The Royal Oak, Cheltenham

My last attempted visit to the Royal Oak was back in 2015. It was closed at the time. However, I returned last weekend late on a Saturday evening, to find it open. It was fairly quiet with just a handful of customers scattered around the bar. I stayed in the main bar area which featured plenty of wood and stone and had a cosy feel. Bar staff were friendly, offering a warm welcome and even going down to the cellar to find the provenance of the Cheltenham Festival-themed beer that I'd ordered. The beer was called Sure Thing and was apparently from the Chadlington Brewery. Other more mundane choices were Sharp's Doom Bar & Greene King Abbot. Although I was suitably impressed that a fourth handpull was clipped with Dunkerton's Black Fox cider, which I haven't seen much of lately. I nearly succumbed to the cider, but stuck stolidly with the Sure Thing, which was a nice beer. Despite having to wait several years for a return visit, it was well worth the wait. I'd just be slightly concerned about the lack of customers on a Saturday evening.

Official site of The Royal Oak - www.royaloakcotswolds.co.uk

Official site of The Royal Oak - www.royaloakcotswolds.co.uk

Classic Cotswold Pub. Noted for food. A couple of real ales on - I went for a well kept Otter Bitter, taken in a lovely patio area out the back. Visit blogged at http://bit.ly/2KHPf1X

Proudly proclaiming out front that they are open 'all day, every day', this is a clean and charming Cotswold pub in the small village of Andoversford, just outside Cheltenham and off the main A40 road. Internally, it's kind of staple-shaped, with the dark-wooded bar facing the entrance with those classic village pub paraphernalia - horse brasses - adorning the beam above the bar. The bar area has a laminate floor surround, with the rest of floor covered in a newish-looking carpet. Odd black-and-white photos of local surrounds hang on the walls in the bar area and a large, open fireplace separates the bar from a split-level dining area to the left with exposed Cotswold stone a feature along with a 'West Country Ales - Best in the West' ceramic plaque embedded into the stone fireplace on the dining side. A pool table is located behind the bar on the right-hand side and a blackboard beyond states the various tempting bar snacks such as Pork Belly Bites and Crispy Squid, all around the £3 mark. Several tables in the dining area were occupied during my Monday afternoon visit which indicates something's being done right here, and although the ale range didn't set the world on fire, what with such luminaries as Ringwood Razor Back, Thwaites Lancaster Bomber and Wye Valley HPA (a fourth pump was unclipped), when a half of the latter was in the superb condition it was in, I'll not knock it, and I'd certainly not hesitate to swerve off the Oxford-Cheltenham road to make a visit if the opportunity arose again.