The Royal Oak

The Royal Oak is situated in the posh foodie location of Berkshire, so there is a lot of competition, but also a lot of expectation riding on this.

Food

The selection on offer today was much less than what they had on the website. A small selection of 3 different kinds of breads were offered to start us off with. The selection was a bit dry and not very remarkable. For entrée, the Homemade Smoked Cods Roe Pate with Toast (£7.50) was well received. The thick toast made a good base for strong but not heavy cod roe. This was paired with a light salad that made it very easy to wash down the pate. I decided to forgo the wine and try a locally brewed beer. My beer was as expected, a dark ale with mellow flavours.

I went for the Whole Sand Sole with Herb Butter & Rosti (£16.95), which was very generous. This has one of the best flavours I’ve had for UK fish, and the skin was fried until just golden. Slokky went for the fat slog of the Calves Liver and Bacon with Rosti (£17.95). As usual, liver tastes like liver, although these were the biggest liver I’ve ever seen. The bacon was nice and crisp, but I felt like I needed something a bit lighter to balance the flavour. A bowl of very crunchy vegetables accompanied the meal. The dessert menu looked really good, but we were too full to pursue it.

Rating - 7

Atmosphere

It was a glorious day, so we requested to sit outside, under a vine canopy and with the sound of chirping birds. The good thing about the UK is that there aren’t any flies or mosquitoes to bother you at this time of year, so dining outside is very pleasant.

The place was relatively quiet on a Sunday night, which was great, as it was like we had a little sanctuary of our own. Yattendon is a very small town, The Royal Oak was actually the local pub! And it was nice to see the locals hanging out here.

Rating - 2.5

Service

It’s so refreshing to be out of London some times, just to experience genuine warm service. Our waiter accommodated our request to sit outdoors without any problems. I don’t know how they got such great timing, as we were seated so far away, right at the edge of the garden, away from the building. But they knew at exactly what time to come and take our order, refill our drinks and clear the plates. They were so humble but weren’t over the top.

Rating - 5

C-factor

Unfortunately Berkshire is one of the most expensive places in the UK, so the prices were like London prices, but the service and the setting was top notch, so I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Rating - 1

Brownie Points - 15.5

Info

The Square
Yattendon
Berkshire
RG18 0UF
Phone +44 (0) 16 3520 1325
Website