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    The Water Rat

    3.5 (4 reviews)
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    Royal Oak - Royal Oak in Ripon, England.

    Royal Oak

    (3 reviews)

    ££

    The first of my reviews for the new year, my reviews having been delayed by being very busy with…read morelots of things. We ate dinner at the Royal Oak when in Ripon on our recent trip in the UK. The food was excellent. I had the roasted bell pork with parsnip puree, etc.; someone else had the dirty burger; another had fish and chips; I can't remember the 4th dish. We also had the brussels sprouts with chestnut cream. The the three mains were excellent- 5 stars for all; the belly pork was perfectly roasted, juicy with some crispiness on the edges, the parsnip puree and roasted veg were excellent. The sprouts were good but not outstanding (4 stars), and would have been better if cut up finely instead of left whole and mixed in the the cream as we had elsewhere the day before. We had several pints of excellent cask Timothy Taylor Landlord, well kept. Service was nice. The ambience and decor were very nice, updated but with old elements and a traditional feel. We would gladly eat here again next time in Ripon.

    The quality of the food here was exceptional. The devilled lamb's kidneys were plentiful and…read moresucculent, the lamb burger raised no complaints and the beetroot gnocchi and crispy parmesan croquets were extremely moreish. Add to that a choice of real ales including 3 Timothy Taylors and you'd generally have a recipe for success. What let the place down massively on Easter Monday, however, was the service and waiting time. Having walked around the town centre quite comprehensively the Royal Oak was the only place visibly selling food a cut above pub grub so you'd think that that fact coupled with the bank holiday would mean a lot of trade for them. And you'd be right whilst we were there they had to turn away a party of ten due to having no free tables. Why then staff the dining area with a sole waitress (who clearly had her work cut out as well as being required to apologise for delays on a too regular basis) who was getting too little help from her colleagues in the bar area. The service times were not solely the fault of the front of house I suspect, they were long enough to indicate their orgin was in the kitchen. The maitre d' did, as we were finishing up, take a more active role and fell over himself to cater to a party of 5 (wrongly advising in the process that the full range of specials was available so hopefully for his sake no one ordered the Barnsley chop ). Clearly the issues detailed (which must have in large part contributed to us being undercharged by around £6) can be easily addressed and based on the quailty of the food I'd be prepared to return and see if things are better the second time around.

    The Water Rat - pubs - Updated May 2026

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