Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Lower Swell
Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best Lower Swell restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 11 restaurants in Lower Swell and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Lower Swell restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Lower Swell Restaurants
1. The Old Butchers
Mediterranean restaurant in Stow on the Wold
Park St - GL54
“Simple food, well executed” and service to match are the watchwords at this seafood specialist with a mismatched name from former Bibendum head chef Pete Robinson and his wife Louise. The couple launched the venue in 2005, and their two children are increasingly members of the team.
2. Lords of the Manor
British, Modern restaurant in Upper Slaughter
Stow-on-the-Wold - GL54
2022 Review: “High-quality service and food” are on the menu at this famous Cotswolds hotel – a sumptuous seventeenth-century former aristocratic vicarage in honey-coloured local stone. In his first appointment as head chef, Charles Smith, who has a stint at New York’s Per Se on his impressive CV, has launched the new Atrium dining space (see also); more relaxed meals are available in the Dining Room.
3. Atrium at Lords of the Manor
British, Modern restaurant in Upper Slaughter
Stow-on-the-Wold - GL54
2022 Review: Limited but upbeat feedback on this relatively recent (2019) addition to the well-known Cotswolds manor house, with Charles Smith delivering a nine-course tasting menu for £95. Fans do say it’s “wonderful”, but we have to leave a rating till we have a few more reports.
4. The Slaughters Manor House
British, Modern restaurant in Lower Slaughter
Copsehill Rd - GL54
This archetypal Cotswolds manor house, just outside Bourton on the Water, occupies a seventeenth century property that’s nowadays part of Andrew Brownsword’s hotel group. The cuisine – under chef Nik Chappell – wins a consistent thumbs-up (“we do enjoy going here... results can be a bit hit and miss, but are mostly good! while service is very good and the dining room attractive”). As well as a fairly pricey à la carte (three courses for £80) there’s a relatively affordable all-day menu served in the bar and lounges (with dishes such as omelette Arnold Bennett, steak, posh sarnies, and so on).
5. The Fox at Oddington
British, Modern restaurant in Moreton-in-Marsh
Lower Oddington - GL56
2022 Review: In an attractive Cotswolds Hamlet, this ivy-covered sixteenth-century pub has been included in our guide for many years as somewhere that’s a cut above, with lovely courtyard garden, real ales and superior grub. With its 80 inside seats and 40 on the terrace, it was taken over in mid-2021 and given a refurb by Lady Carole Bamford, owner of nearby Daylesford Organic. Too few reports for a rating, but very early feedback says it’s “happily survived Covid and good all-round”.
6. The Fox at Oddington
British, Modern restaurant in Lower Oddington
High Street - GL56
“The Fox has had a major makeover since the old days when it had the ambience of a venerable Cotswold pub” – as you’d expect since the July 2022 takeover by Lady Bamford and her Daylesford empire. Some old timers feel “the money lavished on its gentrification has not resulted in improvement”, although they concede the result is “very comfortable” and deliver a thumbs-up to its selection of posh pub grub (pizza, steak, burgers and Cornish fish for the most part). In early 2023, Giles Coren declared himself a fan too, even if there was nowhere close to park that wasn’t already taken by “gleaming Land Rovers and Porsches, piled three deep in the narrow lanes and stacked on pavements”.
7. Daylesford Organic Farm, Trough Café
British, Modern restaurant in Daylesford
Daylesford near Kingham - GL56
Lady Bamford’s two-decade-old farm shop and café may be “home to the Chipping Norton set” but it’s “delightful” nonetheless, especially “when the weather is pleasant enough to sit out under the brollies in the courtyard and people-watch while having something tasty for lunch”. Popularity doesn’t come cheap, but one reporter found it “very reasonably priced” this year, bucking the usual critiques.
8. Horse & Groom
British, Modern restaurant in Bourton On Hill
2021 Review: Classic, “lovely” Cotswolds inn, with rooms, that’s well-reviewed in all feedback for its “good pub food”. Even those who find it dependable, however, can feel that the menu “could use some more interesting dishes”.
9. The Feathered Nest Inn
British, Modern restaurant in Nether Westcote
“Sample Michelin-chef food” (that chef being Matt Weedon, who won the honour at Glenapp Castle and Lords of the Manor) at this ex-malthouse-turned-country-bolthole in a chocolate-box Cotswolds village. Not only is the setting “wonderful” – ideally placed between Burford and Stow-on-the-Wold, and with “great views” over the Evenlode Valley from the garden – Weedon’s locally sourced cooking (not least the six-course tasting menu) is “wonderful” too.
10. The Old Stocks Inn
restaurant in Cheltenham
The Square - GL54
2023 Review: “A fantastic option in this Cotswolds village” that’s part of an old inn (with rooms) in the heart of the town that was given an attractive refit a couple of years ago. Despite some pub associations, the food is very much restaurant fare from a two-course or three-course menu.
11. The Halfway at Kineton
British, Modern restaurant in Kineton
“Newly refurbished Cotswolds inn now serving high-end pub food” from Nathan Eades and Liam Goff, formerly of The Wild Rabbit in Kingham. “Definitely one to watch”, its cooking is “delicious, well executed and hearty” and “service charming”.
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