We had no
particular plan of action this week, so we jumped in the car and let the pub
Gods dictate our fate. We headed towards Chichester, deciding that we would
enter the first pub brave enough to make itself known. The wheel of chance
landed on The Royal Oak in Lavant. We had of course visited here before, but it
had been a while, so we parked up and headed inside to see if anything had
changed since our last visit.
On first
glance things seemed as we had left them. Upon ordering a Coke/Pepsi, it also
turned out that the soft drink situation remained the same. It is not possible
to acquire draft Coke/Pepsi here. You are instead offered small bottles, each
of which will cost you around £3. Baring in mind one of these small bottles
wouldn't satiate a Womble, Dad ordered two for each of us, thus spending near
enough £12 for two pints of Coke/Pepsi. That in our books is not good enough,
and neither is it a good way to start your lunch.
An average
meal here will set you back between £16 and £18. Now that sounds expensive, but
we don't like to judge until the food has been sampled. Nothing much on the
menu was jumping out at me, so Dad went to explore the specials board. He
reported back that turbot with a new potato cake and sea spinach was on offer.
That sounded pretty good to me, though I had no idea what sea spinach was. At
this stage I would urge you to sit down and hold on tight. It wasn't until we
had left that Dad informed me of the price of this turbot and friends. It cost,
deep breath, £23. It should go without saying that if I had known this at the
time, I wouldn't have ordered it.
We are then
already well invested in our time at The Royal Oak, so it was now down to the
food to blow our minds and make it all worthwhile. Dad ordered pork loin, which
might not have been priced in the same postcode as my fish, but it was still in
touching distance of £20. Now, we were both under the impression that nouvelle
cuisine was no more, but one look at Dad's plate would make you question this assumption.
Two small pieces of pork were kept company by a solitary and small croquette,
and that was it. Not a vegetable to be found. I don't care how good a piece of
pork and a potato croquette taste, there's something gone seriously amiss
there. My meal was at least of adult size. The fish was cooked well, the potato
cake was okay, and the sea spinach was interesting. Did it make me feel any
better after finding out the price? The answer to that is a simple one, no.
This is a
nice pub, and it is certainly a nice place to spend some time. The food is
cooked well, and they are doing things the right way when it comes to preparation
and ingredients. Where it all comes crashing down is the price and ultimately
what appears on the plate. My Dad's meal could have been saved with the
addition of another croquette and a few baby carrots. Frankly it astonished me
that there was no thought to add a vegetable to the dish. We always find it
hard to mark pubs like this. On one hand there is so much good, but then there
is also the bad. If affluence is your middle name, perhaps you don't mind. But
I certainly won't be recommending a meeting with friends or family here any
time soon.
Atmosphere 7
Service 7
Food 7.5
Value 5
Verdict 3.5*
Older review:
I thought
we'd been to this pub several years ago, Dad didn't remember it, so we went
there today to clear things up. Turns out that neither of us remember it and
I made the whole thing up in my head.
You would
be forgiven for thinking this is a pub. It's got a good old pub name, it looks
like a pub and does all the things that pubs usually do, yet The Royal Oak
website talks as their establishment as more of a restaurant with rooms to
rent. For the sake of this review, and to make things clearer as we progress,
we shall refer to The Royal Oak as a pub, it even has a bar and an open fire.
It's a
lovely looking pub, inside and out. It's an old building, serving the roll of
pub or restaurant for over 200 years. When we entered, the door was left open.
Being a rather cold November day, I was starting to worry that common sense had
been locked in the cellar and that we were to be exposed to the frigid air
whilst trying to enjoy our lunch. Luckily, the cellar door must have been
opened, as I noticed it suddenly warming up, and low, the door was closed. The
fire now at least had a sporting chance of heating up the cosy little pub.
We've
noticed there seems to be a distinct lack of draft Coke/Pepsi/cola in Chichester.
It is however available in very small bottles which cost about the same as a
pint. So unless you are a Smurf or of comparable size, you may require two
bottles, there by incurring substantial costs. This was the fate which befell
our parched throats, perhaps just the tap water next time. Menus and drinks
were delivered to our table though. This is where the fun began. We really
don't want to bang on about prices all the time, but let's face it, it's
something you'd want to know about, so here we go. Starters between £5 and £7,
main courses between £16 and £18, deserts from £5 to £9, cheese boards being
more, £14 if you want to share one. Now baring in mind this is a pub, whatever
anyone says, and that is way out of touch, approximately 30% over. Let's put
some context to this. I ordered fish and chips. Yes the chips were apparently triple
cooked and hand cut, yes the peas were crushed and the tartar sauce homemade.
But would you pay £16 for fish and chips in a pub? Dad had the ox cheek pie,
which also came in at £16. Even more of a shock when you find out that said pie
arrived with no potato based friends, just vegetables.
Let's
forget the price for a minute and concentrate on the food. My fish was
beautiful. A top quality peace of fish with a perfect crunchy batter. The peas
and sauce were both delicious. The chips were okay. They were better than your
average chip, but we are well aware of the triple cooked chip phenomenon, the
whole point being that you end up with a perfect and crisp chip. Without the
menu, I wouldn't have identified these as chips from the triple cooked family.
Dad's pie wasn't bad, neither was it a revelation, and as good as vegetables
can be, I think most people would be expecting a potato based accompaniment. I
should also mention that we started off with a bread basket (£2.25 for four
small slices). It was however incredibly good bread, slightly let down by the
fact it was delivered with unsalted butter, don't get me started on unsalted
butter.
Every meal
has a price. That price is of course up for deliberation, but as nomads of the
pub world, I feel we are fairly well qualified to judge that price validity. If
you have an amazing pub which sells amazing food, prepared by a highly skilled
chef who uses the finest ingredients, you can charge more than Weather spoons,
but there is still a limit. Once you get to a certain point, you're starting to
compete with fine dining restaurants, then you aren't a pub any more. So
perhaps I was wrong, maybe this isn't a pub. You go and judge for yourselves,
but be aware, there are plenty of amazing pubs nearby, that sell amazing food
and they'll do it for less than £16.
Atmosphere 7
Service 7
Food 8
Value 5
Verdict 4*
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