Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Oxfordshire
Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best Oxfordshire restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 65 restaurants in Oxfordshire and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Oxfordshire restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Oxfordshire Restaurants
1. Cherwell Boathouse
British, Modern restaurant in Oxford
Bardwell Road - OX2
With its “idyllic setting on banks of river Cherwell, with trees and ducks and peace and quiet”, this restaurant in a working boathouse for punts is a true Oxford institution after 55 years in operation. By all accounts, “the food is a little hit-and-miss” – “but the wine list is great, with knowledgeable serving staff”. It’s at its best on a “sunny summer’s day” – but if weather forces everyone to squeeze inside, “it can be very noisy”.
2. The Old Crown Coaching Inn
restaurant in Faringdon
25 market place - SN7
Elegant, quirky and serving exquisite food alongside a beautifully renovated 4 star hotel. Escape the fast pace of everyday life with a visit to The Old Crown Coaching Inn. Located in the centre of the historic market town of Faringdon, seize the opportunity to sink into a relaxi...
3. Home Sweet Home Inn
restaurant in Wallingford
Roke - OX10
“Excellent pub food in Chilterns countryside” is to be had at this cosy seventeenth-century country pub in the hamlet of Roke, near Wallingford. The straightforward menu specialises in grills, and if you still have room for cheese afterwards there’s a notably good selection.
4. The Yurt at Nicholsons
restaurant in North Aston
Nicholson Nurseries, The Park - OX25
The Yurt at Nicholsons offers a unique dining experience with exquisite, locally sourced menus.Nestled in the leafy village of North Aston, The Yurt’s Michelin-recommended restaurant is situated in the heart of Nicholsons nursery and has be...
5. Minster Mill
British, Modern restaurant in Minster Lovell
Old Minster - OX29
2023 Review: Limited but good all-round feedback on this handsome hotel on the fringe of the Cotswolds and a short drive from Oxford (part of Andrew Brownsword’s luxurious group), whose beautiful terrace borders the banks of the River Windrush. In the beamed, pitched-roof dining room, chef Joshua Brimmell holds a hard-to-win three AA rosettes.
6. The Lamb Inn
British, Modern restaurant in Little Milton
High Street - OX44
Situated in the village of Little Milton outside of Oxford, this charming 16th Century thatched public house has been serving elevated British pub food since its reopening under new ownership from 2022.The kitchen, run by Michelin trained Head Chef Nat Berney, provides ...
7. The Perch
British, Traditional restaurant in Oxford
Binsey Ln - OX2
Either a short drive or leafy stroll from Oxford, surrounded by Port Meadow, this beautifully located Thames-side inn is as cosy in winter as it is glorious in summer with its conservatory and large garden. There’s a wide-ranging menu that’s not particularly ‘foodie’ but realised very competently.
8. The Punter
British, Modern restaurant in Oxford
7 South St - OX2
2023 Review: This “picturesque riverside venue” on Oxford’s Osney Island (which opened in 1871 as The Waterman) is notable for its “laid-back but beautifully presented vegetarian food, full of flavours from a varied and interesting menu”. “I’m not a vegetarian myself but most definitely hope to be back”. Top Tip – “the whipped goats’ cheese”.
9. Zheng
Chinese restaurant in Oxford
82 Walton St - OX2
2022 Review: “So good – writing this now makes me crave their tofu noodles!” – this Oxford institution takes a culinary tour tracing the voyages of China’s legendary fifteenth-century admiral Zheng, with a handful of dishes from each of Sichuan, Canton, Malaysia and Singapore. There’s now a smarter branch in Chelsea.
10. The White Hart
British, Modern restaurant in Wytham
2023 Review: “A foodie gem”, this well-known eighteenth-century pub in a village on the outskirts of Oxford has been going through a period of flux, hence we’ve removed a rating for the time being. High-profile chef Jon Parry joined in summer 2022, after our annual diners’ poll had concluded, having made a name for himself cooking over an open fire at The Mash Inn in Buckinghamshire, and declared his ambition to ‘turn The White Hart into something really special’. Four months later, owner Baz Butcher announced his intention to sell up and retire to France.
