The Royal Oak

Excellant food, great usuage of seasonal produce cooked in a precise simple but flavoursome manner. Service was attentive but not intrusive.Wine list impressive and apart from the obvious “ look what I got” wines it also offers a good selection of well priced wines.

Regrettably, I had a similar experience to Steffi F.

Took my wife there for a birthday lunch on Saturday just gone and whilst we can be quite hard to please sometimes, by the same token, we're not over critical for the sake of it.

The venue is very pleasant, well looked after and appointed, if in the middle of nowhere, but not difficult to find. Drinks service and for that matter, starters were pretty much as expected although the crab was slightly overwrought by the amount of rosemary used. The eel salad I had as a starter was perfectly pleasant, but lacked a little bit of the smokiness I would expect from smoked eel. But, in fairness, this is hair splitting.

What proved to be a lot more serious and resulted in our untimely departure was the long, too long, gap between starter and main courses. Now, for a central London restaurant, maybe just maybe, sometimes you'd give such an interval, of 35 minutes or so the benefit of the doubt. And I realise that there are not many staff on in the kitchens of gastropubs on a summer saturday and yes, it was quite busy.

But once you've heard “five minutes”, “five minutes”, “its coming shortly”, “its coming any minute now” and still the mains dont turn up – particularly when in both cases, we're talking about fish dishes which were not exactly over complex, it starts to wear a bit thin. And, I'm afraid my wife decided that we were not waiting any longer and that was that. Much as I would like to have given them the benefit of the doubt, I couldn't defend them and at that point we left.

In fairness to Nick Parkinson, he was extremely apologetic and despite my repeated attempts to pay for what we had already consumed – two starters, two drinks, plus a glass of champagne for my wife – he refused to accept any payment and seemed visibly put out and disappointed. Maybe the Royal Oak isnt used to people finding fault or being dissatisfied with basic things and are more used to the local and national press telling them how wonderful they are.

Maybe it isnt fair for us punters to be as demanding of gastropubs as we are of other restaurant establishments. We're not a couple who demand the impossible of venues, but when you're spending as much as you are in this case, I think its only reasonable to expect that such long intervals between courses are either kept to an absolute minimum or customers kept informed a lot more than just the platitudes of “its coming right up”.

Sorry guys. I had great hopes for the Royal Oak, I really genuinely did. But, I was left more than a little disappointed and my wife even more so. Maybe it just wasnt meant to be.

Top quality cooking, but the bill came to £140 for 2 people at lunch (inclusive of service), so it was rather more expensive than I would expect, especially as drink consisted of just 2 glasses of Pimms to start, one soft drink and a single glass of red wine.

The rabbit lasagne as a starter was really really good, and don't miss the scotch egg appetisers.

On a sunny day, the garden is let down by the noise of traffic from the adjacent road, and the garden itself isn't much to look at. I'd rather go in winter and stay inside.

Staff were very polite and accommodating.

Not sure I'll go back – especially given the strength of local competition in nearby Bray!

1) Lived up to expectation Sat eve 28 Feb and endorsed by friends who praised staff’s friendliness
2) £50/ head for 2 courses incl. aperitifs and 2 bottles of wine (recommended and will re-order)
3) Recession? This place in a serene Berkshire village buzzed
4) Consensus of opinion : Faultlessly scrumptious

Visited 11 Feb 09 just to check that a week or so ago wasn’t a fluke…..and definitely not, but the slow service last time presumably was. All dishes perfectly executed and arrived in respectable timescales. Instead of the Pithivier of rabbit which apparently sold out at lunchtime, I had smoked haddock soup with a poached egg nestled amongst the great fish hunks; then halibut with a carefully spiced aubergine kind of compote. The other half enjoyed the venison just as much as first time. We managed to share pudding which wasn’t the best take on a Sticky Toffee listed as “Steamed Butterscotch” but still good. Feels like a pub and still being run as one alongside the restaurant but they don’t seem to serve ordinary pub grub – thankfully.

Delightfully enticing menu with most dishes having a modern touch. Unfussy interior maintains pub atmosphere throughout. Wine list has a good variety including some recommended on a separate list. Kitchen service perhaps a shade slow as front of house staff were returning from (presumably) the kitchen empty handed. All was forgiven when we were finally presented with 5 star ingredients handled deftly and plated pleasingly simply. All components of meal carefully prepared, seasoned properly and cooked accurately; adequate amount of jus with the venison had good depth and glossy appearance. Waistline increased inches just glancing at the perfect buttery mash. Pithivier of rabbit to die for. Portions generous, so pud would have been a struggle, though a mouth-watering choice for next time. – first visit 4 Feb 09

we had great difficulty finding the town of Paley Street and the pub's own map on their website was inaccurate.
When we finally arrived, we decided not to order first courses to speed things up. I ordered Toulouse sausages and my husband ordered their belly of pork. We waited over one hour for the food.
Everytime we asked when the order would arrive, they would say “in five minutes'. If they had been truthful, it would have been better. They also should have warned us that as the kitchen couldn't cope with too many orders at a time, we should have had a starter to stave off our hunger.
When the food finally arrived, I got only one Toulouse sausage with some lentils for £12.95. My husband's pork belly looked like a nouvelle cuisine dish from the 1980;—.a tiny square piece of pork about 4” x 2". Not very much for £16.
The side order of chips were superb.
When we complained about the slow service, we were told that “too many orders had come in at the same time”. If you can't handle that on a Monday lunchtime, you shouldn't be in business.
I don't think people should be swayed by Sir Michael Parkinson's association to it via his son — it was overpriced and overhyped and I certainly wouldn't return..