The Chessington Oak, Chessington

Large pub om road junction, mainly aimed at family dining during the day and locals drinking in the evenings. Reasonably tidy bright and modern interior, with numerous different areas all interconnecting. Three ales on offer of the Doom Bar/London Pride variety and condition reasonable - even has a Cask Marque listing. Nothing much wrong with it, for what it is.

This is a member of the Sizzling pubco chain so obviously it does the usual bogstandard pub grub advertised in glossy menus on all the tables. Inside there’s the usual mix of bucket armchairs, sofas and normal tables and chairs. Games machines, fruit machines and the inevitable pool table are all here. With a predictable inevitability, the only ale on was London Pride (£2.80 a pint) which was just about OK and thus a notch or two better than at the William Bourne down the road. I reckon that overall this pub is a better bet than the William Bourne, but that’s not saying much, and is probably because we didn’t seem to have the same sort of coarse and vulgar customers in here. This is a bogstandard cheap and cheerful pubco chain pub in the ale and pub wasteland of Chessington. This is another pub to which I probably won’t return.

Chessington Oak page at the Sizzling Pubs site - www.sizzlingpubs.co.uk

The Chessington Oak is a Sizzling Pub Co establishment that specialises in cheap food and there are plenty of promotions to bring down the cost of a pint. Two hand pumps were unused when I visited just before Christmas, but Pride and Marstons EPA were both available alongside a sea of standard draught products. It was very busy with a young twenties crowd who all seemed to know the bar staff on duty. This presented me with a bit of a problem as the staff seemed reluctant to drag themselves away from their conversations and one female member of staff was standing behind the bar chatting to a couple of locals whilst knocking back a pint. I was stood directly in front of her and after three minutes I walked around to the other side of the pub to get served. If this wasn’t the last pub on my crawl of the area I would have walked out and gone to the next one. I think that the icing on the cake was the scowl I received when I asked for my ridiculously short measured pint of Guinness to be topped up. Anyway, this is a large pub with a pool table and dartboard at the rear and also a large toy grab machine next to the bar. There is an advertised terrace garden that I did not see and there is a covered smoking area outside the front of the pub alongside some picnic tables and plenty of parking. There is a quiz every Wednesday evening and Thursdays host the poker nights. Mondays have happy hour all day where the costs of the already reasonably priced drinks are reduced. I was disappointed with this pub and I would walk past if in the area again.

Chessington Oak page at the Sizzling Pubs site - www.sizzlingpubs.co.uk