The Bear and Ragged Staff, Appleton Road, Cumnor
Morrells
Monday to Saturday 11 to 11
Sunday 12 noon to 10.30pm
Food: Lunchtimes, 6pm to 10pm

Morrells Oxford Bitter (3.7%) £1.90
Morrells Varsity (4.0%) £2.00
Morrells Graduate (5.2%) £2.15
Guinness £2.35
Strongbow Cider £2.15 (12.xii.1998)

Cosy beamed and stonewalled pub out at the Appleton end of Cumnor. 
Morrells Graduate very pleasant, still. The food used to look imaginative 
but expensive, and now it looks predictable, the management having 
recently changed, along with the chef, who is now Italian. The restaurant 
bit hasn't started up yet, and might not till mid-January, so you're stuck 
with rump steaks and spaghetti bolognese in the pub section.

The Vine must be raking it in.

They used to have restaurant menus above the bar. Now they don't, only a 
display case containing a stuffed (taxidermy not cuisine) salmon, 
well-known fish of Cumnor that it is.

There is no Oxford City Motor Services bus stop outside any more, so you 
have to go to the one at the Oxford end of Cumnor for the 10.55. Don't say 
you weren't warned. (12.xii.1998)

Kirstie Jackson wrote, before the change of chef:
Manoir Au Quat' Saisons meets Perch at Binsey food. Roast skate very good. 
They do duck, but not enough of it. Too much onions. Over-ate myself 
horribly. Morrells beer? I can't remember. It had been a long day. But 
they did wine. So did he.

Food, yes. Good unusual bread and Ciabatta with seeds in it. Roaring fire, 
and little copper measurers for ale. Got very hot in there but I was 
slightly tired.

The entrance is 'round the back. There are windows at the front enabling 
you to read the menu before you go in. Expensive for pub food (same price 
as Café Rouge) but better quality, and fewer Anglo Catholics amongst the 
clientele. They do HUGE toasties at lunch-time. You won't need pudding. If 
you do, however, there is custard.(12.i.1998)