a very disappointing venue and nothing in real life like it is portrayed on it's fantastic website!
We waited ages for the barmaid to finish reading her paper or what ever she was doing out the back before she realised we were actually in the bar. She was a very nice, pleasant girl though. The landlord (I assume he was the landlord) was texting when we wanted serving again and finished doing this before he served us.
The filthy, once white, sofa near the fireplace could benefit from a cover! The loos are clean and the garden is quite nice.
The Old Hooky was cloudy but the Brakspears was a bit better. Two friends of the landlord came in and ordered food which looked nice.
I would have been disappointed if I had decided to come here from seeing their website and then saw the place in the flesh!

6 Jun 2012 19:52

The Golden Lion, Todmorden

This is a large, stone floored pub with a separate dining area and smoker's patio overlooking the canal. They have an earlybird menu with 2 meals for �9-95 between 3pm and 7pm. The meals looked fairly substantial. The real ales on offer were Copper Dragon Best, Copper Dragon Golden Pippin and Moorhouse's Pride of Pendle, all excellent! A handy stop over for boaters on the Rochdale canal being situated near the town moorings. The staff were friendly but one was a bit deaf giviing me a pint of Pride of Pendle instead of a half of Copper Dragon but I managed!

4 Jun 2011 22:03