Royal Oak Inn — Restaurant in Wales

In a place which already holds quite a decent reputation, I was shocked to be presented with this- the "King Prawn Pasta", a total watery regret. Now, I'm fairly certain this was a one off, after seeing the other guests' dishes, none of which seemed to be surrounded by water. Food envy reached new levels that day, and the 2 stars this review has received is only for the sight and smell of the other dishes I could see being served- they all looked good. I'm still shocked at how one can get this so wrong, it is quite beyond belief. I sat there just staring at it for a while, knowing what watery disgrace I was about to tuck in to. I didn't have a lot of time left before my 2 young kids started to get impatient from sitting still, so I gave it a chance... The pasta was beyond white- it had been pre-cooked and stored in water, then reheated, in more water. The density really gave it away- I've had more bite in a bowl of custard. The sauce was like murky dish water, And some added water, just for good measure. Add 3 x halved cherry tomatoes, an inch of a really small transparent onion, briefly show them a frying pan with some more of that water, ensure no flavour is offered to the dish, and finally ASSUME the diner wants some cheese thrown on (wrong), and serve! Wow. I've worked and dined in plenty of restaurants in my time, but have never seen pasta served like this. I mashed the cherry tomatoes in to attempt adding a slight hint of flavour, with no success. I ate the 5 prawns, and gave up. After all, waiting for a different dish would only tempt fate with 2 young kids (as every parent knows).

Customer service was good. They receive stars for bringing me some ice for my tepid white wine which hadn't even seen a fridge, and for being very apologetic after my feedback on the pasta, which they then promised to take off the bill. I've had to remove those stars however, as they only deducted a tenner after all. I can only imagine the dialogue that took place from a defensive "chef", who inevitably instructed an embarrassed waiter that 'not ALL money should be deducted since she ate a fivers worth of the prawns!'. Of all the bad decisions they made that day, that was by far the funniest, and most damming to their reputation. Whoever made that decision has cost the Royal Oak more than a mere fiver, for heavens sake. Its laughable. I'm sure 90% of diners have had a great experience here, but I'm sure the 10% who have regrettably ordered this dish (if its still on the menu), would...

My wife and I had a meal at this establishment this evening, (Saturday the 7th Sept 2024).Being Saturday it was a busy evening but the staff were charming polite and very efficient. All appeared to be young but were full of energy and clearly keen to help and to serve. My wife ordered Hake from the specials menu which came with new potatoes, lemon butter, capers and a salad. I ordered Scampi with skin on chips, salad and extra coleslaw. To help things along my wife ordered a half pint of dry cider and I ordered a pint of ice cold larger. The food arrived within 20 minutes freshly prepared and cooked to perfection. The hake was superb and ranks as some of the best my wife has ever tasted, I agree as I tasted it too. The scampi was really good, crisp outer crust and juicy highly flavoursome inner flesh. The chips were lovely, not at all greasy and with skins on were really tasty. The salads with both meals was lovely, crisp fresh salad vegetables and large slices of lemon to accompany the fish. My wife and I have eaten at many restaurants all over the UK and the World but despite being an ordinary and certainly not a top end Micheline starred premises the food we ate at the Royal Oak tonight was some of the best we have eaten - ANYWHERE. This was a case of simple high quality ingredients well prepared and cooked to perfection. Outstandingly good food and a very well done to all the very young staff we saw working so hard tonight. To be fair all the food we saw coming out to the other tables looked fabulous and was greeted by customers with high praise. Brilliant chef whoever it was tonight and the staff deserve recognition and a big thank you from the owners. Once again well done.... Mr and Mrs...

I wouldn't recommend this place, especially if you're with a group. We booked a table for 8 adults and 1 toddler and were asked to prebook our meals. We were sent a menu 3 days before that didn't appear to include everything. Following 2 calls and several emails, it turned out we'd been sent the wrong menu. The afternoon before our booking we sent over our preorder but with caveats on the starters as there were items on the menu (i.e soup of the day, pate of the week) that we would possibly prefer if they knew what they were. Next day we arrived for our booking, and there was barely a smile from any of the staff and we were told we couldn't amend our preorder but would have yo add on any new items as extras. I had ordered surf and turf which according to the menu came with a skewer of prawns. I asked for the steak medium rare and when it came out my steak was overcooked and it had lobster. I sent it back and was advised the lobster was the special that day and they weren't apologetic in the slightest that my meal wasn't what I had ordered. By the time I got the meal back my group had all finished their meal. The food was average and the service terrible apart from one young man that smiled, chatted to us all and made a very disappointing experience that little bit better. We didn't order desert and got out of there as fast...