Blockley Restaurant Guide

Owned by the nearby Donnington Brewery – a “popular, comfortable, attractive and welcoming” roadside inn with five bedrooms and a rangy garden in a “very picturesque” setting. The classic British cooking features a generous dose of grilled meats and game. While, for the odd reporter, it’s “OK but not exceptional”, for fans it “achieves all it sets out to do”.

This “unpretentious but good restaurant” serves “outstanding food for the price – much cheaper than establishments where the food is nowhere near as good”; “service is very friendly and correct”, too – which indicates that a change of ownership a couple of years back has failed to dent a consistent performance stretching back over two decades. The premises was originally the workshop of furniture designer George Russell, remembered in the name. Top Tip – “great fish ’n’ chips are found at the rear of the main restaurant” (under the same ownership).

2024 Review: James Martin is the latest in the line of c’leb chefs to have his name over the door of the barrel-vaulted dining room of this historic Tudor coaching inn (which accommodated both Charles I and Oliver Cromwell at different times during the Civil War). Iconic Luxury Hotels Group (who run Cliveden and Chewton Glen) have managed the property for some time, and pre-rebrand the feedback continued the downbeat tenor – “such a disappointment…”, “trading on its name and reputation” – of recent decades. Here’s hoping James can bring some of the magic here that’s created in Chewton Glen and that this fine space finally starts to live up to its potential.

“This Grande Dame still maintains standards in its main restaurant” according to most feedback on the impressive barrel-vaulted dining room of this picture-book, 600-year-old hotel in the Cotswolds, which – under TV chef James Martin – seems to have hit a more even stride in recent times with a straightforward, posh-grill house formula of steak and BBQ dishes (“best Sunday Lunch I’ve had in years in a wonderful room with very good service”).

In a striking 17th-century, timber-framed building on the high street, this “light and airy” family-run venture “feels like being on holiday” thanks to its “brilliant Italian food”; wood-fired pizzas and homemade pastas grace the “varied” menu, which is also “good value” (there’s a two-course set for £18.95, and three courses rack in at a bargainous £22.95).

Honeyed stone on the outside and Scandi-chic on the interior characterise the scene at this Cotswold retreat – a 17th-century manor house within 60 acres which opened in September 2025 – too late for any feedback in our annual diners’ poll. TS Eliot sojourned here in days gone by – if he visited now he could toy with some of the straightforward but competitively priced options on the focused menu, which includes the likes of Kedgeree Arancini, Wood-fired Octopus, and Briar Hill Farm Lamb.