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Reviews (Current Rating Average: 5 of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Pub SignMan left this review about The Plough
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.
On 7th February 2022
- rating: 6
[User has posted 3114 recommendations about 3114 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Quinno _ left this review about The Plough
The ‘new’ OX1 pub opened by (or featuring, I don’t really know) XT brewery, so I was expecting good things. Well. For a start it’s actually operating close to being a quasi-restaurant. 'Please wait here to be seated' says the board outside; a bad sign (pun intended). Weird all round with a camp hyperactive Arabic greeter and some bizarre old Oxford prof bringing the drinks. Inside is long and narrow with a nice Middle Eastern style bar back and copper tanks storing some of the beer. Two cask, XT4 (NBSS 2.5, a tad warm and listless - lack of turnover) and one from the XT-owned Animal brewery. Also had an XT Oxford lager for a laugh. Incredibly weird and uncomfortable all-round for a solo toper. They are clearly wanting to shift food but there were few takers from what I could see. Doubt I’ll be back in its current guise, which is a shame.
On 26th September 2021
- rating: 4
[User has posted 5099 recommendations about 5082 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Tris C left this review about The Plough at 38
Closed for 95 years, the Plough reopened in early 2019 as a collaboration with XT and a much-revised interior, though with the impressive staircase to the restaurant floor retained. Where once there were plate glass windows to St. Michael’s Street, there are now sets of near full height bifold windows which were closed on a very hot evening. The interior features a tiled frontage, thereafter worn looking herringbone parquet flooring which must have been retained from the former shop. It’s long and thin with a curved bar at the end and much copper pipework, which punctuates the enormous shiny copper brew tanks in a room to the rear. The interior features some white bare brick with otherwise grey walls with some ductwork to the ceiling. Furniture is either fairly traditional or very modern with tables running parallel to the aforementioned windows. At the other side of the ‘aisle’ is a grey suede banquette with yellow girlie scatter cushions and square tables, seemingly made from dark granite. It’s quite brightly lit and with all the hard surfaces, the acoustics are very poor, not helped by mindless music emanating from some popstrel coming out of the speakers, competing with cacophonous chatter.
My early evening visit clashed with customers, who mainly appeared to be tourists drinking coffee, finding a place which was very full. Despite all the cupric plumbing, there were three ales, all from XT, with my half of 4 coming in at a very reasonable £2.00 and not half bad it was too; real ales are served at 12C from a temperature controlled cellar with the three 1,000-litre brewing tanks being called Tom, Dick and Harry.
This is ok for a drink if necessary and the food may be genuinely good, but it’s a bit like drinking in a branch of Caffè Nero with a bar at the end; the unavoidable interaction with society’s less fortunate make this a less than appealing proposition, given its Cornmarket Street/George Street location, which is the epicentre of Oxford’s homeless crisis, so I don’t envisage a return visit, but all credit for bringing a pub back from the dead.
On 29th August 2019
- rating: 4
[User has posted 1985 recommendations about 1951 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Komakino . left this review about Plough
Soft-launched in December as a pub again after almost 100 years (it originally closed in 1924 and spent most of its life inbetween as an Austin Reed tailor's outlet). This is owned by the team in charge at the 1855 Bar at the Oxford Castle quarter, with three cask ales and three keg taps provided by XT, although it is technically a free house. The USP will be three metal tanks beyond the bar through a carved stone arch (the tanks named Tom, Dick & Harry) which will house XT/Animal beers to secondary ferment. Large street-opening windows give a vista to the arse-end bustle of pedestrian-only Cornmarket, as well as providing a decent inside glimpse to passing footfall. A lino-tiled entrance leads to a herringbone parquet floor with a zigzag bar at the far reaches. A dark, wooden staircase to the left leads to a restaurant area (entitled "The Malting Hall") which was, on this visit, having finishing touches applied to it ("another 2 weeks", I was informed and would offer "modern British cuisine with a twist" from a former chef from The Fat Duck). Two ales in the form of XT's session ale 4 along with Animal one-off brew Flounder which was superb, although £4.25 for a pint. The three keg taps offered 'XT Oxford Lager' (AKA XT Eisbar) and 'XT Oxford IPA' (AKA XT Snake Oil) along with Animal Polar Bear (a milk stout). A welcome addition to the central Oxford drinking scene - it remains to be seen how it will pan out for them (Heart FM in the background was a big no-no, and the male and female toilets are a shared space) but any pub resurrection, however long in time it has taken, is to be applauded, and I can certainly see myself revisiting this place when back on one of my frequent visits to the dreaming spires.
On 28th January 2019
- rating: 6
[User has posted 1075 recommendations about 1075 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Quinno _ left this review about Plough
Due to re-open December 2018, in collaboration to XT Brewery https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/17271410.pictures-inside-cornmarket-pub-returning-after-100-years/?fbclid=IwAR30iv1jGkr2yHFtkE5aMExN3inWnwYheF1lbW6zxtarUQZ0KYWbE__P-Pk
On 5th December 2018
- no rating submitted
[User has posted 5099 recommendations about 5082 pubs]