The Greene Oak

A repeat visit today to this restaurant near Windsor which gastronomically seems to me to occupy a territory closer to a bistro than to the Modern European classification it has on London-Eating. When you pull up for the first time, you'll think "gastropub" but it's distinctly better than that.

We've generally had pretty good food here and today was certainly no exception. Three dishes stand out for special mention. My wife rated her onion soup as superb, almost creamy. We then tried their home made Bresaola with rocket, which was really tasty and a lot different from the supermarket product. But the thing that really struck us was the excellent "Sticky Orkney Beef" main course served with a much reduced gravy with some beautifully flavoured root vegetables. In particular this last was a seriously fine dish, perfect for winter, which would not have been out of place at some much better known and higher priced restaurants. Very good cooking indeed.

The service is generally pretty good here, smiley and engaged, and today was no exception despite the place being quite busy.

There is a sister restaurant, the White Oak, at Cookham with similar food and wine and similarly good standards.
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David Henderson - View all reviews by this user
8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Our first visit in maybe a year to this normally excellent pub restaurant just west of Windsor, on a very hot and quiet Saturday lunchtime.

Eating from the menu, my wife chose Prosciutto followed by Pork Belly, whilst I ate breaded scallops on pea puree , followed by a "special" of pollock on a bed on crab risotto. We both felt, me in particular, that the quality of food fell well below the standard we'd enjoyed here before.

In particular the shellfish was poor- not so much the cooking but the ingredients. My breaded scallops had nothing of the flavour and sweetness that you normally enjoy with these. At £9 for three scallops I was kind of hoping to be able to taste them! There was a little crab in my risotto but either the quantity or quality meant that I couldn't taste it at all and I had in essence a plain risotto with a few peas in combination with a plain piece of white fish- not terribly interesting. I did bring up the complete absence of crab taste in the risotto, and whilst they did tender apologies and a discount (which we declined) I wasn't offered any reason why the food today was sub-par. If there wasn't anything awry in the kitchen then maybe they should take a look at their shellfish supplier, as what I ate today was dull.

If this were our first visit I'd be tempted not to return; but it isn't ,so we'll go back and hope for a return to better food in future.
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David Henderson - View all reviews by this user
7 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
Saturday, July 10, 2010