The Star, St Clements, Oxford

Interesting back street pub just off the Cowley Road. Whatever you do, dont drive these streets. You'll find yourself impaled on a wooden spike in the middle of the road or if you a more lucky, embedded into a flower planter. When will Sat Navs keep up with the town planners? The selling point is certainly the lovely beer garden. Wonderful. My son's local and he has waxed lyrical about the quality of the TT Landlord. Alas, not on today. I think there was only one Cask on, but with the high temperatures, I went safe Japanese Keg Kirin. Interesting little place, I would be happy to return.

The Star is a small backstreet boozer that was busy during a recent Thursday evening visit. Unlike most of the other pubs in the area a lot of the punters weren’t students, which was nice. The bar on the right-hand wall supports premium and craft keg and I spotted three hand pumps. Oakham’s Citra, Tiny Rebel’s Cwtch and Titanic’s Plum Porter were available, with the latter being on top form. The very friendly barman informed me that they had some Reserve, but I declined due to being mid-crawl. Old beer clips along the ceiling beams suggest a regular and changing cask range. This was my favourite pub of the day.

Half-in, half-out student backstreet boozer. Dimly lit inside with an opened-out interior that has a false semi booth seating arrangement in the main part, with a more attractive exposed brick seating area to the right. Bizarre deep green, burgundy and dark wood varnish colour scheme and the disco-style lit bar was dreadful. Beyond is a pool room which leads to a rear patio which in turn leads to a tidy grassed area with flora and a BBQ area (not in use). Loud, student friendly alt music. Large selection of board games. Three ales on; a decent choice, two from Compass and Robinsons Trooper. My Compass Pilot 79 was merely ok, came through a sparkler and lacked a bit of condition. One poor overworked barmaid seemingly doing everything. Various drinks offers above the bar, a different one each day. Kids allowed until 6pm. With less low-grade touches this could be a nice little student boozer that the average punter might also enjoy.