Randomness Guide to London - Differences between Version 23 and Version 22 of Royal Oak, SE1 4JU

Good Beer Guide pub near Borough Station. Owned by Harvey's, and so normally has the full range of Harveys beer, including the seasonals.

It has two rooms linked by a small lobby at the front door and the bar in between them serving both. Service is very friendly, as are the regulars found propped along the bar.

There are seven hand-pulls, and on a visit in September 2008, the ales were Best Bitter (£3/pint), pale (£2.80), mild (£2.70), the very excellent London Olympia Golden Ale (£3.20), and seasonals Armada (£3.20) and South Down Harvest (£3.30). The seasonals are regularly changed and others like Copperwheat and Tom Paine have also been on in the past. In September, they also had Thatcher's Heritage Cider on handpull (£3.20), as well as an extensive range of Weston's ciders on draught. You can also get bottles of the Imperial Extra Double Stout (£3.85), which at 9% is a fairly heady concoction.

The food is very good with interesting specials. It's served noon-3pm and 5pm-9:30pm Monday to Friday, noon-2:45pm and 5pm-9:30pm Saturday, and noon-5pm Sunday (roast lunch, with a vegetarian option).

Kake tried one of the specials on a Monday evening in June 2008; salmon fishcakes served with chips and salad (£8.50) photo. The fishcakes appeared to be deepfried, and didn't hold together very well, and the accompanying salad had no dressing. The tartare sauce looked and tasted home-made though, and the chips were fine. On a visit in September 2008, Ewan had what has become known as a 'heretical pie' (only partially encased) of the vegetable and stilton variety (£7.25), but it was very tasty nonetheless and served with fresh steamed vegetables which had just the right amount of butter to go down easily photo. Plenty of bowls of chips were also consumed, great value at £2 as you get quite a few of them and they are all perfectly-done chunky fries.

Can be hard to find; make sure you have a map if you've not been there before (Tabard Street is diagonally opposite Borough Station, running behind the prominent church building).

See also:

• Beer In The Evening comments
• Fancyapint review
• Time Out review
• Tandleman's Beer Blog review
• Boak and Bailey review
• Photo of the menu as of June 2008 (do note though that the specials board is usually much more interesting!)

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