The Red Lion

This place is very nostalgic for me and I always had a great time meeting my friends here. Drinks are good and the prices are reasonable.

This average and pretty empty city central pub in Oxford charged me £6.25 for three (count ‘em three) asparagus sticks, a miserly poached egg and a bit of hollandaise sauce. And it took the kitchen close to 25 minutes to prepare that!
Staff were friendly enough but they lost the second star I would have given when they charged me twice for a soda and lime. (They’d been so stingy on the first dash, I asked for a little more lime and they charged me double for it, cheeky monkeys.)
I know times are hard but if you try and squeeze that kind of a profit margin out of your customers, you aren’t going to get them twice.
(Seriously THREE pieces of asparagus for £6.25. Oh deary, dear me)

Oxford is lovely. I immediately wanted Harry Potter specs upon arrival. We meandered around a bit, tired, hungry and in need of a loo. Second pass at Red Lion (85 of 288 on Trip Advisor — SOLD). Grille was down so no roasts, burgers or prawns. Wine selection was fab. Bread and butter even better. Actually, the butter was churned by the gods. I had the butternut squash cannelloni (small) and Man had pasta bolegnese. Delicious! Perfect amount for tired, late night meal. Would give 3.5 stars but app won’t let. (No halves). Points deducted for extremely loud-mic’ed singer/​crooner and l-​o-​n-​g wait for food. Servers = sweet, scholarly cherubs. Could have bathed in the butter and sans Edie Brickell wud have stayed another hour.
Definitely sit outside if there isn’t a chill. Last note, the place must get crammed on the weekends because there were about 15 stalls in the ladies room on the second floor.

Went again and ordered the bangers and mash this time. It was good and service was great.

Food is decent, although not exceptional. Place is very large and feels somewhat commercial, but not unpleasant inside. Staff were generally friendly although clueless when asked questions about the food or drink offerings.
Serves food later than most pubs (after 9pm), so not a bad option if you’re hungry late but want a pub.

Pretty standard as a modernly renovated pub. The drinks are your usual near city centre prices, i.o.w. a little too much for a casual drink, but plenty fine for a stop by for a nicer atmosphere.
In the evenings you do get a nice tone of lighting and a few Oxford professors/​other scholarly folk loitering about.
They at one point had a no sports wear (sweats/​tracksuits), and hats rule, not sure if they still do, but it was clearly one of those rules in place to try and enforce a certain kind of client. Funny enough I worse sweat in there one afternoon, not knowing the rule after going to the gym, nobody said anything to me although other groups of people were observed to be scolded. Just be aware and you’ll be fine.

I’m in complete agreement with the previous reviewer: the food was fine, but the service was absolutely dreadful. My friend and I were seated and sat with nothing to drink, awkwardly looking at our menus, without so much as being acknowledged by any waitstaff for a full twenty minutes. (Bear in mind, we were there on a very quiet Monday night!) When someone finally brought herself to approach the table she simply asked for our order without ceremony or apology, at which point we were told that the special my friend wanted had been substituted with a different fish and carbohydrate fine, but this is precisely the kind of information you offer to your patrons upon seating them, which is also the appropriate time to offer drinks! I asked for a wine list at this point and ordered a glass of wine, which I did not receive until we were fifteen minutes into our meal (almost a half hour after ordering it the first time) and having quite gently reminded our waitress. The quality of the food was good enough, but not to justify the frustration of such utterly incompetent service. Just awful, really.

Frisch renovierter Pub im Stil eines modernen Countryclub. Dabei dürfen mit Kuhleder überzogene Barhocker sowie rustikale massive Holztische nicht fehlen! Ebenfalls ist ein Biergarten für eventuelle Sonnentage verfügbar!
Das Essen ist Okay jedoch nichts besonderes (Pub eben)
Die Bedienung ließ sich mit den Getränken allerdings so sehr viel Zeit, dass sie erst nach nochmaliger Aufforderung die Getränke brachte obwohl das Essen schon seit 10 Minuten auf dem Tisch stand.
Unterm Strich trotzdem okay allerdings für Touristen die einen urigen Pub aufsuchen wollen die falsche Adresse!

