The Royal Oak — Restaurant in London

Service is terribly slow and you are not looked after as you should be as nobody bothers to check if you need a drink. The staff are very nice especially the tall chatty waiter but we Waited too long for a second drink then while ordering it I asked how long would the 2 meals be as this was 1 hour later waiter told me after he checked his tablet looks like No Order has been taken .We wouldnt mind but it was THE MANAGER Who had taken the order he Never bothered to write it down. He apologised said theres been a Misunderstanding YES MADE BY YOU We were not happy as we had waited soo long and seeing other people who came in after us get their food/ drinks.was annoying . We were given our drinks free of charge but it was easiar to get up LEAVE hungry as we did not want to wait any longer on it being cooked so we ended up going to the nearest chip shop took 5minutes to bag up FISH n CHIPS . I mean how difficult is it to make 1 Gammon Egg & Chips and 1 Lasagne.We were very upset and disappointed .This is what you call a BAD EXPERIENCE and We wont ever be going there again as its probaly THE WORST EXPERIENCE WEVE EVER HAD Just received A RESPONSE from THE OWNER maybe you should know the facts first from the customers whom have had the bad experience at your pub so theres NO CONFUSION its not that we are clearly still not happy as Ive said we wont be coming back so do not really care. Our review has obviusly upset YOU so you have come back making up a poor excuse of moving tables is the reason for the Confusion of us not getting our LUNCH. The Confusion was nothing to do with moving tables it was purely down to the ORDER not being put in by the manager .THERE WAS NO FOOD ORDER WE HAD TO GIVE IT AGAIN TO THE WAITER ITS NOT WHAT YOU WANT TO BE TOLD WHEN YOU HAVE ALREADY WAITED AN HOUR AND ARE HUNGRY TOO . We were put next to a very hot radiator we both had jumpers on I could not turn it down as controls didnt work .I asked the GiIRL waitress when she was clearing plates away at the next table if its ok to move to that one it was the same table by the window we didnt go anywhere far the GIRL said it was fine and she would come wipe it down . She never came back to clean it ,this was an hour already we had waited on lunch .Why did our order not even arrive before we moved to that table anyway Does it really take an hour to dish up 1 GAMMON and 1 LASAGNE when a chip shop can dish up 2 Fish n chips in 5minutes . Nobody even checked to see if we had a drink waited far too long on even getting a second DRINK never mind Lunch SUCH POOR SERVICE . THERE NOTHING YOU OR YOUR CARE TEAM CAN DO TO RESOLVE ANYTHING AS BAD AS 2 CUSTOMERS LEAVING HUNGRY WITH NO LUNCH AS I HAVE SAID WE WILL NOT BE COMING BACK. WE DONT WANT ANYTHING FROM YOU . IT IS WOT IT IS HOPEFULLY YOU CAN IMPROVE ON YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE FOR YOUR FUTURE CUSTOMERS THIS IS WHY THESE REVIEWS ARE HELPFUL THANKYOU FOR YOUR APOLOGY AND WISH YOU ALL ...

My family and I have been coming to the Royal Oak for many years now. I do think it is one of the better places to eat in our area but I felt it important to give some constructive feedback in this review.

If a customer requests a very specific table well in advance and it is confirmed then that table should have a reserved sign so other people DO NOT sit at it. This was not a good start to our evening!

ALL staff should be made fully aware of what the soup of the day and pie of the day is.

If a party arrives with a child then give them the child's menu. Our waitress I think was quite new and so this feedback is not meant to be nasty criticism - I used to work in the service industry many years ago and know that is tough.

Please consider making child portions of adult meals. The kids' menu is really uninspiring and not particularly well presented.

The orange duck parfait for starter was great but a 3rd slice of toast was definitely needed. Also the toast itself was warm and crispy but didn't look toasted - it's not just how it taste it's the look as well!

For the mains I had pie of the day. The pastry was looking very sorry for itself. I took a photo which I won't share here (happy to send privately) but the chef clearly dropped the ball on this one. The spring onion mash potato was lukewarm and all of the plates were heated unevenly or barely at all.

Had to chase my glass of red which meant my main course was half finished by the time it arrived - the restaurant was not that busy.

So those were the main negatives but there is plenty to be positive about - the place has a great atmosphere and I was very happy with the alternative table we were given. The staff are very friendly, you get pretty decent size portions and with restaurant prices going through the roof these days it does offer better value for money than many places. Yes I had a few grumbles above but the food is tasty and I really can't stress how special the place feels, particularly when the log fires are burning.

Our waitress had a great professional attitude and we were happy to leave the tip - just need to make sure the basics are solid e.g. knowing what soup of the day is. I know this will...

Didn't really enjoy it here, the staff were friendly enough but we had a really long wait for our main meals and no one informed us about any delays and the service was very hit and miss as we didn't get anyone coming to the table for long periods of time, so we didn't get a chance to resolve any issues with our meals such as missing the extra yorkshire, and couldn't get anymore gravy as no one checkedback with us for a while and by the time they did we had pretty much finished our meals. We did ask for desserts after our mains but waited at least another 10 minutes for the menus so we just went to the bar to pay, the server did apologies for forgetting to bring them over. We did have an offer from the newsletter for a free dessert but it did not seem worth the wait. I did speak with the manager and she explained some of the issues where due to other pubs being closed meaning they had more people than they where expecting but as someone who also works in hospitality, there definitely needs to be more information given to tables about delays as we only got told there was a delay when we heard another table next to us complaining about how long there food was taking.

The food was good to start with as our starters where nice and served at a good time but we waited around 45 mins at least between our starter and mains, the beef roast was not very good, the beef was very thin and not that nice unfortunately, the potatoes were pretty much boiled potatoes as there was no crispness to any of them except one edge of a smaller one, I wouldn't say the price matches the quality at all. The turkey roast was more generous with portion size of the meat but the rest had the same issues. However, the yorkshires are nice.

All in all probably will not be going back and there are many other local places to get a roast, which is a shame as the venue looks...