The Kite Inn, Oxford

Huge price increases (bitter is minimum £4.20), and a menu which consists of steaks priced at £28,£33,and £75. Yes, you read that right. Unbelievable. Seems that the current management are intent on running the place into the ground. The heady days of Pete McGarry seem a long time ago now.

11 Nov 2016 12:28

The Grapes, Oxford

Someone from Bath Ales needs to be taken outside and shot. What the hell have they done to this once fine pub? "Beerd"? Give me strength Hopefully this embarrassing and faddish incarnation will not last long.

24 Sep 2015 11:29

The Kite Inn, Oxford

The previous reviewer Komakino must have visited a few days before the Kite shut down for a big refrurb by Greene King. He was lucky to see it in old form.

The Kite now features exposed bricks, pastel lime green paint, and heavily patterned wallpaper. The pool table and dart board, and jukebox have been removed. It's an obvious attempt by GK to take the pub up market, but it looks so cliched and dated already. They needed to build on what was already good, rather than point to "Pub Option 4" in the corporate pub makeover handbook.

The new owners seem like a good bunch, but it's the first pub they've ever run. I wish them all the best, but can't help but think it would have been best for them to run it for a while, and make some of their own decisions about how they'd like to change things.

I fear that Greene King's removal of all the community features of the pub will backfire, and that a tacky makeover will not succeed in taking this pub upmarket as they obviously want to do.

Sure, the Kite needed a kick up the bum, but GK have really screwed this place around now.

25 May 2014 18:30