Royal Hill, Edgerley, Nr Kinnerley.

Well this is a regular favourite of the Beastie’s I have to admit. The Royal Hill, Edgerley, Nr Melverley. You will need directions to find it if you have not been!!
Beast has had many a lovely meal at this establishment. The main attraction of the place is it’s kind of in the middle of nowhere, it’s on the river Severn and it’s cheap as chips. I’m sure the locals won’t thank Beast for revealing there little secret to the world.
The food is really good English pub food. There are no starters and you will see why when your main course is put in front of you. The best thing on the menu in Beast’s opinion is the beef lasagne (a massive slice, homemade served with chips) at £6.50.
Another favourite is the chicken in stilton sauce (also with chips) again at £6.50.
Hubby Beast is fond of the big sirloin steak which I think is £11.50 and is definitely there most expensive dish on the menu.
“If you don’t like chips then beep off” could well be the Royal Hills motto.
Tuesdays are pizza night, don’t try and get anything else off the menu as its pizza’s only, unless you want chips, they can always be arranged. Tuesdays are a bargain, £5.50 for your choice of 5 toppings from about 15-20 on offer. They are 10 inch pizzas and are plenty enough for a big Beast. You can even pay 20p for a box and take it home if you have any left, I didn’t of course!!
Great food, nice beer, cheap prices, nice location, what more could you want. Prepare yourself for it to be busy if the weather is nice, especially on a Tuesday.
Booking is advised!!
This pub is very prone to flooding, which cuts off all society to the pub which becomes its own little island. With the exception of farmers who tractor it to the pub, rock on!! The owner has invested in a “Flood Bus” its basically an old army truck that can Beast threw the water. You part at the crossroads call the pub and the bus comes to collect you. Its awesome!! Whenever there is a lot of rain we think, shall we go to the hill on the flood bus. The bus will not take you back to your car unless have at least 10 pints each so be prepared for that! Only playing they take you back whenever you want you might have to wait for a couple more people to want to leave too understandably. The only downside to the place is that the menu rarely (never) changes but I guess at least you know what you’ll be getting.

Beast Rating 4.5/5

Black Lion Hotel, Scotland Street, Ellesmere

Friday night marked the end of the week and a great excuse to Beast. This time a table was booked at the Black Lion Hotel, Scotland Street, Ellesmere. We were greeted with a smile from the barman as Beast ordered a large dry white wine (£3.50) and hubby Beast ordered a pint of the black stuff (That’s Guinness don’t you know) £3.00. We were offered to put the drinks on the bill and were taken to our table.
On entering the restaurant I must say I felt the décor needed some work, nothing drastic just a lick of paint and some white proper tablecloths (Beast can’t stand these plastic sheets that were used!) to make it more inviting.
Hubby Beast went for the special starter of pigeon breast on a potato rosti with sauce and Beast opted for the garlic mushrooms on a potato rosti. Both a very reasonable £3.50. We had a little joke with the waitress and asked if she had shot the pigeon herself and was shocked to learn the chef had shot it along with 93 other innocent pigeon’s going about there business trying to earn a crust in these hard economic times in order to feed the babies. This thought didn’t put off Hubby Beast who thought it was delicious. My mushrooms weren’t half bad either. I must admit I took a bit too much of a liking to the butter that was served to go on my bread roll and started eating it off a spoon. Not very ladylike but definitely classic Beast.
For mains I went for Scampi with chips £6.95 and hubby Beast went for roast leg of lamb with potatoes. What comes next may shock you…………………..we could not finish our meal!! To be fair to us it was massive portions, a tear came out of my right eye as the meal was taken away, starving children in Africa and we couldn’t finish it!!
The quality of the scampi was great with big pieces and the lamb was good too, it wasn’t absolutely amazing but when is Scampi amazing and for the price was fantastic value. We opted to have a look at the sweet menu which is very rare for us.
Beast chose homemade Baileys Cheesecake and Hubby Beast choose Crème Brule. Both £3.25 and were both very very delicious. All in all a lovely evening, even better when we discovered they only charged us for one lot of drinks when we had two!!
K McSkankill would be proud!!

