Cirencester Restaurant Guide

2023 Review: “Excellent food” and a “lively atmosphere” can be found at this brasserie set in the Corn Hall covered market in the centre of town, that has developed over 15 years from a deli and was formerly known as Made by Bob… although the founder is James Parkinson.

2021 Review: Owned by the same folk as The Village Pub, just across the road, this “very fancy” boutique hotel turns out “solid cooking with bold flavours”, and uses “a lot of produce straight from the garden”.

Opening June 2024, in the Cotswold village of Barnsley, the first pub from the shabby-chic Pig hotel group, which has taken over boutique hotel Barnsley House across the road (also opening summer 2024). The food is a pubby version of the Pig formula, with a hearty menu based around locally sourced ingredients, served in rustic comfort.

2021 Review: A “charming, lovely and well-run village pub” that “has had its ups and downs, but seems to be on an ‘up’ at the moment”; and serving an “interesting but not over-ambitious menu”.

“Just keeps getting better… it’s gone from derelict petrol station to Airstream caravan selling ice cream to a shop and drive-thru where you can buy very local produce in the shop, and eat excellent rare-breed burgers” – this converted fuel stop was quoted in a 2023 Times article as being the type of local farm store that boosts rural property prices! “Outdoor seating in the meadow is on hand for fine days; there’s a yurt with log burner on cooler days together with a covered area with a fire pit”. “The quality is always excellent and the staff unfailingly friendly, knowledgeable and enthusiastic about what they sell”. “Great coffee and pastries for early mornings… bigger breakfasts are also available”. Top Menu Tip – “The Kentucky Fried Pheasant always goes down well”.

This cute whitewashed and beamed village pub “just outside Malmesbury” has its own two-acre organic kitchen garden and wins support for its “well prepared dishes from a nice menu” and “friendly staff”.

2022 Review: Superdry sartorial star Julian Dunkerton, behind the Lucky Onion Cotswold group, owns this “reliable and buzzing” country hotel, where “amazing local ingredients” are “beautifully cooked in a gorgeous setting”. The odd service blip but it's “overall a very memorable eating experience”.

2023 Review: In Gloucestershire’s lovely Slad valley, “Laurie Lee’s local has just gone from strength to strength over the years – although it’s not clear what Laurie Lee would think about it now, as while it’s still all scrubbed tables and good cider, it now also has a talented chef producing high-end pub grub”. “Sometimes the food is exceptional” (it was on Giles Coren’s June 2022 visit) – “service has been varied, but everywhere is struggling with staff… but on the right day, a visit here is magical”.

2022 Review: Now that Wild Garlic nearby has converted into rooms, this ambitious and quite well-known venue is Matthew Bearshall’s main operation, wherein all guests enjoy an eight-course tasting menu in a single sitting nightly. It has a hard-to-obtain AA ranking of 3 rosettes, but we didn’t receive reports on it this year, so have left it unrated.

Opened in 2020 after a lavish conversion, the Hibbert family’s “stunning” former barn is “one of the most stylish and delicious places to eat in the Cotswolds”, serving “interesting and top-quality ingredients, beautifully presented” by Ballymaloe-trained chef Charlie, whose mother Caryn led the 18-year-long development project which also includes a cookery school, pub and beauty business.

2022 Review: The more informal dining option at this luxe Cotswolds country-house hotel, with an elegant grey colour scheme and a garden for summer months – the British-slanted menu offers “tasty food” in “good portions”, drawing on fresh produce from the kitchen garden.

Chef “Ricki (Weston) and the team do amazing work” at this Cotswolds country house hotel – “a lovely place to unwind”, which has been a gastronomic highlight of the area for two decades now. Those who visited during the previous tenure of chef Niall Keating report that the “food was amazing then, but Ricki has taken it further”, his “truly exceptional” tasting menu featuring some nicely performative touches too (“the whole experience of eating the first bites in the kitchen before being led into the Dining Room means the link between the chefs and the diners is well integrated”).

2021 Review: With its “superior pub food in a delightful location” – a plush spa and hotel complex in the Cotswolds – this is far from your standard village boozer. But it has stood the test of time, and recently celebrated its 25th anniversary.

“The yardstick against which we compare everything and few, if any, can compete with the quality and value” – an oft-repeated compliment for David & Helen Everitt-Matthias’s long-established temple of foodie pilgrimage (“it is lucky we live 2.5 hours away as if it was closer I doubt we would go anywhere else”). David’s cuisine is “always original, seasonal and well judged and – though carefully presented – avoids the irritating Instagrammability sometimes found elsewhere”. “Helen presides over the room and also the wine with grace” in a manner that’s both “friendly and professional” and the “very good list” is an attraction in itself with “the ample selection of half bottles being a bonus”; and “the cheese basket is a tour de force”. Even devotees concede that “some might find the atmosphere sedate” – a more critical view is that “excellent food and wine is let down by an overly formal approach and lack of ambience” (“the reverential tone is not where we are in 2023!”). Overall, though, the verdict is of a stalwart that’s “serene, calm, well-spaced and good humoured… if there’s a better place to enjoy terrific cooking whilst having a good conversation, I’d like to know about it!”

“Stylish decor, food bursting with flavour and charming staff” win consistently high ratings across the board for local restaurateur Michael Raphel’s venue, inspired by the flavours his chef-grandfather brought to the UK from South India. Fans feel “it’s less ambitious than Prithvi (same ownership) but in some ways nicer”. Top Tip – “lunchtime thali is a delightful bargain, with great tastes for a snip”.

“Outstanding and imaginative cooking with an Indian twist” is key to the success of this “elegant and evolved restaurant” over the past dozen years. Locally born founder Jay Rahman worked at top-ranked Birmingham venues Lasan and Purnell’s before taking over and transforming his uncle’s traditional curry house, fka Hassan’s. In line with its evolution, “the sommelier suggests some interesting and well-thought-out wine pairings”.

2021 Review: “A real pleasure” – takeover by a chain (Cardiff’s Barkby Group, at the helm as of 2018) hasn’t led to a fall in fortunes for this eighteenth century village boozer; it continues to deliver “very enjoyable”, “well-sized and well-priced” grub (including the “perfect Sunday roast”) that’s “worth travelling some way for” – and, while it “gets pretty packed, it appears the kitchen is used to that and copes admirably”.

2022 Review: In a prime town-centre location, this luxurious hotel (ultimately owned by Superdry founder Julian Dunkerton) is converted from a trio of Georgian townhouses. On limited feedback in this survey, the themes here are the same as in previous years: “attractive setting and good food… but all at a high price”.

Chef-patron Gareth Fulford’s small indie is a “friendly” location in which to dine upon sustainable seafood and Cotswolds produce – either from the “great set-price lunch”, which changes weekly, or the bi-monthly-changing à la carte. It doesn’t inspire a huge volume of feedback, but fans say it’s an “underrated” restaurant that outperforms the local competition.

“The rotunda is wonderful”, and “can make a visit stand out” at this branch of the ubiquitous chain, which otherwise conforms to type with “food and service that are professional, reliable and entirely anonymous” – “one could eat the same dish every day and find it unvarying, while being treated politely but distantly by the staff”.