By Royal Appointment

7 days back on British soil and I've chomped my way through the culinary to-do list with gusto.  Bacon sandwiches on white bread, lamb dhansak, naan bread and onion bhajis at the Curry Mahal in South Harrow, and fish & chips by the Hampshire coast have all been consumed. A pub lunch, preferably in a leafy beer garden was also on the list, and within 24 hours of touching tarmac at Heathrow we arrived in Windsor - my parents default day trip of choice for any out-of-towners.  The castle is still standing and Eton College is awash with foreign summer school students.  It's a squashed summer Sunday in Windsor.  The tourist trap restaurants clamour for custom, with 'real pubs' and 'old-fashioned' tea rooms pushing fish and chips, afternoon teas and assorted British fayre (spelling it with a 'y' makes it more British you see) on unsuspecting tourists.  Floundering to recall Windsor's hidden treasures amongst the fakes the Royal Oak was the best non-boasty option, and it had a beer garden.

The Royal Oak's new month-old menu has royal pedigree.  Meats are supplied exclusively by the Royal Farm Shop at Windsor.  Lamb is reared at Sophie & Eddie's  (aka Prince Edward and Countess of Wessex) Bagshot Park pad, and Gloucester Old Spot and Landrace pigs roll in mud in the Queen's Windsor Castle private back garden, Home Park.  The Sussex herd beef in the puff pastry topped beef & ale pie, is hung for 20 days, and master butchers at the farm shop, hand raise the cold pies for the ploughmans plate which comes with wedges of stilton and cheddar and homemade royal chutney. You can even get a pint of the Windsor & Eton Brewery Windsor Knot beer to commemorate Will & Kate's wedding. If only the tourists realised.

The Royal Oak, Datchet Road, Windsor, SL4 1QD.