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Detail Pages
Royal Oak, Lyndhurst
Fritham
Postal town: Lyndhurst
SO43 7HJ
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 8 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Just a quick pint, then I'm off left this review about Royal Oak
Tiny country pub hidden away in the northern New Forest, but in a popular walking / cycling area so it needs a huge (partly covered) bee garden. Indoors, just a compact bar and snug-sized dining room to the rear, with a kitchen squeezed somewhere at the back. Modern toilets now in a separate wooden building to one side. Six real ales from eight casks on stillage, including several local beers such as Red Cat's Mosaic Pale (£4.60) and Sea Wall from Monkey (£2.30, half).
On 31st July 2022
- rating: 8
[User has posted 8117 recommendations about 8117 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Blue Scrumpy left this review about Royal Oak
The New Forest is a lovely area to tour around and the Royal Oak certainly seems to be one of the highlights for pubgoers. Unfortunately, the good old English weather played a significant part in our visit here. It was throwing it down on our arrival and with drinking only possible outdoors, everybody was crowded under 2 tents, with water pouring in and muddy conditions underfoot. It was a stark reminder of what pubs could face this winter, assuming the virus is still around.
Despite drinking outdoors, you could still enter one by one inside to order ales served directly from the cask.
Regular ales are Flack Manor Flack's Double Drop, Bowman Royal Oak (Wallops Wood)& Hop Back Summer Lightning. Guests were Stonehenge Heel Stone & Triple fff Old Drag.
Nice country pub, but somewhat spoiled by the British weather and current circumstances.
On 4th August 2020
- rating: 5
[User has posted 2452 recommendations about 2451 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Thuck Phat left this review about Royal Oak
This really is an exceptional boozer in an area which is surprisingly badly served for good real ale haunts. The Royal Oak sits opposite the green in Fritham which is tucked away in a very attractive part of the New Forest. The front of the traditional, white painted building is thatched with the remainder tiled and inside there are a couple of rooms with wooden floors and wooden furniture and various prints of local scenes dotted around the walls. There's a large garden outside with plenty of seating and marquee type covered area if needed. Inevitably this place is popular with families, walkers, cyclists and the like.
Lunches are simple and excellently done with soup and a range of ploughman's, quiches etc. The pork pie and apple combination was superb.
Beer is served straight from the barrel and these are racked up behind the bar. The range is varied and local including Bowman's Royal Oak, Three Castle's Saxon Archer, which deserves a special recommendation, Palmer's Copper Ale, Flack's Double Drop and Ringwood Best and Fortyniner.
There are a number of awards displayed including one from the local Camra commemorating 10 years in the GBG and I'd wholly endorse this as it's the best ale house I've been to in the New Forest.
UPDATE August 2011
The Royal Oak remains unchanged and on great form. It is certainly popular but even during August Bank Holiday week never felt overrun or overwhelmed, probably due to the large garden and the fact that they're set up to deal with the numbers. It is, inevitably, popular with walkers and cyclists as well as horse riders who can use the pubs corrale while they quaff.
The menu was pleasingly unchanged and though simple the quality of their local ingredients, pies, cheeses etc. is very high and the prices not ridiculously so.
Beers served from the barrel by young, interested, friendly and very knowledgable staff included Saxon City Dubonni, Royal Oak Bitter by Bowman, Flacks Double Drop, Ringwood Best, Hop Back Summer Lightening and Goddards Hoppiness. All of these are brewed within a 20 mile radius and all I tried, especially the Hoppiness, were excellent.
A tremendous pub, one of my favourites and I'll definitely return.
On 4th September 2011
- rating: 10
[User has posted 679 recommendations about 678 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
John Bonser left this review about Royal Oak
At the end of a long winding no through road in the north west corner of the New Forest, is The Royal Oak, a small thatched, picture postcard, half timbered 16th century pub. It’s situated close to the edge of a village green where New Forest ponies graze contentedly. The pub forms part of a large farm under the same ownership as the pub. You can park in the woods over the other side of the green, from where many excellent walks can be started. It’s a pub that’s been on my radar for yonks and I was delighted to be able to finally get the chance to go there last Sunday.
The pub consists of three adjoining rooms with simple décor – newish looking wooden floors, tables, chairs and padded benches, low beamed ceilings and white washed walls. The room at the front has the bar counter and is decorated with local rural and village scenes. By the entrance, a small notice board contains a photo-fit picture of a sinister looking character, resembling a watched Crimewatch suspect, and tells us to look out for him as he’s a suspected horse rustler. An old photo of the pub tells us that it was a former Whitbread pub. This room retains half height wood panelling.
