The Royal Oak, Marylebone, W1

Pub SignMan left this review about The Royal Oak

This is a single room, open plan pub on a quiet street corner down a side street close to Marylebone Station. The bare boarded room has a corner entrance and large windows along the front and right sides. The servery is to the left and has a cool counter front with a decorative, modern woodwork design, plus a very wide, white tile bar back. Seating through the centre and to the right is a mix of basic tables and chairs plus some comfy looking button backed banquettes, with a small divider part way into the room helping to create front and rear sections of sorts. The walls have textured wallpaper beneath a dark painted frieze with a trophy and ribbon motif, and have been decorated with contemporary art and a few blackboards listing various food and drink options. A lot of the tables had seemingly been rearranged to cater for a large group, so the centre of the room was practically empty, with loads of standing room - I'm not sure it's always like this, so the spacious feel I got from this visit may not translate when the furniture is all back in its usual place. Potted plants have been arranged along the divider, but there are no real soft furnishings, so the noise on a Saturday night was intense, to the point that the music could barely be heard.
Two cask ales were on handpull - Taylors Landlord at £5.90 a pint and Harveys Sussex Best, with a third pump left unclipped. The barman was a bit distant and the large group meant that I ended up having to drink at the bar for a lack of other seating options. The Landlord was in fairly good nick and the atmosphere was better than in other pubs I visited in the area on a Saturday night.
This felt like a pretty functional pub with a couple of standard ale options, basic interior design and decent seating options. They haven't done a lot to make this place stand out from the crowd and I'm sure it will be destined to barely registering in my memory by the end of the year, but it did its job for a quick pint and wouldn't be somewhere I'd object to returning to.

Date of visit - 16th March 2024

On 5^th August 2024 - rating: 6
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