insideKENT Magazine Issue 24 - March 2014 | Page 74

FOOD+DRINK

The Oak, CHARING
A WARM, RELAXING, FRIENDLY DINING EXPERIENCE AWAITS
YOU AT THE FAMILY-RUN OAK IN CHARING. by Helen Byrde

Welcoming is the one word to describe the feeling
you get when you walk through the door at the
Oak. It has the feel of a local pub but without the
cliquishness.
The Oak is a family-run venture with landlady
Lorraine running the show and her son and
daughter helping in the kitchen, bar and
restaurant.

Lorraine is passionate and enthusiastic about
the pub which she has run for the past seven
months. She tells us excitedly about her plans
which also include Thursday night tapas evenings
(all you can eat for £15 per person). Her
enthusiasm is infectious and she and her staff
elevate the pub from just another gastro joint to
a friendly dining experience that I would be
anxious to repeat and recommend to others.

The bar greets you as you walk in, with the
restaurant behind, but there are plans to shift
the restaurant to the private function room upstairs
(The Tree House) and turn the downstairs
bar/restaurant into a snug. We were granted a
sneaky peek upstairs into a cosy yet more formal
dining room with its own private bar and twinkly
fairy lights.

But, onto the food. On a cold and rainy evening
my companion went for the soup of the day,
which was minted pea soup with ham. It was
obviously fresh and homemade and we were
told the ham came from the local butch ers (the
pub try to source local ingredients as much as
possible) and was absolutely delicious, thick and
hearty.

If you’ve had too much of a good thing the pub
also has accommodation upstairs with rooms
from £65 a night.

I satisfied my goat’s cheese fetish and went for
the baked field mushroom with caramelised red
onion and goat’s cheese which was equally
mouth-watering and beautifully presented.

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We were in a pub, so it had to be steak for me
which I opted to be cooked medium to well done.
My guest decided on the steak and ale pie, both
came with chips.
My steak was perfectly cooked and the chips
were exactly how I like them, fat but crispy. My
dinner companion couldn’t stop talking about
how impressed he was with the pie which was
far from your usual pub grub of a puff pastry lid
in a ceramic dish. This was homemade chunky
crusty pastry made with love. Another tick for
the Oak!
We were really too full for dessert but we thought
we had better sample the whole menu (to get
the whole dining experience) so we opted to
share a pudding. We nearly went for the
homemade brownies but instead decided to try
the day’s special of pear, walnut and custard
tart with spiced pear sauce. The pastry was soft