The Duck On The Pond, South Newington

The Duck on the Pond is a free house. When I visited I was offered a small but enticing choice of Hooky Bitter or Loddon Hullaboo. I chose Hullabaloo which was in good condition, and thought I was in for a treat.

However, for no sane reason the landlord chooses to cream his real ales with a sparkler on each hand pump. When I commented that it was frothy he resentfully replied "it's meant to be like that". Not by the brewery it isn't!

Also for no sane reason the landlord had refrigerated the ale to lager temperature. I sat warming my pint between both hands for at least ten minutes before I could taste it fully. Refrigerating ale too much wastes energy as well as killing the flavour.

Like most buildings in South Newington, the Duck on the Pond is built of attractive brown Banbury ironstone. The pub looks like it could be 17th century. The bar is over-modernised and rather too shiny for an historic building. The garishly over-decorated men's toilet and its "tasteful" soft porn photographs are particularly brash and out of place in a village pub.

Most of the pub's floor area is now a restaurant. When I visited the pub its menu looked rather conservative, which may be no bad thing. I was hungry but I didn't try the food, as I would not enjoy eating in a pub which deliberately serves ale so badly.

The Duck on the Pond has great potential, most of which is unfulfilled. I could bear all the naff d�cor if only the landlord would treat ale as ale.

15 Mar 2009 00:46