The Royal Oak Hotel

30.01.2025

Nice food lovely staff

01.01.2025

A warm and comfortable place to stay. The staff and locals made us feel really welcomed. We enjoyed our stay from start to finish, and were sorry to say goodbye. We highly recommend The Royal Oak as a great place for couples, families, and four legged friends. Centrally located with easy access to the natural beauty of North Yorkshire.

23.12.2024

Stop in for evening meal. Lambshank delicious, lasagne delicious, kids meal free. Great service, lovely ambience.

12.11.2024

Very good food at very good prices, large portions, nice service. Rooms ok

09.10.2024

We had excellent meal here this afternoon. Brilliant steak and ale pie, mashed potatoes and garden peas. Pastry good, crispy and tasty, full of rich steak. Jug of good gravy. Good, prompt service. Welcoming place. Loved it. Thank you.

06.10.2024

Only had a drink with friends, good beer, friendly service and location superb, recommend to all

03.10.2024

Huge servings of food. Great beer

01.10.2024

We arrived and as our first night needed to eat. A warm welcome & we ordered. Wow, Steak Pie devine & big jug of Gravy. Lasagna deep & tasty. Chips home madw too. We made here our local, came for drinks & to watch the Football one night. Good choice of Beers. We ate a second time here, Gammon lovely & Hubby had to have the Pie again. 2nd time just as tasty. Excellent value. Well done to staff who made us feel welcome. Clean & warm pub

08.09.2024

Great room. Only issue was the really weird toilet that didn't really flush.

31.08.2024

Nice pub and decent food.

19.08.2024

Comfy bed and a big bath and shower. Coffee machine was a nice touch but only 3 pods so not much use. A big room but badly lit over the bed so hard to read. Wifi is useless and there's little or no phone signal. Lots of nice views and cafes nearby. OK for one night. Small extra charge for dog.

16.07.2024

Had the most delicious meal here last night. It was piping hot with steam rising! My husband had sausage and mash in Yorkshire pud and I chose Pork loin with mash and vegetables. Meat was beautifully tender, vegetables crunchy, just as we like them, mash was so creamy. The onion gravy was delicious. Thank you

13.06.2024

A typical local pub/inn. Quite ok but nothing special. Both WiFi and mobile network were poor

09.05.2024

Base for 9 friends Walking holiday for 3 days 2 nights Great Atmosphere..!

03.04.2024

Not very clean. Food was OK. Tables were dirty.

18.04.2022

Had meal having previously had a drink mistake food was terrible supposed to bae roast beef was paper thin no not good also football on in every room wich is not what I want when I go out to dine

05.03.2024

Very welcoming oldy word country pub with nice friendly folk and a lovely open fire

24.02.2024

Great pub food and friendly service. Great location on the town square.

31.01.2024

Nice pub with friendly stuff but the turkey dinner was unfortunately just some cheap frozen vegetables with dry meat..would have expected more for my money...

26.01.2024

Popped in for a few lagers while staying elsewhere in Helmsley enjoyed the atmosphere and drinks nice fire on at this time of year they do food and dog friendly🐶

12.12.2023

Service excellent meals brilliant room a little difficult for a greyhound and staff perfect thanks for a brilliant 75th birthday

11.11.2023

Don't walk past this pub looking for something fancy .When you walk through the door you get a warm welcome from the staff and the open fire .The food is well presented and very tasty.

10.11.2023

Such a lovely pub in the heart of Helmsley. My partner and I stayed here for the night and it was absolutely great. The food was nice beer was nice so what more could you ask for. The room for the two of us and our dog was perfect he had loads of room to move around. It was very clean and really nicely presented. The only reason for the 3 stars and no fault if their own as they do state this on their website it is loud and you can hear the music and people talking in the bar below. It properly didn't help we had the room directly above. The staff are friendly and willing to help with any request. I would definitely stay again.

27.10.2023

Had a nice. Very large potions. A bit wasteful.

27.10.2023

Seemed popular with people having a bite to eat, but the public bar was not very inviting.

09.10.2023

We stayed in the hotel on the 6 and 7th of October. Room was a little small but very clean had everything we needed for a 2 night stay. However the mattress had a slant to one side and everytime my partner moved you could hear the springs he felt like he was going to fall out of bed at one point due to the slant in the mattress. The shower head didn’t fit properly into the holder so you had to hold the shower hose. When I checked out I mentioned about the mattress and the member of staff said all the mattresses are a bit like that I will tell my manger. The one thing you want is a good nights sleep it was disappointing. If we are visiting Hemsley we would stay elsewhere.

03.10.2023

Good pub food

01.10.2023

Just stayed at Royal Oak for the second time, lovely clean rooms, friendly staff and great full English. We were with two other couples and we are all of the same opinion, it won't be our last visit.

25.09.2023

Shockingly bad! Went in for a drink today and ordered a pint of hobgoblin. It was like vinegar. Clearly nobody in control of managing the beer pumps! When I politely complained both members of staff totally ignored me and continued to serve other customers. They just ran and hid! After another 15 minutes of standing at the bar like a lemon I complained again and was accused of being aggressive (easy way out tactics for the useless staff). We decided to just make a swift exit! Real beer drinkers stay away!!!

18.09.2023

Didn’t stay at hotel, just had lunch there on Sunday, 17 September 2023. Was pleasantly surprised to see two proper ales available. As I always do these days, I asked to try what I hoped would be the best bet, Wainwright bitter. It was pretty poor and so I asked to try the Hobgoblin. At this point the surly barman said in a loud voice “I suppose you are going to get a free drink by trying all the beers along the bar?” I knew immediately on hearing this that this was a bad pub and that all hope of getting a decent pint of beer was gone. Any pub that takes a vocal exception to a customer having a tiny sample of beers on offer, and seeks to publicly ridicule them in the process, is one or more of (1) knowing and caring nothing about the quality of the beer they are keeping and how to keep it and (2) in the habit of showing utter contempt for its customers. Sure enough, the Hobgoblin was worse, truly awful: sour and unrecognisable. I would guess that the ales in this bar are not kept at all well. On looking around I saw that most if not all of the other male customers appeared to be drinking lager. Maybe they knew what I was to discover: this place knows nothing about how to keep and serve decent English ale. Had I been alone I would have left the bar and the pub immediately upon being ridiculed for asking to try two beers. I was new to Helmsley and had noticed that there are plenty of other bars around the village. However as I was a with family, who had recommended the place, I had to stay. I decided to order a Guinness as usually even poor bars cannot mess that up. But this bar did! The Guinness had a sour taste and was possibly the worst Guinness I have been served in a long time. This whole “welcoming” experience filled me with dread about the lunch we had come to enjoy. Thankfully the meal was OK and the ladies serving us were friendly and attentive. Not a bad pub lunch. What a pity that the place is let down (badly) by a surly bar (manager?) who appears to know and care nothing about (how to keep and serve) English beer (or Irish) and to enjoy relieving the apparent tedium of his job by seeking to ridicule customers who dare to try before they buy. No decent pub (certainly none I have visited) objects to a customer trying ale before they buy. Our man in this bar seemed to fail to recognise that if he served decent beer I would not have had to ask to try a second. Go here for a pub lunch. Don’t go here for English ale or expecting a warm welcome in the bar. I would say 4 stars for food and service by the lovely ladies who served it and ZERO stars for the bar, the beer and the bloke who appears to run it.

13.09.2023

Great spot for a pint in the Square.

03.05.2019

Had a lovely 2 night stay...room was lovely and clean...staff very friendly ...I messed up with the breakfast first morning but was put right for the second ...will definitely stay again