Beast Rating – 4/5

Barnardos Cafe, Cross Street, Oswestry

No excuse needed to have a lunch at Barnardos in Oswestry as all profits from the café go to the Charity. Great stuff!!
To enter the café you have to go up the stairs above the shop. I was expecting a pokey little place but its spacious, big windows with lots of light coming in and its nicely decorated to feel a little bit summery is the best way Beast can describe it.
We found a table and had a peek at the menu. There was a lot to choose from considering it was just light lunches. Jacket potatoes, toasties, sandwiches, soups, baguettes & lots of homemade cakes and scones.
The McSkankill in me couldn’t contain the excitement when Beast discovered the most expensive thing on the Menu was around £4.00.
Some of the sandwich choices were very cosmopolitan and dam right crazy for Oswestry including Brie and Grape and Camembert and Peach!! I wonder what the Blue rinse brigade make of that which makes up I would say 70% of Barnardos cliental.
I opted for something a bit less daring and went for a bowl of homemade Carrot & Coriander Soup (as did Mother of the Beast) for £3.25. Served with a brown or white baguette (very diverse). It arrived quickly was very tasty and there was plenty of it. I was really impressed. I used my Beast radar to watch some other meals coming out and the jackets looked very nice as did the sandwiches. Overall I was more than impressed with this little find and shall be returning, in fact I did with Hubby Beast last Saturday for tea and scones (yes darrrrling).

Extra .5 of a Beast point for the profits to charity aspect.

Beast Rating – 4.5/5

Prezzo, Church Street, Oswestry

Martin Lewis’ website moneysavingexpert.com had advised the Beast via electronic mail that there was a deal to be had at Prezzo, Church Street, Oswestry. 241 on all main meals, this was an offer Beastie couldn’t refuse and a table was booked immediately.
I know, I know, Prezzo is a chain and this is meant to be Shropshire reviews only but at least now this makes me national!!
Unfortunately I have not been able to do this review alone; I have needed the help of Prezzo’s website as the whole menu is in Italian (with English subtitles you will be pleased to know). This whole Italian thing makes for very uncomfortable ordering, the waitress arrived and we pointed, spoke louder and ignored the Italian words and gave the English version.
“Garlic Cheese Bread to share to start” from Beast. “Pane Con Cipolla” she replied.
“That one there, Calzone” for me pointed Beast “Carne Piccante” she replied
“Chicken” Hubby Beast pointed to ensure she had the right one “Pollo Gorgonzola” she replied. She then proceeded to read the order back to us in Italian which we just smiled and nodded. How the beep are we meant to know them when she reads them back if we didn’t know them in the first place!!
£4.95 for the starter to share £9.95 for the chicken and £8.95 for the Calzone, but this was free on our 241 deal. The garlic cheese pizza bread was massive, definitely plenty for 2 Beasts or 3 average Joes to consume as a starter and really yummy too. It was covered in cheese, caramelised onions and garlic and was really thin, a real treat.
My calzone was massive, served with a bit of token salad and some salsa it was really really tasty and filled up Beast a treat.
Hubby’s chicken was perfectly cooked, served with a good portion of American style chips and some salad. Fantastic.
The food was absolutely fantastic, really tasty, really fresh and lots of it. What a great place and a great new restaurant for Oswestry. We shall return, especially on 241 nights!!
My only gripe is the choice and price of the lager. One choice = Peroni. They are either £3.25 for a small bottle which is basically a half and £5.95 for a large one which is just over a pint. Rip me off sideways!!
You definitely need to book for Friday and Saturday nights at Prezzo.

Beast rating 4.5/5

Ye Old Boot Inn, Whittington, Nr Oswestry

A lovely walk around Whittington Castle on a lovely summers evening marked the Beast's birthday. A meal was most definately in order this time at Ye Old Boot Inn.

For a Tuesday night the place was packed out, three or four "regulars" sat at the bar with their tankards full and a nice lady behind the bar asked us where we wanted to sit.
The menu's were given quickly and we decided on a starter to share of pate with caramalised onions (4.95) and for main course Beast choose Hot and Spicy chicken curry with half rice and half chips (9.95) while Hubby Beast settled on the Pork Lion with Black pudding glaze and creamed leeks with chips and veg (10.95).

