The Royal Oak — Restaurant in South Oxfordshire

Stopped for lunch a few days ago and to have a nose around after the refit. The inside of the pub hasn’t really changed, but the garden feels much more welcoming with the big fence removed. Plenty of setting inside and out, and the tables aren’t too close together.

Service and Food however, were both disappointing.

When we stepped in the pub, both serving girls saw us and disappeared around the corner. Drinks ordered fine and sat outside before ordering food.

The till system was struggling to process the 3 courses for £19.99 so I suggested they just do me another drink and I pay the extra. After a few minutes and more staff failing to work it out this was deemed the best option.

Starters were pretty good, my tortilla wrap was dry and crispy rather than soft but tasted great.

Mains not so much. I couldn’t order the sirloin I wanted despite it not being greyed out on their till system. It just didn’t exist apparently but was on the menu. Has the roast beef and it was pretty sad. The meet was overcooked and very dry. The potatoes needed another 20 minutes in the oven and the broccoli was both raw on the stem and overcooked on the fronds.

Deserts (once we’d reminded the staff we were waiting for them) were again pretty decent and worth the price. They were also happy changing flavour of the ice cream and doing cold custard on the other dessert.

So overall an average experience. Staff were chatty and friendly but just didn’t feel like they wanted to be there. Happy to change orders around, but till niggles and poor...

Without a doubt the worst pub service I've ever experienced. Came in for an early dinner at 3pm on 29/08. Only 3 other groups in the place so very quiet. The barmen watches us come in but doesn't say anything. We went to sit down and found two tables with dirty plates/cups that hadn't been cleaned up. They stayed dirty on those tables even after we left.

When I went to order the bartender was hiding at the far corner of the bar on his phone. I walked up next to him and he still ignored me! Only when I very loudly say excuse me did he look up and go "oh sorry i didn't know anyone had come in"? Yes if you are hiding you won't know who is at the bar.

It took 45 mins for them to give us a couple burgers only to see they had no clean cutlery! The chef was wanderig around looking for forks to wipe with a cloth. Absolutely disgusting.

I then went up to order another round of drinks only for the bartender to have completely disappeared! The chef came up to me and went "Yeah idk where the bartender is, um so yeah go eat your food". Shockingly poor service, I gave up on the second drinks so went to eat. Chicken burger was still raw in places and pink so we gave up and left.

Both staff on 29/08 afternoon should be sacked and Greene King should be embarrassed to associate with this run down dump. Avoid...

What a disappointment. What kind of establishment closes its kitchen for a staff break at lunchtime? This place! After seeing some positive reviews for eating here we diverted here from the A34 for lunch. Arrived to see a busy bar with local drinkers and some Evidence of food service. Greeted by friendly Lady and told to grab a seat and a menu then cone to the bar. Ordered drinks then picked our menu choices. This is at 1.30pm. We're told that the kitchen had just closed for lunch breaks and would reopen again in 30 minutes. What? So you can't come here to eat.on a lunch break as the staff are having a lunch break? This makes no sense and definitely no business sense. The Lady behind the bar refunded our drinks and we left. I assume that both members of the kitchen team were the 2 young chaps stood outside the front door chain smoking. Nice.... So we went down the road to Zidane for a very nice Turkish meal instead. This place clearly has some fundamental flaws if you want to eat here at lunchtime....