The British Oak, Blackheath, SE3

Please Note: This review is over a year old.

Rex Rattus left this review about The British Oak

I don't think that this pub has changed a great deal since Roger's visit over eight years ago. There are still two separate rooms; the room on the left is possibly a bit more "upmarket" than it was. It's dominated by a single, and enormous 12-seater tall table with tall stools, and one other slightly smaller normal table and normal chairs on one side and a backless bench on the other. For some reason irregular shaped bits of exposed brickwork has been revealed by removing some plaster from a couple of the walls. Obviously someone thought that that improved the look of the place. Also, the bar counter's painted royal blue, but on the plus side it does boast a fine Courage mirror. The larger room on the right which must be regarded as the saloon bar is still as described by Roger. The fielded panelling on the walls looks to be inter-war; the floor's carpeted and apart from a couple of tall tables/tall stools the furnishings are all traditional. it also has some interesting decor, such as a framed displays of clay pipes, miniature fishing and rugby memorabilia. There are no TVs in this room, although there is one in the public bar. There's a garden at the back.

The pub's dog friendly, has a quiz night as well as a folk night. There were also a couple of ales on - Harvey's Best and Purity Mad Goose, both of which were in good nick. There were several unclipped pumps. Food seems to be mainly Pieminister pies, with pie, mash and gravy at £9. We didn't eat there, but I guess the food must be fairly popular as when we were there a Deliveroo driver turned up to collect food from the pub.

I liked this pub, mainly for the comfortable saloon bar. It's obviously another locals' pub and certainly worth the effort of dropping into if you're in the area.

On 23^rd October 2019 - rating: 7
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