The Royal Stag

A lovely sunny day in the country, after a gentle water ski. What else is there to do other than head to the pub and so we found ourselves bopping to 60s and 70s rock n roll/​motown hits in dolby surround sound. Sunday lunch was nearly ready and we hadn’t even started dancing Anyhow being from London I havent had a great roast in a long time. I was very happy to discover a friendly portion of beef delicately melted into a rich gravy, and a Yorkshire pud to fill my plate. The portion was very ample and the food stopped me talking. This wasn’t the beer talking but a fine roast that hit the mark.
I didn’t see any of the ghosts and the service wasnt too shabby for a pub. This is definitely one for my summer outings. All I needed was some deer in the back yard to fully indulge my senses.

The Royal Stag is an old pub dated as far back as 1400’s and is said to be haunted, with many apparently seeing a ghostly presence. The Royal Stag used to be my local, it was lively, warm and friendly with great food and atmosphere and the perfect setting for a Christmas meal.
After having not been for over 2years I decided to pay it a visit. granted I visited it on a rainy Saturday afternoon so it was pretty empty. The pub looked the same, but all had changed. It looks like the pub has changed hands since I last went and there was a different menu. Really hungry I decided to order a jacket potato and my boyfriend decided to get a cajun chicken burger, the price seemed reasonable and we were starving!!! As we waited I started to eat my words about the pub being so great.
50mins later our food order finally arrived, I was starting to wonder if they’d actually been growing my jacket potato and whether they were hand rearing the chicken for the cajun burger before we got our food. I was really disappointed because it took so long and then noticed that my jacket potato had been microwaved as it was all chewy. The only redeeming feature was the lady who served it, who was smiley and friendly but she gave no mention of a sorry for your wait, I couldn’t even understand why it had taken so long when the place was practically empty.
Also as we were finishing up a lady went to the bar to complain that her hot drink had been served to her cold eek!
Sadly I think The Royal Stag is another victim of being not as good as it used to be, I don’t think I will be going back in a hurry to this one or maybe only go here if you want to grab a drink if you’re in the area.