The Old Oak, Polegate

The Old Oak is a nice traditional country pub with an L shaped bar area that houses a fireplace and has very low beams. The door to the toilets at the rear is about five and a half foot high and I bashed my head twice during my thirty minute visit. A few premium and standard draught products are available from the bar and in the room behind there are some barrels that were gravity pouring Old Oak, Hophead and Hobgoblin. Food is available during lunchtime and early evenings during the week and all day at weekends. The mains cost around £9 and are pretty much what one would expect from a pub that had turned the entire right hand side of the building into a dining area. This pub opens at 10:30 every morning for tea, which is unique for this area as most of the pubs around here spend the majority of the day closed. There are no televisions here, but there was some low background music playing and the weekly quiz is held here every Tuesday from 20:00. My visit was just after noon on Monday and for a while there was only one other customer, but then the car park started to fill up as people arrived for lunch. The car park is located to the right of the pub and at the rear of the car park are a couple of picnic tables and a children’s climbing frame. The majority of the outside seating is to the left of the pub in a hedge lined grass covered area. I liked it in here, but a session is out of the question due to the remote location and the fact that I’d and up unconscious after forgetting about the low ceiling. Maybe I’ll visit again one day to try the food.