The Kings Arms

We had a terrific meal and a pint here, then came back for pints again later. (Museum feet will do that to a person!) The pork scratchings were delicious, and the food reasonably priced for location. Decent beer selection, good location, excellent people-​watching.

Beautiful setting. Worst service ever — took forever to get first course. No water or water glasses. Food eventually came out piecemeal. Some in party were done, before others got served. And, the food was super bland & overcooked. Something to think about as more and more restaurants give up on tipping in California. Weak uninterested waitstaff can ruin the entire experience. Following this review, never looking back even though the ducks were cool. Tried to leave No STARS, but Unilocal would not allow.

Pub food, but excellent at that. Prices were reasonable. The Steak and Ale pie was by far the best, but the Fish and Chips was good also. It was the only place in all of England where I got a pitcher of water that had more than one ice cube in it. I enjoyed every crunchy one that was in there.
We arrived there in time for a late lunch. Plenty of seating, the place was clean. Service friendly. Food excellent. Toilets clean.

Pub located in the heart of the Oxford campus. Just what you would expect. Food was fine at the time. Unmemorable afterwards. Service came and went.

I went here for a pint or two on a glorious Friday afternoon. I really liked the fact that it was quiet and calm where one can read or even do some work. Until… the American tourists arrived. I am an American, but for the life of me I do not understand why Americans (mostly women in their early 20s) have to shout instead of talk. The other person is less than two feet (less than one meter) away. Are they deaf? Are you? After completely turning a quiet environment into their own personal shouting parlor, they thankfully left. To the rest of the world, on behalf of all Americans: I am sorry. Not all of us are obnoxious and rude. No wonder we are not popular in the world.
Back to the bar: limited selection of tap ales but the quality is high. I loved the DNA and the Young’s Special was good too. Tried a bowl of chili and it was spicy, really nice kick. I was pleasantly surprised. I wish they had Guiness on tap, but I will return again and hope to avoid the loud and inconsiderate (clueless) Americans.

Had to stop here after a walking tour of the area and because we lived on Kings Arms Dr. Had the best fish n chips of our visit. Light batter but not greasy and very crisp and fresh chips along with a side salad. Had the London stout which was great. Mohave to also say I stole a drink (then another) of my daughters double chocolate stout. Damn, asked l, e a chocolate milkshake! Funniest comment we heard was from a 70ish woman talking about Mke Doglas getting sick from hanging around with «skanky whores» in a very British/​Irish accent. Made me laugh for days

The KA is one of my favorite pubs in the entire world. While studying at Oxford, I’d start my day in the college library, and then I’d head to KA for a bowl of soup for lunch. During the day, it was pretty quite. I enjoyed spreading out my books and working until dinnertime, when I would grab a drink with friends. The ambiance was lovely, there was plenty of seating, and I always really enjoyed the conversations with the people I met there. It is also conveniently located close to the bus, which was great when it was time to head home at the end of a long day. Now that I’m back in America, I miss the KA tremendously.

Great atmosphere and service. A fun pub!

Nice selection of drinks and always nice people to chat with at the bar.
Good place to spend a couple of hours at!

The King’s Arms is a great pub. It’s touristy, and gets extremely busy late at night (partly because it’s open until midnight, whereas many other pubs close at 11PM), but the food is stellar, and it has a large, well-​staffed bar where you can usually get a drink quite quickly. It’s also very large, which means there is ample indoor seating (very important in the English climate).
The pub is a chain pub, owned by Young’s, which means their drinks are mostly Young’s, but their food is mostly their own, which is great. They have a standard Young’s menu and then a daily specials menu (which is just as big as the Young’s menu itself) with everything from jacket potatoes to pies to sunday roasts. The grilled chicken breast with bacon, cheese, and chips, is great. I would say that overall, the King’s Arms has some of the best pub food in Oxford, except for the (much-​smaller) Bear Inn.
Definitely a place to go earlier in the night or for a pub lunch — lots of rooms, and lots of character. Great atmosphere. Definitely recommended.

Let’s face it: The King’s Arms is overpriced, underqualitied, a fairly boring Young’s pub with all the Young’s beer.
So why the third star?
It’s open ’til midnight. So when everyone’s squeezing out a double-​round at last orders at the Turf or the White Horse or wherever, feck off to the KA and get to the bar before the rush.
‘Cause everyone ends up at the KA, sooner or later.
It’s pretty blah, the food is meh, the service is, well, nonexistent, really, but it’s there and it’s reasonably cheap and, um, it’s there.
And open late.
You could go to the Retreat, but it’s expensive and full of wankers. Just stumble over here and stand outside and be shouty and then leave, nicely, when the nice men ask you to.

My favourite Pub in Oxford. used the side entrance. Unique little bar with much going for it. nice atmosphere. Well worth a vist and you will keep going back.

It is not so much the pub which is horrible, but the people who tend to frequent it. Bulging at the sides with tourists and horrible snobs, who have no idea how to go on at the bar.
The place is really expensive, with good reason. It keeps normal folk out of the pub who would ordinarily take issue with the horrors who frequent it.
Actually, just read the reviews from other people here and see the ‘type’ of person who thinks this place is good.
My favourite so far is Autsin J.‘s.
«…told the man to take a photo of me pouring a beer for my online publication, but he said no. That’s when I realized I forgot to call him „governor“ or „landlord“ …guess my friend was right!»
Perhaps you shouldn’t order people about and hey, even add a ‘please’ and some grace to your request? Note that I don’t suggest that you forgot to say ‘please’ and have any grace, you probably didn’t.
Also, other folk have pointed out that this is a place to say you have been. Say to who? They are probably bored to death of you listing things you have done, not that you have enjoyed them, you have just ticked them off the list. Well done.
Horrible place. Avoid if you like pubs generally.

