The Royal Oak - Restaurant Review

Thursday 01 May

I've been looking forward to eating at the revamped Royal Oak for some time, and now I find it's been revamped again, with a completely new menu, new head chef and management team. Was it worth the wait?

Whether you approve or disapprove of the new look interior, you can't deny that its clean and fresh, its modern and very comfortable, with a new emphasis on service and providing the modern customer with what they want - quality food and drinks in a nice environment. We settled in with a lovely drop of one of my favourite Czech lagers, draught Staropramen, to study the new lunch and dinner menus devised by Calvin the Head Chef, who hails from a restaurant background in and around York (gourmets may remember him from the Blue Bicycle).

The first thing that jumps out from the lunch menu are the new 'knife and fork' sandwiches...hearty-sounding feasts like rib-eye steak, onion relish and beef jus, served on thick crusty bread with dripping cooked chips (£7), or you could choose a fish pie (£8), homemade rump steak burger (£8), fishcakes (£6), or a vegetarian linguine dish (£7). Hungry ploughmen are not forgotten - the Oak's impressive sounding platter of cold meats, pates, cheese and chutneys even includes a shot of Weston's organic cider (£8). Lunch is served between 12pm and 3pm during the week, and 12pm and 4pm at the weekend, and a bar snacks selection is available for those in between times.

Turning to the dinner menu, I choose a starter of a warm salad of chorizo and potato with a soft poached egg (£6), and my dining companion went for the glazed goat's cheese, rocket and pecan salad (£5, pictured left). Potted shrimps and soda bread sounded fine (£6), as did the baked Queenie scallops with garlic butter (£7).

The fact that Calvin has a good eye for detail and presentation is apparent from the enticing colours and pleasing arrangement of the dishes when they arrived. I'm pleased to say the flavours were just as good as the artwork, and the glazed goat's cheese, rocket and pecan salad was a triumph of a starter. The smooth creaminess of the slightly melted cheese mixed with the bitter tang of the rocket and sweet crunchy pecans was superb. It had everything going for it - look, taste and texture, yet was a simple dish of only a few ingredients and not enough to fill you up too much before your main course.

Moving onto the mains, the fact that the steaks are from Kirkby Malzeard is highlighted on the menu. New assistant manager Lucy, who served us, takes care to point out that all the meat and fish on the menu is locally sourced from within 10 - 15 miles of Ripon, which is good to know. Choices include 16oz T- bone steak with dripping cooked chips, shallot and tarragon butter (£16), Barnsley chop, sauted kidneys and homecut chips (£11) or double bone rib of beef for two to share (£30). Fish aficionados would be pleased to see grilled skate wing, lemon, caper and parsley butter (£11) and salmon fillet with peas, bacon and cream (£10). Vegetarians are catered for with an onion, mushroom and spinach tart served with a fried duck egg (£9).

In the end I chose the crispy skinned chicken, spring vegetables, pancetta and herb mascarpone (£11, pictured below left) and my companion opted for the slow belly pork, spiced apple and white bean salad with crispy black pudding (£11, pictured above right).

Again, both dishes were very visually appealing; it seems Calvin certainly understands the old maxim that eating starts with the eyes. My chicken was moist with flavoursome skin, and (again) the textures on the plate worked as a pleasing whole as well as the flavours - smooth velvety mascarpone with soft chicken, against the strip of salty well-done pancetta and firm spring veggies. My only grumble was finding chunks of almost raw onion hiding amongst the veg - but that's a reflection of my tastes rather than a fault of the dish, as my husband loves raw onion!

The cube of belly pork came topped with a cracking square of crackling. The intense flavour of the black pudding complemented the sweet but subtle pork, and the spiced pickled apple livened up the whole lot.

Now I have a confession to make - although at this point we usually plough ahead through the dessert course in the interests of well-rounded journalism, neither of us could face that challenge on this occasion (perhaps we're getting too old!). So we had to politely decline offers of lemon tart, fresh cherry bakewell or hazelnut and chocolate torte with espresso ice cream. What a sacrifice!

But by this stage we were feeling very happy with our lot and the great food we had eaten, and felt almost excited that one of Ripon's most well-known pubs has earned, in our eyes, the accolade of 'gastropub'. Tacky though that particular word may be, it sums up the aspirations of the team at the Oak, who have enthusiastically ramped up the food selection several more notches with this new menu.

www.royaloakripon.co.uk 36 Kirkgate, Ripon, HG4 1PB 01765 602284

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