The Unicorn Inn, Banbury

The Unicorn has a good position overlooking the village green in Clifton. You enter into a corridor, which has a snug off to the left and the main bar to the right. The corridor continues to toilets and an outdoor yard to the rear. Walking into the bar, I was immediately impressed by a large range of bottled beers on shelves. I couldn't quite work out whether they were on sale or just for show. On closer inspection, there were probably only around 15-20 different beers, but several bottles of each spread haphazardly across the shelves. Bypassing this, I made a beeline to the 4 clipped handpulls at the bar. It was only when starting to order, that I realised that 3 of them were "coming soon". As such, Adnams Southwold Bitter was the only real ale on. With other locals sticking to Madri or spirits, I'm not convinced that "soon" would be any time within the next couple of weeks! Free wifi is provided. This is quite useful, as the village doesn't seem to get much of a mobile signal. Young staff didn't seem completely switched on. Overall, the initial promising look of this place soon faded into disappointment.

The Unicorn is a large looking pub that is a short distance from the smaller Red Lion. Once inside there was a fairly large L shaped room with a wood tiled floor,the ceiling was beamed and the bar looked quite nice being made from wood,the seating was bench type in the bay window with chairs and bar stools along the right wall,there was a smaller seperate room to the left which was carpeted and looked quite nice,this room was empty. The pub is a Charles Wells tied house and there were three real ales on the bar,i had a drink of Hook Norton Hookey bitter which was a decent drink,the other beers were Bombardier and Youngs Special. The pub was empty when we got in here on a Saturday dinner and lacked a decent atmosphere. Pub visited 11/5/2013