Christopher Gray pays an autumn evening visit to The Trout to taste new dishes at a favourite old haunt

The Trout at Godstow is one of the largest and loveliest pubs in the Oxford area and perennially popular with tourists and locals alike.

Frequent appearance in TV’s Morse and its spin-offs have helped boost its profile.

Among the locals, of course, can be included students, fleeting though their residence in the area will necessarily be.

Those charged with their instruction have always liked it, too, including Magdalen College’s C.S. Lewis and his ‘Inkling’ chum J.R.R. Tolkien.

The beer-swilling Lewis judged it his favourite local after The Eagle and Child in St Giles. His brother Warnie summed up the family view in a diary entry of 1946: “To the Bird and Baby as usual in the morning . . .[then] an adjournment to The Trout at Godstow . . . and there drank beer in the sunlight.

“The beauty of the whole scene was almost theatrical, and that nothing might be lacking to show off the warm grey of the old inn, there was a pair of peacocks.”

Today there are a pair of peacocks again, or perhaps one is a peahen. After a period as a solo operator, Krug, has recently been joined by a new bird.

“The baby is still in a cage,” said delightful Canadian waitress Steph as she served our meal. “We won’t be able to discover the sex for a while yet.”

This being an autumn night, and a coldish one at that, we are indoors rather than out, though a few brave souls were beside the river – smokers presumably.

The restaurant part of the building, viewed externally, looks of a piece with everything else. In fact, it was added in 1966 using stone retrieved in the demolition of Cowley Barracks.

By then, the inn was five years into brewery ownership, having previously been run for nearly 40 years by owner Hilda ‘Ma’ Coleman.

Now it is part of the Mitchells & Butlers empire.

Rosemarie and I paid a Friday night visit. We travelled, as is our practice, by bus. The number six service from the city drops passengers a 10-minute walk away in Wolvercote. Our intention was to taste at least a couple of the dishes recently added to the menu. As we ordered, we took first sips of the appley South African chenin blanc (Sand Box) that we drank throughout the meal.

First choice for me was new-to-the-menu crayfish and crab pot. This offered precisely what it said on the tin – or rather the flip-top glass jar – with lots of the seafood in a creamy mayonnaise beneath a thick topping of butter.

Its generosity might, I felt, have been happily mirrored in rather more of the toasted suprema bocata bread.

Rosemarie’s choice was ‘scallops of the day’, a neat idea. These pan-fried queen scallops, seven of them, came with saffron mashed potato and a white wine and parsley velouté. Delicious, if a tad pricey at £9.95.

Her main course was less satisfactory.

Steak, mushroom and Doombar ale pie, appealing as it looked with its rich brown pastry case, turned out to have a filling disfigured by chewy meat and a large lump of gristle. This is a new dish on offer, and clearly needs refinement.

The accompanying mashed potato with winter greens and thyme-glazed carrots (including purple and yellow ones) were both fine.

Oxford Mail:

  • ​ New to the menu: Steak, mushroom and Doombar ale pie

There was little to fault, happily, in my main course. This was a bumper-size roast sole, served unfilleted, head removed, beneath a brioche and parmesan crust with crunchy strips of samphire and brown shrimps tossed in beurre noisette.

The baby potatoes with basil and mint looked a tad tired, but my side order of creamed spinach was much enjoyed.

English cheeses with nut and seed mixed biscuits and baby figs completed my meal. Rosemarie had warm treacle tart with whipped cream and lemon verbena. Both were approved.

In all, The Trout is a popular place offering decent food in a happy environment.

Though perhaps not for the gourmet in search of excellence, it is certainly somewhere that all should visit to enjoy a quintessential aspect of the Oxford experience.

The Trout
195 Godstow Road,
OX2 8PN.
Tel: 01865 510930, thetroutoxford.co.uk

Food served: Mon-Thurs noon-10pm, Fri and Sat noon-10.30pm, Sun noon-9pm
Manager: Daniel Delve
Parking: large car park, but why not take the bus?
Do try the... scallops of the day (£9.95), crayfish and crab pot (£7.95), whole roasted sole (£19.95), steak, mushrooom and Doombar ale pie (£14.50), British cheeses (£8.50) and warm treacle tart (£5.95)