With The Crown’s revamp in mind, Katherine MacAlister sees how one pub has responded with a new look and a larger menu

News that The Woodstock Arms had a refit did not surprise me.

Woodstock’s restaurants all had to pull up their socks after The Crown arrived in town and the locals flocked in their droves.

Serving a rather trendy menu and some wonderful pizzas, The Crown gave local pizzeria Brothertons a run for its money and everywhere else a kick up the proverbial backside. Adding Rico’s takeaway van to the line-up meant competition was rife.

With Killingworth Castle also taking its pick of local customers up the road, the remaining local boozers had to up their game.

Brothertons remains resolutely untouched and old-fashioned, which is, after all, its charm, but The Woodstock Arms obviously decided to take it on the chin and transformed its rather dated interior with book printed wallpaper and a more open-plan set up. And guess what’s on the menu? Yes, you’ve guessed it. Pizzas.

There are several other menus as well. A full menu, lunch menu, pizza menu, Christmas menu, which is all a bit much and raised my suspicions. It’s hard to cook so many dishes from scratch. Smaller menus mean more authenticity.

So when I asked where the pies were from (did I mention the pie menu?), I discovered they were from Pieminster and not made on site. Pieminster is a great brand, but you can buy them in the supermarket or The Covered Market.

I feared the same for the pizzas, as the description said they were Barrel and Stone stonebaked, presumably bought in as well?

As it was lunchtime, working up quite an appetite ploughing through the endless menus, we opted for the Chicken Caesar Salad (£12.95 – plain grilled or Cajun chicken), which came with lardons of crispy bacon on Caesar dressed cos leaves, black olives, anchovy, shaved parmesan and garlic croutons, and a bit of a mess when it arrived while looking remarkably unhealthy, everything all mixed into one.

The pizza was OK, just not as good as the competition’s over the road. The nice n’ spicy pizza came with sweet peppadew peppers and Fior de Latte mozzarella, La Bella San Marzano tomato, fiery salami, spicy Nduja sauce seasoned with authentic Calabrian chillies and spices for £11.95.

A bottle of sparkling water cost a staggering £4.90, meaning that altogether the bill came to £29.80 for a main course each and some water.

Reading between the lines, you can sense my lack of excitement. It wasn’t bad. It was pretty bog standard actually, and there were lots of people in there from neighbouring offices having lunch and meetings, so obviously a place where people meet.

But in terms of gastronomy, not a big contender.

Not for me anyway.

The Woodstock Arms, 6-8 Market Street, Woodstock OX20 1SX
01993 811251