The Prince Of Wales — Restaurant in Vale of White Horse

After a quick search for dog friendly pubs in Shrivenhamn, my Dad, brother and my mutt popped into the Prince of Wales on the spur of the moment for a couple of pints and a bite to eat...it ended up making my day!

The first thing that struck me was how welcoming the landlord was. He greeted us like old friends, and we instantly felt part of the furniture. So much so that I remarked how rare it is to wander into a random pub nowadays and get such a warm welcome from the publican. Definitely putting the hospitable back into hospitality!

Secondly and perhaps more impressively, whilst stood at the bar I made an off hand comment about a bad pint of 6X I'd had in a different pub earlier in the week and hopefully this one would be better! To his credit chap went and poured what can only be described as a STELLAR pint.

We then got chatting about beer and my weakness for a pint of 6X he turned up at our table with a bottle of Wadworth's 100th Anniversary special run of 6X and a glass with his compliments! Not only was I taken aback by this random act of kindness, but it genuinely made my day!

So with that I'd just like to say to the landlord that you're a credit to yourself and your establishment, we had a lovely meal, in great surroundings with superb service and we can't wait to come back! Oh and the 6% version is OUTSTANDING, thank you so much, it has...

Sadly had hoped this would be a nice English country pub in a nice village. We were greeted by the smell of stale beer and damp, like pubs used to smell many moons ago! The crab cakes were thin, tiny, nothing special and looked like frozen ones, and the side salad not worthy being called ‘salad’. Merely a few leaves, onion slices, balsamic vinegar drizzled over. We left it like most of the other food. The halloumi burger was overpriced at £11 and consisted of 2.5 small slices, wedged between a white bread roll, some half cooked and tough slices of tomatoes and relish! That was all. The fries were McCain oven fries, with lashings of what seemed Nandos Piri Piri salt and the same salad arrangement. My daughter’s chicken burger was so hot and spicy, she couldn’t eat it and had to stop. £45 for food and drinks, was absolutely way off as the quality of food did not even come close and would have been no more that £5 all in all for both. I have no idea why people describe it as a lovely country pub or rave about the food. I sadly cannot recommend it and have been to plenty pubs in the years, but to offer oven chips and the rest, plus a garden and tables that had seen better days, what a shame. I am all for supporting local businesses, especially now, but they also have to have something worthwhile to offer...

New owners took over a few months back so thought I try to see if it has improved. The decor has been refreshed, which is more than you can say about the range of beers, if you don't like Wadworth or mass produced beer then you are going to have to drink Guinness or wine. Food wise, the menu has the usual pub fare, fish & chips, burgers, lasagne. I ordered the lasagne as it's usually something that is a good bench mark of the cooking, afraid to say it was bland and uninspiring, very little to no flavour, almost as if salt and pepper don't exists or herbs. My mother who was with us went for the burger, afraid to say its was burnt to a crisp and as such was not able to fill the bun it was served in, it was so poor it got sent back. When we sent it back the response was we can't do them medium, we didn't want medium just a normal burger that does resemble charcoal. It certainly isn't going to go on my list of places worth visiting for food or drink after this...