It’s well known for its pies The Victoria. And I was in the mood for a good pie.

It was raining hard outside, and any hopes of an Indian summer or even a brisk autumnal day had vanished, leaving me in no doubt that we had progressed straight from wet summer to wet winter.

And that’s what you want in winter, when you’re feeling miserable – a good pie.

Bad mood or not, as soon as we entered The Victoria in Jericho, a venue I’ve passed a million times without ever going in, we all left our dour moods at the door.

Because it’s a warm, welcoming, relaxed, busy, typically Oxfordian, traditional pub. Did I mention the pies?

Reopened in 2008 by the people who own Raoul’s cocktail bar down the road, The Victoria is enjoying a new lease of life it would seem, which was unfortunate for us as we looked for a table.

There is an upstairs eating area, but no one was up there, and a snug, but it had low tables, so we opted for a drink until a table high enough for us to eat on was freed up.

Several bottles later luckily someone went home, so at least we had a fighting chance of tasting our food, and we sat down and sighed in bliss at the menu selection before us.

Pies to warm the cockles of your heart, with proper medieval fillings like ham hock and pea or steak, caramelised onion and ale.

But first we ordered the baked camembert with crusty bread and chutney for £6.95 which came in the round and was engulfed almost whole, a really delicious cheese, the ingredients speaking for themselves, the chutney gentle and rustic, not too tart, unlike the wenches we were rapidly turning into. We ordered the steak and cheddar pie, chicken and bacon and the more mediterranean sounding cheese, tomato and kidney bean. The pricing is easy – £5.75 with salad and £7.75 with chips.

So we were disappointed when our mains appeared because the pies were the size of an average pork pie, the ones you can eat by hand.

I could imagine Henry VIII throwing his against the wall in disgust and Desperate Dan asking what was for mains. I don’t know what I was expecting, something bigger, with pastry and gravy oozing over the edges of a pie dish, rather than this rather neat, self-contained option.

“Just remember, it’s not the size that counts girls,” I instructed, as we got stuck in.

Dense, compact and nice enough without setting the world on fire was the conclusion, the tomato option being a tad on the plain side, but the chips were good. You get what you pay for don’t you we agreed, and £5.95 wasn’t enough for the big crusty bubbling concoction we’d been expecting, even though I would happily have paid more for the pleasure.

It was a pleasure though. I don’t want to diss The Victoria because they’re doing a stellar (no pun intended) job of making The Victoria a good community pub with grub, and in that it has succeeded.

The staff are lovely, they serve food all day which is a massive bonus, and if you fancy ale and a pie, there’s a lot worse meals to opt for. You just might need a kebab on the way home.