Pear Tree Inn, Banbury

The epitome of a country pub, with food, accommodation, patio and rear garden. The interior is still as described by Aqualung. The service was friendly and there were just a couple of others in at my brief visit. Sadly, as the MILD was off and so i chose the Sundial (seasonal brew) which was more than fine but, as stated below, it wasn't cheap. A pleasant place.

This is set on the Western edge of Hook Norton village and is the closest pub to the brewery. I've been here a couple of times before but not for over 30 years. It consists of a small wide single room which looks like it was once two bars as there is a flagged stone floor on the left and a wooden floor on the right. The room has a low ceiling, beams and hanging hops. There is a substantial proper garden at the rear. It's fairly food orientated but not overwhelmingly so. On my Saturday afternoon visit it was dominated by a blue rinse brigade contingent who were dining and talking about politics (at least it wasn't football). A party of bores from the British Guild of Beer Writers would have been the nightmare scenario. The bar here has six hand pumps which had just Hook Norton beers from the nearby brewery. I tried the Hooky Mild (£3.50), Harvest Hop (£3.60) and Hooky Gold (£3.80). All three were in excellent condition. The high prices here are only alleviated slightly by the 10p CAMRA discount. These are low ABV beers, 2.8%, 3.5% and 4.1% respectively. The price of the mild is completely out of order as the brewery get a substantial duty discount on a beer that weak. Since my last visit to Hook Norton their core beers have been overtaken by many of the better new microbreweries so a Hook Norton tied house doesn't have the same appeal as then. That and the high prices meant I found this to be no more than a decent village pub.