Helen Browning's Royal Oak — Restaurant in England

Once the parents in-law had arrived, we were looking for somewhere nice and up market to take them for a nice meal. On searching Trip Advisor we found this place, coming in with loads of good reviews we had to go and try it ourselves.

Having a seven week old baby, at the time, we need to be able to have a table which allowed the pram to be close to the table but not block any other patrons. Firstly, we parked in the available car park (of which there is plenty of space) to then find we had to travel down some very steep stairs in order to get to the restaurant. Without realising it, or being told, there was another entry point which would have been far easier - this was used to exist once we had eaten.

First encounter of the staff was they were great! Really welcoming and tried to help with the pram and coming down the steep steps. It wasnt overly busy, the pub, but the food seemed to come out slowly, making the staff really have to be on form with some difficult customers. After waiting over an hour for our food, having bread and olives to tied us over, the burgers finally arrived. They are larger than you would expect from other places, but this is shown in the pricing. All that being said the food was really good and we were impressed with how attentive the staff were with all the tables. There was only about 4 staff members on, covering circa 35 people, but with the delay in the food from the kitchen they dealt really well.

The ale was good and there was a wide variety on offer, of which the American Pale Ale was recommended and a good choice.

We would return here, be aware however, the limiting factors to this place are: 1. Quirky - not for everyone as it gives off 'Organic' feelings, 2. Location - not only the pub geographically but also the fact you have to go down to enter the restaurant, 3. Price - its not cheap to eat or drink in this establishment, 4. Time - You don't get the feeling things will ever be done quickly here as everything takes its time. So don't be in a rush...

Overall initial impression was comfortable and smart, but once inside, the flaws are apparent. The main issue is that the rooms are simply too small - most importantly, definitely too small for the price - resulting in just a double bed, which is too small and uncomfortable for two people. When I am staying in a place like this with a more expensive price tag, I certainly do not expect to have to sleep in just a double bed. Even with this small bed, there is not a lot of space left in the room, and it feels squashed when moving around. |I am a size 8, and I found the shower too small (e.g. when washing hair, there is no room to move out of the stream of the shower when needed), and the shower head is too high (it appears not to be adjustable). |Breakfast - I ordered the Eggs Royale. It was, in the event, inedible - the hollandaise tasted of nothing but vinegar. When the waitress came to collect our plates, I told her, and she did not really react, and there was no offer of a replacement or apology, no-one returned to me. Clearly, the chef does not know how to make hollandaise, and is not tasting his food when he should. In hindsight, I should have refused to have paid for breakfast. |Other than that, the food at dinner was pretty bland. I had haddock (not in batter) and no effort had been made to cook it nicely or prepare a sauce for it. My meal was rather dry and tasteless. The STP for dessert had barely any sauce, and was really just dry sponge with ice cream. All rather disappointing. |The outside areas looked really messy and scruffy.|In terms of the staff we encountered, they were all nice, but the whole experience all felt rather 'bitty', it did not feel seamless. |So, the decisive factors for us were the food along with the size of the room and the bed for the price.|Overall, most definitely not worth the price tag, and we spent well over £200 for one night + food. We do not go away often at all, so we were looking forward to this, but it was all just such a...

We went out for a birthday meal, it all started well, although there wasn't any lemonade, coke, or soda water, infact the waitress didn't even know what soda water was! After there was an extremely long wait for the main course, when we finished eating and I have ti say the rump steak was over cooked and tough and inappropriate cutlery was given for the lobster and nowhere to put the shell, when we had finished we then waited for 30 minutes for our plates to be cleared and this was only after we asked for the table to be cleared, when the table was cleared we were told our service was slow because of an accident everyone arrived at the same time, so our service suffered the apology was not heart felt and we felt as if we were an inconvenience, we were offered our desserts for free but we weren't interested in that we just wanted good service we gave our dessert order they then came back and told me that they didn't have what we choose, if our order had been taken earlier we may have had the correct dessert, we spent nearly £200 so expected better service and food, very disappointed I had a response from the owner Tim on trip advisor I've had 14 years learning to make to this place a reliable, fun and sensible venture, because we like looking after people like you, and I have clearly absolutely failed. Your gang of four has had an average of 40 years each to learn grammar and spelling. If I had known of your semi-illiteracy, I'd have suggested we left your plates for an additional half hour. Four reviews from one single table on the night that a massive accident on the M4 sent nearly 60 people to our doors at the same time. I'd love to review you in your jobs. Why do we bother? TF As you can see not...