The Plough, Oxford

Blessed with a great central location on the busy, pedestrianised Cornmarket Street, opposite the tower of St Michaels North Gate, this is a small, gastro-style pub in a premises that was originally a pub but spent the best part of the last 100 years as a shop. We were met by a greeter on entry, who found us a seat and presented us with menus, which was fine as we were here to eat, although I did spot one table with people who were just enjoying a drink. The front part of the simple, single room layout is quite bright thanks to high windows along the front and right walls, making the front and right-hand side tables ideal for a bit of people watching too. There’s an attractive patterned tile floor, simple table and chair seating and bushels of hops lining the windows, whilst décor includes a few attractive lamps and interesting old photos. Further into the room, the tiles give way to floorboards, with some padded banquette seating down the left wall and standard tables and chairs to the right. More hops line the walls and there are lots of paintings of various Oxford colleges and other iconic buildings. The bar is at the rear of the room and has a nice modern counter, with a few interesting features on the bar back and a large upturned barrel in front. A decorative staircase to the rear left gives the impression of leading up to a first-floor seating area, but I didn’t try to explore, so may have this all wrong. Retro pop tunes played quietly in the background throughout our lunchtime visit and there is additional seating out on the pedestrianised street, where a few extra tables can be found under a giant umbrella in a compact fenced off space. I think I saw three handpulls on the bar, two of which were dispensing XT4 and Animal, whilst the third was unused. My XT4 was in reasonable shape and the pub has rather unexpectedly found its way into the latest edition of the Good Beer Guide. We had some lunch, which we found to be quite tasty but maybe a little pricey. The staff were very friendly, if perhaps a little eccentric, and I was a little surprised that somewhere with such a focus on food was also dog friendly. This was a pleasant place to stop off for a spot of lunch whilst out and about in the city centre, but whether it works well solely in a pub capacity is a little trickier to judge. For me, it felt like it could work for those wanting some cask ale in a café-bar type environment, but to get the most out of a visit here, I’d suggest waiting until you’re sufficiently hungry before dropping in.

Official site of The Plough at 38 - www.ploughat38.com

Official site of The Plough at 38 - www.ploughat38.com