Our starter arrived very quickly but Beast's body filled with panic as we discovered there was only 2 extremely small little slices of bread to go with the average sized amount of pate.
I quickly called the waitress over and asked for more bread (major beast point subtracted for having to ask for more bread). I found it hard to hide my disgust when only two more small pieces arrived. It really riled up Beast!! Bread is so cheap, why be so stingy with it.
The pate was average in taste, nothing special, I could probably get similar for a pound or two at Asda. I actually asked the waitress what sort of pate it was as it was not in the description. She didn't know, but she did look about 12 so I will let her off.

The mains arrived and myself and my Beast loving hubby looked at each other in agreement that the portion sizes on the mains were much much better. The food looked really nice.
I'm afraid the taste was not quite as good.
My alleged curry (I say alleged as I'm sure if you asked the head chef at the Simla or the Red Rose in Oswestry to try some of this curry they would piss themselves) tasted suspiciously like Uncle Bens curry sauce and if I'd of wanted that I would of paid a quid for a jar and made it myself at home. The chips were actually really nice and the rice so thats something! It was quite hot the sauce but not that tasty and very tomatoey.
I'm afraid hubby's main was a let down as well. The pork dry and tasteless! It was hard to cut and was not a pleasure to eat and at the price it was a total let down.

The service however was pretty good and friendly and its a nice setting to enjoy food inside the traditional old pub interior and they also have seating outside, but for a really nice meal we won't be returning anytime soon.

Beast Rating: 2.5/5
Room for Ye Old Inn Provement

Nahling Thai Restaurant, Beatrice Street, Oswestry

Another lunchtime and another empty restaurant in Oswestry, this time being the Thai. The only Thai in the village!
Upon entering the establishment we were greeted by a lovely smiling waitress. I didn't know it yet but this waitress would be the main star in a classic comedy moment towards the end of the meal. We were seated and given a lunch menu each to read while she kindly went to get us a our drinks which were resonably priced coming in at around £1.50 for a lemonade and the same for a mineral water (I know we were living it up this particular lunchtime!)
Beast ordered Hor Fun Noodles with Mince Beef and all the trimmings £5.95 and Mother of the beast decided on Pad Lad Nah noodles with Chicken also at £5.95.
Once our order was placed we were brought a free bowl of prawn crackers to enjoy, BONUS BEAST POINT NOTED!!
Now comes the bad bit, we waited almost 30 mins for our meal to come out, we could clearly hear our meal being prepared freshly from scratch in the kitchen but 30 minutes to wait at lunchtime when we are the only two people there was a bit excessive.
When the food arrived it was delicious, cooked perfectly, very tasty and the portion size was large. It was piping hot and I was very impressed.
Whilst consuming the food I recieved a text message on my phone which is the sound of a doorbell, the waitress walked down the resturant towards us and opened the door and looked around in a bemused state, haha I tricked her!! Beast rules the day!!!

Overall, an excellent place to eat, good value, good portions, nice service, tasty delicious food, the only think stopping it get a full Beast rating is the wait time for the food.

BEAST RATING: 4/5

Amanda's cafe, 5 Oswald Road, Oswestry

Walking into Amanda's cafe I was immediately made aware that the population was just the Beast. It was too late to leave as I was spotted by the middle aged man who I assumed was the waiter but later discovered he was a jack of all trades and clearly did the cooking too.
The decor was dated to say the least, if you like the colour lavender then you will love Amanda's.
I ordered mushrooms on toast and my partner in crime ordered a jacket with cheese and beans. Cost was low, my mushrooms were £2.75 and the jacket was around the £3.50 mark. A pot of tea to share washed down the meal. The service in the place was good when the chap was around to serve. There were times when he would disappear into the kitchen for long periods, the once we noticed the most was when we were wanting to pay and had to wait for around 5 mins for him to come to the counter to take our money. The food was mediocre, plain jane, average. Portion size was also average if not a little on the small side for my beastly appetite.

BEAST RATING: 2.5 / 5