The Kite is permanently closed

For information about and reviews of the current venue occupying the same site, see The Porterhouse Grill & Rooms

The Kite

Friendly backstreet local with good cheap pub grub. Sunday roast choices are pork, lamb and beef. Big screens show National Geographic ...
  • Food and drink
  • Pub

Friendly backstreet local with good cheap pub grub. Sunday roast choices are pork, lamb and beef. Big screens show National Geographic channel when not sporting. There's a pool table & a rack of ships' clocks showing the time in various Antipodean towns and the red kite above the bar are worth noting, as are the photos comparing the local area in 1914 and 1993.

Food served: Mon - Fri 12-2.30 & 5-7.30pm; Sunday (roast) 12-3pm

    Cuisine:
  • Gastropub
  • British
10 reviews

68-69 Mill Street
Oxford
OX2 0AL

Opening hours: Mon - Sat: 12 - 11pm, Sun: 12 - 10.30pm

01865 248546
  • Wi-fi available
  • Wheelchair-friendly

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Reviews

In the 2000s, The Kite was one of the very best pubs in Oxford, but neglect and bad management have led to the situation we find now, with the community pub sadly gone and replaced with something as far from a backstreet boozer as you can imagine. Goodbye Kite, thanks for the memories. Maybe you'll be back one day.

I went to the Kite at Christmas and it had a real buzz about it. Steve the new landlord and his team were really welcoming. They has a great selection of beer from Greene King and five beers from local brewery XT Brewing Co. who are based in Long Crendon. It was a great night and we would definitely recommend this place. Looking forward to a return trip very soon.
Nice to find a "proper" pub and a real local. Pool table and Darts, five Real Ales and friendly, good food as well...everything you'd like to find.

There was live music on when we were in on a Saturday evening and it was busy. A great find.
I really like the Kite, particularly as it is a short stagger across the road from my gaff. Paul, the landlord is a great geezer too.
Brilliant pub, lovely staff and very nice food! I have been there for lunch and will definitely be returning. The food was gorgeous (and very good prices) and the staff were very friendly. It's definitely improved since having the new landlords!
I have recently visited The Kite and was really pleased with what I found when I got there. The member of staff that served me on the bar was warm and welcoming and made me feel right at home. The food is fantastic. It's home-made and very tasty. I would recommend it to everyone. It's all at a good price, too. It's clear that a lot of work has gone into getting the place cleaned up. I will be recommending to all my friends.
Oh no - it's the end of an era. Pete, the Aussie landlord has left and horror of horrors, no dogs allowed any more. The aroma of dettol indicates the new landlord has had a good clean up but in throwing away so much, I fear the atmosphere has been lost as well. A sensible compromise might have been 'dogs on leads only' - it's really bugging me that I can't drop in there on my walk with the dog of an evening. It was such a special pub - relaxed, friendly, all the daily papers, scrabble, jenga, backgammon, and delicious affordable food. It's not my local pub but the Kite was worth going out of my way to get to. A real haven at the end of a hard working day. Greene King didn't know what a treasure they had in Pete. And they wonder why pubs are going out of business.
The Kite is a wonderful local pub untainted by modern and trendy features. It's particularly welcoming if you have a dog to take in as no less than 3 (Mutley, Harvey and Jack) live there on a permanent basis! It possesses all the endearing qualities you'd expect from a side street pub just 2 minutes from the train station. A range of board games, (and real ale) a serious dart board, a Sunday quiz and a pool room unrivaled by any I've seen before with its rickety herringbone parquet floor perfect for when the game is getting heated! It has a back yard-come-garden smoking 'room' with heat and cover from grizzly weather. So much about this place is what you expect a traditional real pub to be that it makes many of those in town look like generic chain bars. Here, the character is real; and it's genuinely warm and friendly! Come out of the breeze and into the Kite to warm your cockles and have a jolly time among friends!
Have you ever tried to get pub food in West Oxford? Its a challenge. Take the Kite for example. No food after 7.30 in the evening - I guess customers are expected to rush home from work, change and run to the pub. And even if you get there at, say, 7.00 you may well be told "we're too busy". To be fair to the Kite, other nearby pubs are just as bad. Oh well, there's always the Botley Kebab van (the White House is reopening soon - perhaps they will have a more customer friendly policy...).

Coming back to the Kite itself, despite the disappontment of a menu that one may never sample, the pub is friendly enough with a good selection of beers. To call it dog friendly would be an understatement - as well as the landlord's dogs, almost every local seems to have a dog too.

Good place to relax and watch fottball - just don't get hungry at half-time.
We found this place by accident after a walk along the river, and were jolly glad we did. To my surprise they serve some of the nicest coffee in Oxford, at £1 a cup, and the food is similarly cheap and tasty. Gammon steak and Steak with free pint (a Tues/Thurs deal) came to around £12.

While we were there we saw a number of locals come in by themselves, and eat in companionable fashion round the bar. A table of lads seemed to be gearing up for the football, but generally the atmosphere seemed friendly in an introverted sort of way.

In East Oxford, despite the effervescence of the Cowley Rd, there just isn't a quiet home-from-home local like this. Lucky residents of Mill St, and I'll be back when I'm hungry in that end of town.
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68-69 Mill Street
Oxford
OX2 0AL

Opening hours: Mon - Sat: 12 - 11pm, Sun: 12 - 10.30pm

01865 248546
  • Wi-fi available
  • Wheelchair-friendly

Share this venue

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