White Horse, Bicester

The White Horse is a Greene King pub with a car park out the front and a large astroturf picnic area behind a white picket fence down the right-hand side. Inside the serving counter faces the entrance, standard and premium keg were available alongside GK IPA and Abbot from the four hand pumps. To the left is some seating where a couple of young families were dining, so I about faced and went into the right-hand side of the pub where an England friendly was about to kick off on the television. I sat at one of the high tables and noted that presence of two pool tables and two dartboards. I’d use this place if I lived locally, but as an out-of-towner I won’t be wandering north of the high street again.

Flat roofed Greene King local, so we approached with caution and made sure to ingratiate ourselves with the locals outside on the astroturf beer garden by fussing their dog. We needn’t have worried, as the atmosphere inside and lively but friendly – quite a number of punters in and was possibly the busiest pub of the afternoon bar Spoons in terms of floorspace divided by people. Given the review below I could well expect a more robust atmosphere during the football, but the barstaff were mature and well-built males who looked to be well in charge of the pub and its patrons. Staple shaped interior which has been done out in the colour mad scheme GK like for their local pubs. Four ales on, all GK; IPA, Abbot, OSH and Starry Night. We tried the latter which was in superb shape, so much so that I went for another half off the bar to see if it wasn’t a one-off and landed a good Abbot too. A real surprise and worth the effort if you're crawling the town and fancy something a bit different, Greene King or no. 6.5