The Royal Oak Hotel — Restaurant in England

Didn’t stay at hotel, just had lunch there on Sunday, 17 September 2023. Was pleasantly surprised to see two proper ales available. As I always do these days, I asked to try what I hoped would be the best bet, Wainwright bitter. It was pretty poor and so I asked to try the Hobgoblin. At this point the surly barman said in a loud voice “I suppose you are going to get a free drink by trying all the beers along the bar?” I knew immediately on hearing this that this was a bad pub and that all hope of getting a decent pint of beer was gone. Any pub that takes a vocal exception to a customer having a tiny sample of beers on offer, and seeks to publicly ridicule them in the process, is one or more of (1) knowing and caring nothing about the quality of the beer they are keeping and how to keep it and (2) in the habit of showing utter contempt for its customers. Sure enough, the Hobgoblin was worse, truly awful: sour and unrecognisable. I would guess that the ales in this bar are not kept at all well. On looking around I saw that most if not all of the other male customers appeared to be drinking lager. Maybe they knew what I was to discover: this place knows nothing about how to keep and serve decent English ale. Had I been alone I would have left the bar and the pub immediately upon being ridiculed for asking to try two beers. I was new to Helmsley and had noticed that there are plenty of other bars around the village. However as I was a with family, who had recommended the place, I had to stay. I decided to order a Guinness as usually even poor bars cannot mess that up. But this bar did! The Guinness had a sour taste and was possibly the worst Guinness I have been served in a long time. This whole “welcoming” experience filled me with dread about the lunch we had come to enjoy. Thankfully the meal was OK and the ladies serving us were friendly and attentive. Not a bad pub lunch. What a pity that the place is let down (badly) by a surly bar (manager?) who appears to know and care nothing about (how to keep and serve) English beer (or Irish) and to enjoy relieving the apparent tedium of his job by seeking to ridicule customers who dare to try before they buy. No decent pub (certainly none I have visited) objects to a customer trying ale before they buy. Our man in this bar seemed to fail to recognise that if he served decent beer I would not have had to ask to try a second. Go here for a pub lunch. Don’t go here for English ale or expecting a warm welcome in the bar. I would say 4 stars for food and service by the lovely ladies who served it and ZERO stars for the bar, the beer and the bloke who...

Admittedly, it’s about 10 years since I have visited this hotel. The first noticeable thing was to enter into the lounge, you have to pull to heavy door towards you, not push it in. Then you have to manoeuvre your way around Table 1x which is situated immediately in front of the door. People sitting at table 1 moved tables as soon as they could, because customers coming in were knocking them as they passed by. I’m not sure it fits with fire regulations. I ordered a small Parmo , my husband ordered a regular Parmo. When the meals came, my husband’s was a normal size , but mine was actually tiny. It didn’t matter because this was one of the worst parmos that I have ever eaten. Whilst the chicken itself was nice and slim and very tender, the crispy coating was overcooked to the point of being hard. To try and hide this, it was completely saturated in a very runny, sickly, strange tasting béchamel sauce. For some reason , it tasted like a sweetened mushroom soup. I lifted up the very small amount of cheese that was on the top, and scraped the sauce off with my knife. There was a lot of sauce for such a small piece of chicken . I tried to eat the chicken and cheese, but the cheese was mild and what was left of the sauce overpowered it . Unfortunately , the sauce ran onto the fries making them soggy and not nice to eat. To say I thought the meal was small to start with, I managed to eat about 1/3 of it before giving up. There was a tiny garnish on the side consisting of some leaves, coleslaw and a lot of sweet balsamic vinegar. Also, the size of the cutlery was definitely suitable for a child, rather than an adult. Anyone with large hands would have real...

My friend and I didn't stay here, but went for Saturday lunch. I ordered 'chef's casserole' which came with bubble and squeak and seasonal vegetables, as i fancied bubble and squeak as hadn't had it for years - and still haven't had it! What appeared was a dish swimming in gravy, covering the mashed potato (tasted frozen) with a little bit of cabbage underneath it, it certainly wasn't the fried pattie bubble and squeak is meant to be, and was just drowned in gravy, with 2 small sausages on top. I didn't see any vegetables. So what this actually was was a bowl of gravy with a bit of sausage and mash. The gravy was tasty enough, that gets 1 star, but that's all I can say positive about this lunch. I would advise the person cooking (can't call them a chef) to google bubble and squeak if that is what they are going to call it. My friend ordered the yorkshire pudding filled with beef, which appeared as a small frozen yorkshire pud, and the seasonal vegetables were mostly boiled potatoes, with some garden peas and a bit of cabbage. He didn't even get any gravy with that, except for the spoonful inside the yorkshire. If I'd had a ladle I could have given him half of mine. Utterly disappointing food, and disgraceful to charge what...