The Royal Oak, Sandy Hill

Our first stop (OK, your first stop; I've done about 200 pubs so far) is the Royal Oak in Sandy Hill.  This place has been a pub as long as I've been in Ottawa, though it wasn't always part of the Royal Oak chain.  It's in an old house across the street from Ottawa U, and so has more charm and character than most chain-owned pubs.

I met up with some friends here on a Wednesday night.  We ate, we drank, and we embarrassed a room full of students at pub trivia.  I mean, we beat them.  Nothing embarrassing happened otherwise.  Anyway, the trivia at the Oak is live entertainment, and the weekly Wednesday game is the only weekday entertainment. They have bands on the weekends, but no games, darts or billiards for mid-week patrons.  

But nobody goes to a pub for trivia, right?  At least nobody cool, and especially not with back-episodes of Jeopardy available on the internet. 

The Royal Oak chain is known for having a pretty good selection of beers on tap, and the Sandy Hill location doesn't let the side down, with 18 beers on tap.  (I didn't ask about bottles; no self-respecting pub-crawler drinks from a bottle when there's a decent draught selection).  The Oak's bar boasts not one but two (2!) hand-pumped kegs!  So obviously I had to choose one of them, either the Fuller's London Pride or the Fuller's Extra Special Bitter.  I went with the ESB.  Three times.  Yummy.  

Any real pub serves food.  By definition, I think.  Pub crawlers don't usually take time to eat, unless they are actually crawling.  But we ate, and whenever I can I will comment on the food at the pubs into which I stumble.  I used to think that the Oak's food has deteriorated a bit as the chain has grown, but of the three dishes we tried (fish and chips, quesadilla and club sammich), everyone pronounced it 'good'.  Nothing spectacular, though.  Which is really the final comment about the whole pub.  The prices are a little above average, and the service is not.  I suppose I can't really complain about my $8 beer, since my drunken friend the Li'l Ball o' Hate paid for everyone's tab.