This is one of two pubs I visited in Oxford but I have to say that I really enjoyed this one even more so than ones that I’ve frequented in London. This particular pub was not as pretentious (if that’s even possible) as the ones in London. What I really liked about this place was that it had a college-​town atmosphere. Most of the people at the pub were obviously students which gave it a much more down-​to-​earth feel.
At this pub, I was able to try some good ol’ English ales and even got used to the warmer temperature of beers in England. Also at this place, I tried a dish mainly because of its name, «Two Traditional Faggots». I enjoyed the dish and even hoped that someday I could be in a relationship and be described as «Two Traditional Faggots». Either way, my stay in Oxford was definitely great due in part to this establishment.
I would have never gone to this place on my own but luckily, I was taken here by my friends who live in Oxford. The best part of my visit to this pub was that my group was the last group to leave and the walk home was definitely the best part of the night.

The KA rests on the laurels of its obvious geographical advantage: it is a decent-​sized pub smack bang in the university and tourist centre of Oxford. It also has a later licence than many of the other student-​heavy pubs, so it gets absolutely rammed after 11pm on the weekend. During term-​time it can be ludicrously heaving and they start counting on the door. The drinks are a bit on the pricey side, as you’d expect. The food is totally standard and stops serving pretty early; but sometimes it’s a relief that they at least serve it at all. It’s historic ‘n’ all that and there’s a nice selction of rooms to sit in, some of which are really cosy. Other good things are no TV, no music, and the beer is alright.
I’ve been going here for several years, have spent some good nights here, and I’ll keep going back. But you need to be selective about when you go depending on what you want from it. For example if you have the luck to go there during the day or on a Sunday afternoon, there is a much nicer, more chilled atmosphere which makes it pretty pleasant. The same goes for outside of term time. And of course if you’re getting wasted on the weekend in the city centre, it could be worse.

The King’s Arms might just be my favorite Pub in the whole of Oxford.
I went there a couple weeks ago and told the man that I write reviews for an online publication and that I wanted to know all about the history of the King’s Arm and what the pictures on the walls were of. My friend told me you have to be demanding with that sort of person and call them «governor» or «landlord» (or «buddy»?) if you want them to do something for you.
I found out some of the following things about this old but vivacious watering hole:
The King’s Arms has the highest IQ per square foot of any bar in the world.
In the 1960’s some professors had classes in a room at the back.
It used to be for boys and men only – women couldn’t come in. But since the 1970’s it has been alright for anyone to go in, male or not.
I looked at the photos too. A lot of them are in color, but even more of them are black and white, which is partly how you know it’s a very old Pub.
Even though women are allowed to go to that pub now, most of the photos are of men and they’re usually wearing jackets or wearing hats or both which is a style I think we should bring back.
One of the photos of a woman is queen Elizabeth and her son pouring a beer from the tap. I told the man to take a photo of me pouring a beer for my online publication, but he said no. That’s when I realized I forgot to call him «governor» or «landlord» …guess my friend was right!

Nice warm but big pub with decent food. Lots of different areas to sit in. It’s close by to a lot of Oxford colleges and I spent a lot of time here b/​c this was Exeter’s pub. There’s usually lots of students in here so it’s a great place to meet up with friends usually in the evening. It’s near the Turf so we usually check both places out but the décor and feel of the pub are totally different. The KA is more like a typical modern pub.

This pub is great, lots of dark wood and different sections to relax upon/​within. Some of the seating is former church pews. (Where better to sit and talk a load of b*llox?).
The beer I had was a Gem, quite literally. From Bath Ales (their logo is a hare apparently but looks suspiciously like The Black Rabbit of Inle to me)
with a caramel flavor that made the beer very moreish. I’m not a Pork Pie man meself but those that were, were complimentary of them.
One of the nicest young’s pubs I have been to.

We ended up coming here twice during my stay in Oxford because Turf was always too crowded every time we tried going for lunch. Kings Arms has a nice layout with multiple rooms filled with primarily square 4-​top tables. It’s the sort of place that’s great for small groups of 3 – 5 but not much more than that.
The food available is your standard pub lunch: fish and chips, various meat pies, sandwiches, a couple salads, etc. Most is in the region of 7 or 8 quid, so it’s affordable for a long sit-​down lunch. If you’re looking for something light, this is not your place (but I came to realize that you would be hard pressed to find light lunches in Britain…) But their chips are just the perfect texture and the chicken bacon pie was rich and wonderfully bad for you.
The bar has a great selection as well and KA proved to be the sort of place one could easily spend an better part of the afternoon with a good group of friends.

This is a large, multi-​roomed warren of a pub on a prominent location at the end of Broad Street. The first recorded licence was in 1607, which stated Thomas Franklyn has licence to set up an inn with the sign of the King’s Arms. I’m glad they’ve kept the name.
It’s a bit of a surprise when you find it, as the outside and inside don’t match: the exterior is a fine Georgian-​styled building with classical features, whereas inside it’s all 1990s-​styled stripped wooden floors and wooden furniture.
There’s a main L-​shaped room at the front with the bar and separate food ordering counter, another separate room to the left, and a very nice (and more traditional) snug-​like room at the back.
It’s a Young’s pub, so real ales included on my visit Young’s Bitter, Special and Waggledance, together with Bath Ales’ Gem, St Austell Tribute, and the wonderful Deuchars IPA. They also serve Addlestone’s Cloudy Cider (none of your Magner’s rubbish).
They have a reasonably wide food menu, focusing on traditional pub grub with extras like faggots, mushy peas and mash, with a large board of daily specials, with mains around the £8-£10 mark.
It can get very busy in the evenings, apparently, but during the day it’s not a bad place for a quick pint or a pub lunch.