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RestaurantsOxfordshireCuddesdonOX44

Harden's says

This renovated 16th-century coaching inn in the next-door village from Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons has a chef who used to work at Le Manoir. Owner Ben Moss, who also runs the nearby Lamb Inn at Little Milton, is pitching it as a community pub where you can pop in for a pint or have a serious meal.

survey result

Summary

£55
   ££
* Based on a three course dinner, half a bottle of wine, coffee, cover charge, service and VAT.

Relaunched towards the start of 2025, this good-looking pub opened too late to generate any feedback in our annual diners’ poll, but has already won support in the press for offering an archetypal Cotswolds experience. In her August 2025 review, The Sunday Times’s Charlotte Ivers hailed a venue preserving “the spirit of a village pub” and ate Chicken liver parfait “thicker and richer than the ruddiest inhabitant of Chipping Norton”, and a fish finger sandwich “you could feed to a hungry farmhand or a Michelin inspector and both would be delighted”.

For 34 years we've been curating reviews of the UK's most notable restaurant. In a typical year, diners submit over 50,000 reviews to create the most authoritative restaurant guide in the UK. Each year, the guide is re-written from scratch based on this survey (although for the 2021 edition, reviews are little changed from 2020 as no survey could run for that year).

Have you eaten at The Bat & Ball?

28 High Street, Cuddesdon, OX44 9HJ

What the Newspaper Critics are saying

The Times

Charlotte Ivers visited a village pub near Oxford that could have been the setting for a rom-com. Taken over by the team behind the Lamb Inn at Little Milton, it is wood-panelled in the pale green now standard in the Cotswolds, and has a chef from Le Manoir. But the gastrofication has not been taken too far: there's still a darts board, fish and chips on the menu and “the spirit of village pub”.

Chicken liver parfait was “thicker and richer than the ruddiest inhabitant of Chipping Norton”, while fish finger sandwich – a brioche bun with cod in a light batter and homemade tartare sauce – “you could feed to a hungry farmhand or a Michelin inspector and both would be delighted”.

All in all, the Bat & Ball was “a place you’d want to take your American cousin to show them that yes, it’s true, Britain at its best really can be like the movies”.

Charlotte Ivers - 2025-08-10

Prices

Traditional European menu

Starter Main Pudding
£7.00 £21.00 £6.00
Drinks  
Wine per bottle £23.00
Filter Coffee £3.20
Extras  
Service 12.50%
28 High Street, Cuddesdon, OX44 9HJ
Opening hours
MondayCLOSED
TuesdayCLOSED
Wednesday12:30 pm‑2:15 pm, 5:30 pm‑8:15 pm
Thursday12 pm‑2:15 pm, 5:30 pm‑8:15 pm
Friday12 pm‑2:15 pm, 5:30 pm‑8:15 pm
Saturday12 pm‑2:15 pm, 5:30 pm‑8:15 pm
Sunday12 pm‑3:45 pm

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