Royal Oak Hotel Hotel

Cold and very dirty lack everything that I expect from a hotel.

It took 3.5hrs to receive our food, after several enquire’s and spoken rudely to by kitchen staff, we finally received our entree at 9.30pm after ordering at 6.30pm… Kristal the pub manager was fantastic and offered us all a refund, this poor girls deserves a bonus.

Great food. Awesome service. They really looked after us. Totally recommend.

They have amazing food and the staff are really nice. Couldn't fault them done an amazing job for dinner.

Great food and service was excellent👍we received our food in less than 15 minutes.

Yes with a few tweaks, menu is now not what is advertised on the website. Apparently Restaurant 221 is no more! It is all one menu. Pub style. Food is excellent but a few finer things are missing. Not enough knives. Cocktails are advertised as 2 for $20 but… excludes expresso martini’s which is not written anywhere. So a bit disappointed after our last visits were so good. Staff were great.

I can see why they were voted best country pub meal. Beef cheeks were magnificent!

Bad language being used by kitchen staff while we were in the dinning room. Kitchen staff had no regard for our presence.

Lovely little pub with charming indoor and outdoor areas and staff were great. Also has a fabulous menu — we went for mid afternoon cocktails so weren’t able to sample the delicious-looking menu. Highly recommend.

Lovely atmosphere. Good food. Friendly locals.

We have been going to this hotel for a few years now and absolutely love it and today we had the most disgusting experience which I am very happy to share with everybody. We went online and we made a booking for 12 o’clock and I have the verification on my phone but it seems we didn’t have a booking. We arrived at 20 to 12 for our 12 o’clock booking and went to the bar to get a drink by 12 o’clock we still didn’t have a drink because apparently the ice machine broke and someone had run off to get ice but no one told us. So we walked around trying to find out what was going on. We based our booking on the fine dining menu on the website that said it was the menu for Sunday lunch. When we arrive we find out that they no longer do that menu and we were just getting the same menu as the rest of the pub yet we chose to go fine dining. So we ended up speaking to the guy who didn’t bring us our drinks who was less than polite and we asked for our money back and we learned that he was the manager. We told the chef that we wouldn’t eat there and he was less than polite as well. We would have spent plenty of money there and we’ve told so many people over the years to go there. We were told by three or four people there that they’re shortstaffed and managers and 2 chefs had left recently so we as customers get penalise do we? It was one of the worst experiences we have ever had and I shall be sharing it with everybody I know. Disgusting!

Bus load of us turned up unannounced and we were welcomed and served very fast with great meals. Highly recommend them.

Food too expensive. My partner had duck which was not cooked sufficiently & way too tough & not overly palatable. Accommodation not great & could’ve paid an extra $10 to have my own bathroom not one that’s fundamentally back in Noah’s time. Overall experience… disappointing.

Great little outdoor area, had a nice breaky with the kids. Porridge was tasty but a bit small, fritters were great.

Breakfast was delicious, the service was a little slow and the 2nd day we came back for breakfast again only to find out they had run out of bread rolls which was odd and disappointing. Other then that food was great.

Incredible friendly staff and very good food. A bit week on the vegetarian side but otherwise creative and tasty.

Good pub grub. Pet and child friendly. Parking at rear.

My wife and I both had the snitzel and it was the best we have ever had at a pub. Even the salad was done right, not just an after thought like you find at most pubs.

Royal Oak is always a staple for us when visiting Cessnock! Friendly staff, great food and drinks. A variety of menu options including pub food and sit-down bistro menu. Can cater to dietary requirements. New Deck cafe out the back is also great! Coffee and breakfast/lunch with yummy food. A must visit!

Ended up here on a Sunday morning for breakfast when we couldn't vacancies elsewhere without a booking. Pleasantly surprised with the place. Perfect poached eggs, decent coffee and a playground for the little ones. Definitely a lucky find for our group. Would recommend to others!

Waited over 1hr for 4 basic meals on a Saturday night. Staff were apologetic and the manager gave us a few free drinks. Food was below average. Musicians were fantastic but too loud for a family eating area.

We had a booking for 4 people at 7:30pm. When we arrived we were told to wait in the lounge area as they had just taken some large orders and weren’t ready to seat us. At 8pm we were finally seated. We were greeted with very poor customer service from the waitress. We ordered a dozen oysters, and 4 main meals. The waitress then came back and said “we’ve run out of oysters”. All around us we could see people complaining and not enjoying their meals. After 45minutes we finally got 2 of our main meals. Then the next 2 arrived 5 minutes later. Our meals were luke warm, had no flavour, were dried up and half burnt. Another waitress returned to our table with a potato gratin for the lamb dish to which we said don’t worry about it. She then questioned why. She tried to tell us that they shouldn’t of taken us at such a late time (we had to inform her we had a booking). Luckily for us, they refunded our whole table. Poor service and tasteless, over priced food. We won’t return.

Over charged us on the food, and when we questioned it after the meal they literally said "we should have told you before you paid the prices have gone up on the menu… " and then we asked someone else and they said "it's because you took something off the burger and it messes up the kitchen… " Eventually got the money back but 2 different stories about the overcharging? Wouldn't have bothered with it if the food was nice but it was average. The burger was literally a lump of dry mince on a bun. Only good thing about the place is that it's pet friendly.

Fabulous, atmospheric old pub with various rooms to explore and a gastro pub menu. Live music in the packed courtyard on Friday night was a real highlight. Meals took a while to come out as it was busy but tasty and well cooked when they did arrive. Cool spot to spot on the way to Pokolbin.

Dinner was delicious — excellent food, friendly service and a lovely selection of Hunter wines by the glass. Compliments to the team!

I'm visiting From London and can honestly say that of all the places I've eaten around the world this food is WORLD CLASS! The chef (Casey) came and spoke to us about the menu and explained the flavours. OUTSTANDING! The portions are what you would expect in fine dining, and the flavours surpassed expectations. Highly recommend this place. They do a taster menu as well which I want to go back and try.
The service is fantastic and such a lovely atmosphere.
What a hidden gem this place is!

Food ordinary, service by the matradee was appalling. Only two tables to serve and got the meal incorrect. Vastly overpriced considering the kitchen prepared the meals for the other restaurant at half the price. Should have been more flexible to accommodate the quite booking day. After I spoke to the Chef and manager we were continually stared at by the rest of the staff. I frequent other Hunter Valley establishments and will not recommend this restaurant to any of my clients.