Burcot Restaurant Guide

2022 Review: “Some pubs in the Cotswolds really go above and beyond, and this is one of them” – Steven Sanderson’s 400-year-old thatched village boozer with rooms (and garden) offers “lots of interesting small dishes as well as the usual suspects” (notably grass-fed British steak).

2022 Review: Despite its weird and wonderful decor, this lavishly decked out hotel not far from Oxford – a fixture of the area for over a quarter of a century – attracts relatively little feedback nowadays. It’s all still positive though, especially when it comes to the Thai dining room (there’s also a more traditional, British one). Service is “very engaged” and the classic twelve-dish sharing menu “well presented and flavoured food that reflects the cuisine”, without being “touristy”.

“Definitely a good choice if you’re in the area” – i.e. just five miles from the dreaming spires of Oxford – this “very comfortable country pub” boasts one of the best gardens in these parts and is particularly appealing come summer. Some feel the menu is “limited” and “relatively expensive”, albeit “generally good with some unusual dishes”, much local sourcing, and a fair selection of veggie-friendly options.

Open in Spring 2025 in the Crazy Bear boutique hotel – a new ’British fine dining’ restaurant under Chris Emery, former head chef at Jason Atherton’s New York outpost The Clocktower. It opened too late for survey feedback – expect a modern take on British cuisine, as this longstanding venue relaunches following a management buyout.

“A great little place with a changing menu” that “consistently delivers imaginative, tasty dishes” along with “terrific cocktails, a good wine list” – “and the beer is pretty good too”. Chef and co-founder Aimee Collins “shows creative thinking about flavours and textures rather than curiosity for the sake of it”; she teamed up with Rob McGregor & Sam Smith of nearby micropub ‘The Keep’ to open this crowdfunded venue, which was named with a nod to past Wallingford resident Agatha Christie. The trio have also opened a country pub, The Bear at North Moreton.

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”.