The Crown in Oxford

Welcome, cosy pub tucked in a lane off Cornmarket Street. Comfortable seating and friendly staff. Their classic chicken and mushroom pie hit the spot on a chilly night. Beers not quite cold enough, np it that’s an Aussie thing!

Iconic and historical public house that Shakespeare apparently frequented! Well the food is pretty good, the place is clean, has a lot of charm and we were well served.

I have mixed feelings about this pub. The taste of the food was great but I had a horrible night feeling sick afterwards. The location itself looks really cool but has extremely sticky tables and rather unfriendly waiters.

So I’m traveling w my wife this past week to England and we decided to take the trip away from London and go west. We started at Oxford and it has a pretty busy atmosphere. I wanted to try some old school British food and what best place to try than in an old pub setting? I found The Crown which is part of the whole Nicholson pubs company which they own The Chequers as well. We actually went to The Chequers but their food service already closed so we went to The Crown. When we got there we asked if there is still food service and they told us we only have 5 minutes to order and had to rush to get our order in before they close. So we did and decided to get their Ocean fish and chips and the Steak and Ale pie. Total bill was £37 plus 10% service charge ($54.91 US) We sat by the right side of the entrance near the bathroom and all we can smell was the lemon ammonia cleaner coming through the doors and as people pass by and opens the door the smell gets much stronger. Luckily a table away from the bathroom opened up so we decided to relocate just as the food arrived. So based on the photos it doesn’t look bad.. only thing that really threw me off was the “breaded scampi” which is basically just fried breaded shrimp. However the breading was pretty thick and there’s gotta be micro shrimp inside.. lol the mushy peas is basically what it is.. mushy peas, the fries are underwhelming and soft.. should’ve called it mushy chips, and the fish.. the main piece, was dry, flaky like cardboard. And the pie, it looks good but as I tried to dig in I basically get a very thick and dry crust, lack of meat and sauce, but at least the sauce in the cup helped because I needed all the sauce I can get! I even poured the sauce to the fish but it’s really a lost cause. The broccoli stem was just plain steam broccoli but the carrots and mash were descent.. :) I wish I can say good things as I like the old pub vibe, maybe it’s because we came in late and they were about to close and the kitchen was not happy to serve us, but hey I don’t know. This was our experience and hopefully it will be better for others in the future.

The roast beef Sunday dinner was really tasty and cooked well, the potatoes could have done with longer in the oven but were still lovely. The pub was small pub with not many tables spare so would advise booking. Reasonable priced and in an ideal location.