This place has now become a place I want to go to. The décor is fun and relaxing, I particularly like the private rooms behind glass giving a homely feel. Rugs for your lap are a nice extra. Comfortable atmosphere. I hope this will encourage better behaviour. A tall Peroni was good and prices fair. The tables and food looked good although I have yet to sample the food. I am looking forward to it though.

My first real bangers and mash dish in the UK! I had lunch at The Red Lion, and a friend suggested the sausage and mash. It was pretty delicious. The sausage was much like our breakfast sausage in the states, but better. The mashed potatoes were smooth and delicious, with a salty but balanced meat gravy. An excellent example of traditional English cooking. I’ve heard that most of the rest of the menu is pretty bad though. They have great drink prices, there’s an EPA for around 1.59 if I remember correctly. The atmosphere is good, lots of little hidden tables and booths for a private feel.

I can’t quite put my finger on what is wrong with this place but it’s not fun to drink here. I don’t know, maybe it’s too big… it’s definitely better than it was pre-​renovation, when I swear there were bullet holes in the walls. These days it looks nice enough inside, it’s just the personnel I think that are the problem. The drinks are cheap though, they show a lot of sports and there’s a really nice beer garden which I have no qualms with. They just somehow need to kick out the 90% rabble that drink in here and get some decent customers because this really is a waste of a cracking location and a good potential venue at the moment.

Went here for the first time this week. Dinner wasn’t amazing but it was great for the price — £4−5 for Sunday roast with a drink. The chocolate cake and cheesecake were also both really good.
I love the interior too, it’s cute and homey with lots of nooks and crannies.
Will definitely be returning for super cheap meals out!

this recently name changed bar is amazing cheap bar where quality still remains offers a wide range of drinks at very low prices .
the bar has lots of setting and great facilitys toilets and an outside setted area since the no smoking ban the inside is much better smoke free and the bar also offers food which is good also with a wide ranged menu.
the staff are always friendly and polite and ready to help you no matter how busy they are which is quite rare to find a service like this in a busy citys bar.
most times are busy in the bar through out the day but you can always find a nice seat in the bar and be welcomed into a nice atmosphere.

an average city pub, beer ok, atmosphere is best thing going for it, casting my mind back a few years i thought this pub was at its peak when under the Firkin chain

Now called The Red Lion, and has seemed to have lost the stigma of all the wino’s being in there. It’s cheap, it’s cheerful, the food is above average, have eaten in there a couple of times (once a meal and once snack) and the food has been good. Not a place to take your granny, but in general, not too bad considering.

Has now closed downor at least turned into the red lion. Is owned by weatherspoons so its average. You know what to expect when you arrive here.

The Goose is a bit of a mixed bag. Yes. It can be filled with people who come across slightly scary or… dirty. But since the smoking ban it seems to have somewhat lost that crowd and become far more student-​y.
Lets start with the good. The food and the drinks are CHEAP. and they are not half bad either. I have eaten both a pie and a pasta here and both were delicious and cheap. Being cheap makes the goose a great pub to visit before hitting the more expensive night clubs.
It is quite busy here at the weekends because of the reason i just mentioned, but fairly relaxed during the day. They also have an outside area making it a popular choice in the summer.
The décor is bland but nice, nothing dirty — it seems well kept. The atmosphere is not brilliant and is fairly quiet but as i said, make this the firstpub you visit on a night out and you will not be disappointed.
The menu includes —
Sandwhiches
Jacket Pots and fillings
Pies
Lasagnes
Chips
Puddings
There is an I. t box to keep you entertained and some tables have sofas.
I do not think the goose shows football or sports — but i may be wrong. (For sports try the aussie bar or head to the city arms on cowley rd).

I’m sure someone, somewhere, likes chain pubs frequented by pikies and guys thinking it’s manly to be loud and violent, if this perhaps isn’t you… do not go to The Goose. It may have cheap food, and semi cheap beer, but the atmosphere is anything but pleasant. If by some reason you are dragged here, make sure it is not a weekend, you will be the only student, surrounded by the throngs of aggressive drinkers who were on panorama last week.
REVIEW IN ONE LINE: Ever wonder why Stella is called wife beater?