Banbury Restaurant Guide

“Cosy even in winter”, this “canvas structure” makes a quirky destination, being part of a garden centre near Bicester. All reports say it “makes an interesting venue” and has “a good choice of food” too, with “great atmosphere and lovely staff”. For a “tasty brunch” or “enjoyable afternoon tea” it’s highly popular, but the food’s more ambitious than it might sound (“a faultless lunch included cod cheeks in tempura, meltingly braised beef with pommes Anna and two proper puds”). “Thankfully, we’re bound to need something else for the garden soon!”.

“Very busy” Cotswolds pub with “well-prepared food” at “very reasonable prices” that is particularly popular as a classic weekend destination to avail yourself of their “generous Sunday roast”. Top Menu Tip – “the double-baked cheese soufflé is a standout”; “Cherry and Almond Tart as well as the chocolate truffles are flavoursome without being sickly sweet”.

Highly rated village pub on the edge of the Cotswolds from Richard & Solanche Craven where “originality and local resourcing are dominant concerns” – “Richard’s cookery is always spot-on, and his love of game shines through in the fantastic dishes he serves up”. In late 2025 the couple launched a second venture in the village: a daytime bakery, ‘Ferment & Flour’, that turns into ‘Ricardo Bastardo’s’, a trattoria using English produce, in the evening.

“Really deserves to be up there with the best” – a “very attractive” restaurant-with-five-flashy-rooms set in Georgian premises, and luring diners to this quaint market town betwixt Stratford-upon-Avon and Chipping Norton. There’s considerable flair to the British cooking (they offer à la carte or a tasting menu), which nods to honest produce like trout and quail.

“The food is delicious, the place is lovely, as are the people” who run this historic pub-with-rooms in a Cotswolds-fringe village – dating from 1637, it provided Winston Churchill with a handy lunchtime escape when staying at nearby Blenheim Palace in the 1930s. It’s been smartened up by owners Jim & Claire Alexander since they took over in 2012, with the kitchen run by chef Adam Brown. Feedback is somewhat limited, but all rate it consistently highly.

At last and after a substantial refurb – (which reputedly cost new owner Daniel Ede £4million) this boutique townhouse hotel near Blenheim Palace is back and its restaurant, Nest (geddit?) “is returning to previous culinary standards – with an updated, modern British menu” and “while not terribly cheap” fans say “the cooking compares very favourably with many other places in Oxfordshire”. “The staff are very friendly and the newly refurbished dining room is a pleasure to dine in”.

“The menu has something for everybody (and tricky allergies are dealt with without demur)” at this renovated Cotswold village inn which is co-owned by property magnate Sir Tony Gallagher, a kingpin of the Chipping Norton set. “Had a very enjoyable lunch with a large group of pals – the private room was perfect, and not so private as to lose all sense of a pub atmosphere. We’ll happily be back”.

Limited but upbeat feedback this year on this tiny Cotswolds dining room, in the converted first floor of a house, where a maximum of 11 can be seated at once. “Each taster-course is lovingly prepared and served by Mark the owner. The setting is small and intimate, sit at the counter if it’s just the two of you”.

“You will want to lick the plate” if you brunch (the highpoint) at one of Yotam Ottolenghi’s inspired deli-cafés, whose creation in 2002 helped created the TV fame of the owner, and started to popularise the Middle Eastern-influenced cuisine that’s swept London and even now is seen as fashionable. The formula is little changed: “tasty, healthy and yummy dishes” that are “beautifully flavoured” but “a bit on the pricey side”. “Ottolenghi is the master of flavoursome veg (with more veg choices than at most non-veg restaurants)” and, in particular “the cakes are wonderful!”. (Also, “they’re great on allergens.”). On the downside, “space is tight” and the “ambience could be more relaxed”. There’s also a feeling in some quarters that “Yotam has become a brand and it shows”, with food that is “good but after a while same-y”.

The duo behind all-conquering London venues The Pelican and The Hero in Maida Vale returned to the Cotswolds to open this charismatic corner pub, standing since the 1500s. In April 2025 – just as our annual diners’ poll was concluding – star chef Sally Abé (till recently head chef at London’s The Pem, and prior to that at the Harwood Arms) took over the farm-to-fork-oriented kitchen and locals are rightly “very excited by the appointment” indeed (“I expect there will be dozens of reports about The Bull”). It’s still too early days for a rating, but no-one can cook a pie like Sally, so ‘the wind is set fair’. (Given it’s “hard to get a table”, some reporters may need an alternative – it’s barely a minute’s walk from its not-to-be-confused-namesake ‘The Bell’: Lady Bamford’s newly restored inn with rooms.)

Just a minute’s walk from the easy-to-confuse ‘Bull’, this 17th-century hostelry was recently absorbed into the Daylesford Organic empire, and – true to form for the brand – opinions on its scrubbed-up new look can diverge. A fan feels that “Lady Bamford has done an excellent job here, whatever the views of the naysayers, with a venue better described as a hotel rather than a pub with rooms: service is very good and with a smile, while the food is at the better end of pub catering and acceptable”. Meanwhile, one of the aforementioned naysayers feels that “the garden is spectacular and a real draw in the fine weather, but everything else lets it down starting with the well-meaning but poorly trained staff”.