A small open doorway ( mind your head!) leads through to two smaller rooms with similar décor. The first of these has a large log fire. The end room was being occupied by a number of regulars (presumably) playing dominoes. A small hatch serves this room from the bar. There’s also an outside serving hatch at the front of the pub. Needless to say, there’s no TV’s or fruit machines.
There’s a large undulating grassy garden at the rear and side of the pub and several seats at the front of the pub at the edge of the road. There’s outside toilets, but in a separate modern block.
The pub is justifiably popular and well known and, on my Sunday lunchtime visit, most notably, a small queue had started to form outside the front door a few minutes before noon. Whilst the bar counter is relatively large in relation to the pub’s size and the efficient staff meant that the queue quickly dissipated once the pub had opened, the pub failed woefully to meet the John Bonser three minute service standard for the initial pint.
A good variety of ploughmans lunches, pork pies, cheeses etc are served and these are clearly a major draw, with most customers ordering food. The pub proudly announces that fresh local ingredients are used and that no chips or sandwiches are served. Portions are generous and my vegetarian pie with salad and all the trimmings arrived promptly and was very enjoyable - £ 7.50p. Note that they don’t take credit or debit cards.
By around 12.45pm, virtually all the tables both inside and out were occupied by a variety of walkers, cyclists and appreciative visitors. The CAMRA Good Beer Guide tells us that “dogs abound” and, unfortunately, that’s no understatement. From my table in the garden, I counted 28 at one time, not including those tables out of sight or any dogs inside the pub. Those customers who didn’t have dogs in tow were generally cyclists and, having neither a dog nor a cycle, I probably looked a bit conspicuous.
Beers are served direct from the barrel from casks low down behind the bar. With no blackboard listing beers on, it’s a case of leaning over the bar to see what’s on – not entirely satisfactory and, despite their being 8-9 barrels on, indicative of a pub where real ale is not the first priority. Ringwood beers were on, plus several guests. The branded Royal Oak ale is brewed by Bowmans. The Ringwood Best – at a surprisingly cheapish £ 2.80p – was excellent. The pub is a CAMRA Good Beer Guide Regular and appears in most other pub / beer related guides – eg Alisdair Sawdey’s guide. It’s one of those pubs that everyone seems to have heard of. The young staff are keen and enthusiastic and, pleasingly, all seemed to be local rather than foreign.
Perhaps not surprisingly, this is much more a destination pub rather than a community orientated local, but you should try and get here sometime when you can.
Highly recommended ( despite the dogs!)
On 18th August 2011
- rating: 9
[User has posted 560 recommendations about 560 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Half Pint Davey left this review about Royal Oak
A great pub, with a great selection of real ales, and good food to boot, the land lord & lady are welcoming and warm. They used to do a fantastic beer festival every year, but I think this may not be on this year.
On 12th January 2011
- rating: 9
[User has posted 4 recommendations about 4 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Old Boots left this review about Royal Oak
One of the most famous of New Forest pubs it is located near the end of a long no through road, built in cottage style it is a long, low, thatched building probably of considerable age (17th Century?). Inside there is a small front bar with counter and behind that the stillage for cask ales, a T bar on the counter caters in a limited way for more modern tastes. There is no blackboard or handpumps so you need to lean over the counter to see what ales are on, usually from small breweries and Ringwood. Beyond are a further two small, low ceilinged, cosy rooms with tables and chairs mainly for diners, although this is no gastro pub the food is recommended. Sympathetically modernised retaining baseboards and bench seating, the décor is simple, with tongue and groove and white walls adorned with prints with Forest and rural themes, the other furniture is modern kitchen style with wheelback chairs. The only other decoration is the framed awards from various organisations. It's a small pub but it has a large garden. Long gone are the days when the pigs would wander into the bar from the pig sty across the yard, the sty is now home to the toilets. Roger Protz not only lists it but raves about it in his Britain's 500 Best Pubs and who am I to argue with that?
On 24th September 2010
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 3269 recommendations about 2978 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Quinno _ left this review about Royal Oak
A lovely 'picture-postcard' country pub, with low thatched roof and roaring fire in the heart of the New Forest. The interior boasts several drinking areas plus simple but excellent food that includes local cheese and home smoked sausage. The ploughmans looked fine indeed. A fair selection of good quality ales lie within, usually sourced from Hop Back, Bowmans and Ringwood, all of which appeared to be dispensed straight from the barrel. One downside was that a couple of the other punters were a bit offish and didn't seem to like having their evening disturbed by people they didn't recognise. Otherwise this is a great place, especially if you can bag a seat next to the fire on a cold winters evening.
On 11th July 2009
- rating: 8
[User has posted 5099 recommendations about 5082 pubs]