11. The Porterhouse
Steaks & grills restaurant in Oxford
Mill Street - OX2
2021 Review: “First class steaks” and “excellent wine pairings” help win enthusiastic reviews for this large, attractively converted pub near the train station, which opened a couple of years ago.
12. Branca
Italian restaurant in Oxford
111 Walton St - OX2
This big, buzzy millennium-born Jericho brasserie-plus-deli “continues to provide good-value, reliably cooked food” (with an Italian slant, but ranging further into the Med) and is accordingly “always busy”. The handsome interior (exposed-brick walls, parquet floor) is abetted by “ample outdoor space for the few sunny days”, though mysteriously they still haven’t launched the five bedrooms that have been touted for quite some time now.
13. Al-Shami
Lebanese restaurant in Oxford
25 Walton Cr - OX1
2021 Review: This Jericho veteran inspires remarkable loyalty from fans – “been coming since it opened 30 years ago and it’s still the best Lebanese I’ve found in the UK” – “and great value too”. Others find it “pleasant enough”, with a “wide range of nicely flavoured dishes”, but complain there’s “no excitement”.
14. Pierre Victoire
French restaurant in Oxford
Little Clarendon St - OX1
This “long-standing favourite” a short walk from the city centre woos customers with a “wonderfully consistent bistro menu” of “genuine Gallic fare” offered at “a set price including lots of choice”. Exceptionally “good value for money” means guests are happy to overlook downsides, which include occasional “unfriendly service”, “cramped surroundings” and “hard wooden seats which could do with some cushioning”. These days a “really well run independent”, it split off from a national chain which collapsed in 1998.
15. Sichuan Grand
Chinese restaurant in Oxford
The Old School, Gloucester Grn - OX1
“Good Sichuanese cooking and a good variety of dishes” (albeit “not as extensive as the ‘My Sichuan’ restaurant it replaced”) make this venture “in the lovely Gloucester Green Old School building” more than “enough to tickle the tastebuds at very affordable prices”. The Westfield Stratford sibling has now been joined by a second Big Smoke offshoot, in Holborn.
16. Parsonage Grill
British, Modern restaurant in Oxford
Old Parsonage Hotel, 1 Banbury Road - OX2
With “marvellous art on its walls” and a “nice dining courtyard” (remodelled last summer in imitation of Yves Saint Laurent’s garden in Marrakech) – this inviting and luxurious, small hotel in a 17th-century former vicarage near the city centre is a good bet for a meal in the Grill, or a “good-value afternoon tea (one can be easily shared between two people)”.
17. Gee’s
British, Modern restaurant in Oxford
61 Banbury Rd - OX2
This “wonderful conservatory dining room in trendy North Oxford” – a former Victorian florists’ that provides a “lovely greenhouse” effect – has been a fixture of the city’s dining scene for four decades and its good looks ensure it’s perennially booked out. But despite a costly overhaul a couple of years ago, doubts about its gastronomic qualities persist: “it’s still hard to fathom how the food is so underpowered” is a typical complaint.
18. Ashmolean Dining Room
British, Modern restaurant in Oxford
Beaumont St - OX1
A meal at this “great location on the roof of the Ashmolean” makes the perfect culmination of a mooch around the museum (or a visit in its own right) – but it can seem a little “mediocre unless you’re outside on the terrace”.
19. Sticks'n'Sushi
Japanese restaurant in Oxford
Rooftop Terrace, 311 The Westgate, Castle Street - OX1
“LOVE this chain and would happily eat there any day!” – These “always buzzy” Nordic operations (originating in Copenhagen 30 years ago) provide a “tasty mix of sushi and grilled yakitori kebabs” in Scandi-minimalist dining spaces. One or two reporters hesitate at the prices for these luscious morsels – “not sure you can justify the cost of leaving full up” – but the overall satisfaction-level is high. They added a branch in Richmond’s former House of Fraser in May 2024 followed by another on Islington Green in September.
20. Victors
American restaurant in Oxford
307 The Westgate Queen Street - OX1
This faux-wisteria-hung rooftop venue above the Westgate Centre offers “surprisingly well cooked dishes for an ambitious range from all over the world”. Victors has branches in Newcastle, Alderley Edge and Hale in Manchester, and takes inspiration from American-Asian cuisine.
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