The Star Inn, Woodstock

We are a mad, eccentric nation.

If you need to remind yourself, just step out of your front door on any given weekend over the summer because the village greens and market squares are doing a roaring trade in fetes, fairs and carnivals.

Carnival wise it was Woodstock’s turn, and although it was our first time, we had guests staying who wanted reassurance that all is well and good in the green and promised land of Oxfordshire.

The Georgian town hit the nail on the head, offering everything from the annual procession to stalls, fairground rides, street food, pubs spilling out onto the pavements, bars rammed with thirsty punters, and children careering around in costume.

The Star was centre stage, extra barstaff drafted in to cope with the crowds, and this was our second visit in as many weeks, Jamie Fletcher’s tapas style menu and hearty food pulling in locals and tourists alike.

The Star has long been on my radar as somewhere I needed to visit, with helpful friends and colleagues mentioning it on a regular basis, so we popped in for supper a few weeks ago, grabbing the only available table left in the bustling pub.

The large, tasteful beer garden at the rear, unusual in such a central location, was presumably part of the lure with its beach style Jack Shack burger bar in full flow at weekends.

It was hard to decide what to eat because the tapas style menu looked delicious. Did we want to pick or did we want a more substantial main course style meal? And so, perhaps unwisely, we declined the wonderful sounding tapas offerings such as honey and mustard roasted pigs in blankets, half a pint of crispy whitebait, chargrilled lemon, British atomic pig meatballs, tomato sauce, old smokey bacon handmade scotch egg, salt & pepper calamari with tartar sauce and the prawns grilled in garlic butter, for something more traditional. Perhaps if there had been some vegetable/salad options as well it would make the tapas menu more attractive. Just a thought.

“Who’s Jack?” we asked our waitress, Jack seeming to feature rather predominantly on the menu, especially in the Jack’s Shack burger section. “I think it’s just a patriotic pub,” our waitress told us doubtfully, ruining my images of Jack sweating away in the kitchen.

We ordered the Jack Stack £13.50, a hand pressed beef patty, hash brown, hay stack onions, deli cheese, Jack’s sauce and fries, as well as the chargrilled Halloumi with fattoush salad, warm pita and red pepper hummus (£11). Fattoush sounds like something made with pulses but is actually a lettuce salad with radishes, croutons and cucumber and a lovely lemony dressing.

The burger was immense, with a long cocktail stick running all the way through, and the chips served in fun mini fryer baskets.

There is no way of eating it without dislocating your jaw and it needed some reassembling before Mr Greedy could do his best hippopotamus impression, but it was a good generous portion with all the extras included in the price and it kept him silent for quite some time.

The halloumi salad was a welcome respite from the big meaty noshing going on around us, the pita and red pepper hummus arriving on a separate dish. The dressing was a bit watery for my liking but it was nice enough.

Stuffed to the gills we declined dessert and sauntered around Woodstock grabbing a quick drink in the Kings Head, agreeing that Woodstock is really coming into its own at the moment with the Star providing the perfect community focal point and as good a place to start as any.

The Star Inn
22 Market Place, Woodstock,
OX20 1TA
01993 811373
thestarinnwoodstock.co.uk