Just outside Shipston-on-Stour in the tiny village of Whatcote, there’s a lovely independent pub called The Royal Oak. Recently, this picture-perfect pub has found out that it has been promoted from a Michelin Plate to a prestigious Michelin Star in the Michelin Guide 2020 – what a fantastic achievement!

A typical quintessential English pub on the surface run by a husband-and-wife team, The Royal Oak has been causing a stir since it opened, with food and drink critic Tom Parker Bowles writing this in his December 2018 Daily Mail feature on ‘The 100 cosiest pubs in Britain’:

Very much a local pub, albeit a rather smart one. But chef owner Richard Craven is one hell of a chef. Expect game in season, from roe deer tartare to pheasant with snails. Homemade bread comes with dripping butter, and there’s excellent fish too.

Just a stone’s throw from the stunning Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and just under 10 minutes away from Shipston Lodge Nursing Home, The Royal Oak is in a great location. Simply head out of Shipston-on-Stour towards the villages of Honington and Idlicote and you’ll find Whatcote before you reach Oxhill. It’s a lovely short drive through beautiful Warwickshire countryside with an idyllic destination at the end.

We’re grateful and excited to have such an innovative, forward-thinking pub so close by to our nursing home in Shipston-on-Stour and hope to pay The Royal Oak a visit very soon!