The Eagle and Child

Always worth a trip in when we go up for the weekend/longer.  Such a busy pub, or should we call it something else now, due to its increasing popularity and modernisation!! 
Such change over the years, but if you like the history and have a mind to hold a pen, you'll go back.  Some unusual burgers, if you like that sort of thing.
Very limited Fish Menu, but you can't go wrong with the Pies.....Beef Rib or Chicken Fillets...they are good.
Large Cod and Chips £11.95....little bit rich, I think!
You can always cut across the road to The Lamb and Flag..........!!

Used to be great, but now has cleaned up its image and caters for the American tourist/food crowd.
No smoking area, as the conservatory has been turned over to – you guessed it – food.

Stop killing our history and replacing it with plastic food pubs for Americans, please!

It gets five stars because of who drank here. Me.

Wait, I meant JRR Tolkien.

The history of the pub drags in a lot of flying visitors and, as a result, is always rammed. If you want to experience a pint as Tolkien did many, then definitely go for a beer. If you want to relax and have a few drinks I recommend another pub.

The food's better than you might expect late on a Saturday night. It's not a bad boozer but it does get busy and full of tourists. I'm not sure about all the Tolkien ambience - I think that was edited out of this pub a long time ago. Not an Oxford beer pub.

I'm a huge Tolkien fan so when we went on an Oxford trip I pretty much begged for us to have breakfast there. I think my partner and I were lucky for the time we went, as we went in and it was pretty much dead, which is fine for us :) While we were eating it filled up a bit with tourists, but not too many that it was uncomfortable. In fact, a small group that was on an Inklings tour came in so we got to hear a little trivia about the group :)

There's lots of little bits and bobs with information and pictures about the group, so any enthusiast will be happy. Breakfast is served until 12pm, but when we went in at 11:30 there wasn't a breakfast menu out. However, we asked up at the bar and they said they were still serving so if you're going for brekkie don't worry about that :)

Both vegetarian and normal English breakfasts were £5.50 each so quite reasonable and that comes with a hot drink. It filled us up very well and my partner made a comment that it was a very very good English breakfast :) I very much enjoyed my veggie one too, one of the best veggie sausages I've had.

My advice is to go here early on weekdays to miss the touristy rush if you're not into that. On a whole it's a great pub :)

Good ale and pies (if a little expensive) in this classic old pub owned by St Johns College. Literature buffs take note - this was once JRR Tolkien and C S Lewis' hangout

I love the history of this pub and want to like this pub, but it was so busy on a weekend afternoon that I didn't entirely enjoy my time drinking here.

This is a Nicholson’s pub these days and the one thing I have found that to mean in my experience is an interesting ale selection. This pub is no different and my top notch pint of harvest pale ale meant that it was with mixed feelings that I climbed over piles of students towards the exit.

Our day trip to Oxford was made virtually "complete" with our lunch at the "Bird and the Baby" pub. I had the fisherman's pie and it was the best I have ever had. The service staff was quite friendly, efficient, and enjoyable, to go along with the quite palatable food. Having lunch overseen by the spirits of Tolkein and CS Lewis was an added attraction (no elves, though, on this trip!) Also, a pint of their lager went well. I can hardly wait to return to Oxford next fall, just to enjoy this pub once more!

Bill Hobbs
Tyler, Texas USA

Nice pub to chill out.
Food is very good and cheap, and excellent service.

Sister pub of the Lamb and Flag across the road, the Eagle and Child is a fantastic pub, steeped in history. As you can read below, this is Tolkien's old watering hole and the meeting place for the famous literary group the "The Inklings". Good selection of ales, friendly staff and decent pub grub. Popular with students and tourists with a guide book and a cracking weekly pub quiz.

Hunter's Tip - Try the Pie & Chips!

Nice pub
Food is very good and cooked fresh and staff are very pleasant

This is a really nice pub, but it does get very busy particularly with tourists (especially those which don’t understand the great british queue!). It is reasonably priced and the food is excellent and considering how busy it gets are lunch times the service is usually very quick so it is realistic to pop in during your lunch break. Recommend their steak sandwich!

I’ve been here three or four times now, and been lucky enough to avoid any tourist overcrowding - so for me it’s always been a very cosy, very atmospheric, twisty winding pub with little coves, lots of old gas lamps, literary references (of course) and friendly staff and patrons.
This visit, I had a strange but delicious local green brew (yes, bright green) and some bar food, which was excellent.
If only most pubs could be like this, rather than it being a dying breed. sigh.

Boy, what a pub this is. Many pubs in Britain these days have turned into identikit places with the same food and the same drinks and the same atmosphere no matter where you are. That means that prices are lower, but you lose the atmosphere. The Eagle and Child is different. A great range of drinks, particularly real ales, and a wonderful “olde world” atmosphere (though I hate that phrase!). Of course, it’s famous for its previous clients, and that’s definitely a draw for some, but the real ales and the attractiveness of the building itself are quite enough for me, thankyou very much.

If you haven’t been told of the Tolkien links by the time you get through the door, you will have picked them up by the time you leave. A source of endless fascination for aficianados of the Inklings that CS Lewis and Tolkein drank here, the Eagle & Child (or Bird & Baby, as it was styled in Morse) is worth exploring for other reasons.

The snugs that run down the sides of the corridor from the entrance to the bar offer an intimate space for a small gathering, and the conservatory at the back has made it much easier to find a table for lunch.

The Tolkein link means it’s normally quite busy, especially in the early afternoon where the busloads of tourists that stop on St Giles struggle with the locals looking for lunch.

Nothing wrong with the ale or food, but other than for the historical connections the Lamb & Flag across the road is very similar in terms of the pub essentials, but without the touristy bustle.

This is the legendary pub where C S Lewis and J R R Tolkein met for their 'Inklings’ group. This is well publicised in the pub, with a little blurb about them on the menu and various photos and signs naming them their connection with these literary figures. No doubt they always managed to secure one of the brilliant 'snugs’ at the front of the pub, because the back of the place is all modernised and ugly. It’s an alright place, but the bar is too small and always crowded and it probably relies too much on its reputation to see it through. The food is good though, which is always a big bonus.

If you’re a Tolkien geek then this place is a must-see, the well known meeting place where he and C. S. Lewis discussed their work over a few pints! Its a bit small and pokey (though I love that - the little alcoves at the front are great!) and the food is quite slow to arrive but well worth it. I’ve visited several times and always had a great time. Look out for Hobbit spotters and groups of geeks (I was both!) and just bask in the atmosphere where great books were created…

It’s the Bar Tolkien drank and socialised at…need I say more? Ok well if your not a LOTR geek like me I’d still recommend checking it out, the front half is really old! So if you wanna see what pubs looked like 100years ago it’s the perfect place! Very wooden, all quite bendy and skew and charming as hell. Divided into little alcoves with wooden stools and fireplaces it can be very cosy. The back half is newly renovated and felt a little like a classroom to me (I think the bricks were the same as at my school), still pleasant enough though, the bar staff are friendly and chatty students, on the drinks front I had a green Ale which was lovely.

Great history, great atmosphere, but smells like stale beer.