The Royal Oak | Peak District — Restaurant in Derbyshire Dales

Beer was good, as was the service. I had a starter of Prawn Cocktail. It was OK. Green Thai Chicken Curry, though… tasted like a generic chicken curry and certainly wasn’t green. Coconut milk had not appeared to have played a part either, neither was it sweet and chilli hot.

I ate it anyway because I was hungry. When asked by the attentive staff if all was OK, I expressed my disappointment, and the explanation was interesting. The chef isn’t from Thailand and therefore does not see why he should cook an authentic Thai curry. I suggested that perhaps the menu accuracy could be improved by renaming the main to ‘chicken curry’. Somehow I’m not confident that this is going to happen.

In summary, it’s OK pub food, but probably safest to select standard fare that isn’t too exotic, or outside Blighty. The question stands. Why market a Green Thai Curry which by the staff’s admission is consciously designed to be nothing like a Thai green curry? Are other items on the menu also at risk with this chef? It raises some questions. Cajun chicken. The chef isn’t from Louisiana. Is it chicken with rosemary, thyme and sage? Lasagne. The chef isn’t Italian. Does it even have pasta sheets? Maybe it’s layers of Yorkshire pudding? A pie on the specials board. Mediterranean Vegetable and Green Lentil? Answers on a postcard from somewhere local please.

The name of a meal on a menu conjures an expectation and a certain thrill of anticipation. It’s a joy when the delivery matches or exceeds that expectation. Sadly not realised during my visit, certainly for the main. Simple to fix though and I hope that this feedback triggers an easy improvement.

Suggestion to chef: Try cooking a Thai Green curry. Google is your friend here. I asked Google ‘What makes a good Thai Green Curry’? The answer was, nothing like what I had the other night at your pub. Google even provided pictures, none of which would have been picked in a line up should my mystery meal have needed...

I googled "best pubs in the peak District" and The Royal Oak came in the top 10. So expectations we high! We realised it was very close to Buxton so thought it was worth a try.

It was fantastic!

Firstly, most of the other restaurants on the list were needing to renew the mortgage to eat there or had things I can't pronounce on the menu. This place wasn't catering for those people but for walkers, cyclists and other people enjoying the Peaks.

As you walked in, there was a chalk board of ideas for things to do around the area which was nice. We were greeted in a very friendly manner by the staff.

The interior (it was too cold outside for us) was nice. Ye olde pub style but clean and plenty of space. Seats we comfy too!

There were two menus, standard (which was vast) and then a seasonal. I had a game pie of the seasonal, my wife had the roast beef baguette off the specials.

My pie was delicious and huge! The chips were amazing and the lid of the pie, a Herby suet, complimented the meat perfectly - cost about £17 but I was stuffed, and I am a big eater.

The wife's baguette was also enormous! Came with roasties and gravy. She loved it and was very affordable at £10. It was so good, she is going to try and recreate at home this week.

The only downside to our visit was that we were so full, we couldn't muster a pudding. This is very unusual for me, especially when they had apple crumble and custard. To be tried next time!

Would recommend visiting, it was...

Amazing food! Sunday after a fun family day out around Buxton! We booked and officially the chippy tea pictured below wasn’t on the menu for Sunday but we came specially and the server said he was sure they could do something!!

At nearly 38 weeks pregnant it was so nice they went above and beyond for a meal I’d craved since we first popped in for a drink after a walk ( where the pub is at the end) a month ago. Last family of 3 pub treat! My husband had a game pie which was off the pie menu as well as our child had sausages and chips from the kids section.

We had a coke, fruit shoot, beer, tea and a small bottled beer.

The prices on the menu £22 for chippy platter may out people off but this was all quality home cooked food. For 3 people a main meal and a couple of drinks came to £66 pounds. When you think of chains in town that serve fast and variable quality food that usually comes to around 40-50 for 3 anyway. Spend the extra locally and enjoy quality home cooked food!

So much choice and all the food that came out was of the same quality. Puddings looked amazing and lots of choice- we were obviously too full! We will be back again post baby

Thank you so much!! Pure food joy was had by all of us today which is difficult as we all have...