Oxfordshire, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

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”.

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.

With its “log fire and paintings on the walls” and “pleasant terrace outside for better weather”, this small hotel in a 17th-century “former rectory in central Oxford” makes for an atmospheric bolthole in the ‘City of Dreaming Spires’ – and the perfect setting for a “generous set tea” or relaxing lunch.

This “lovely greenhouse” – originally a late-Victorian florist’s – has been a landmark dining destination in north Oxford for almost 40 years, and benefited from a £1.5 million revamp a couple of years ago that boosted capacity to 220. It’s a delightful spot for a meal, although the Italian-leaning cooking is generally felt to be “hit and miss”; the appointment of new head chef Lee Parsons should improve matters.

“Light and spacious, with friendly service”, “everything is excellent” at this dining room, cleverly positioned in a modern glass box on the roof of this famous museum – “except the food, which is just OK: unimaginative and overpriced, which is such a pity”.

“A real find in central Oxford” – this “small backstreet restaurant” not far from the Ashmolean wins nothing but praise from its very large local fan club. “Good-quality food (well cooked rather than inspired)” is central to its appeal, but it’s an all-rounder with service that’s “fully engaged without being familiar”, a “relaxing” setting, and a “thoughtful choice of wines at reasonable mark-ups”. Top Tip – “the fixed-price lunch is the best deal in Oxford”.

“A great choice for lunch in atmospheric church vaults close to the famous Radcliffe Camera and Bodleian Library” – guests sit “on long trestles” or in the garden feasting on “good freshly cooked food, with vegetarians and vegans particularly well catered for”. After 20 years, the café’s future is in the balance, its church landlord wanting to replace it with a social enterprise.

A “perfect” location right in the centre of town is one of the draws to this “spacious” and “buzzy” fixture, set in the Old Bank Hotel, and also profiting from a “lovely” rear terrace. It’s one of the more commented-on spots in town, although the “well thought-out” brasserie fare is arguably “solid”… “nothing wrong with it”. Still, it’s “worth booking to avoid disappointment” (not least come graduation, when it tends to “get packed”).

Now in its 15th year, this gastropub’s “reputation has perhaps fallen from its earliest days, when it was the best restaurant in Oxford, but it seems to have returned to form with tasty and reasonably priced dishes”. It’s a sibling to London’s stellar Anchor & Hope and Canton Arms.

2021 Review: A “buzzy, busy pub” with nine rooms plus flagstone floors, oak beams and slouchable leather armchairs; while the food is perhaps good rather than stellar, they’re “trying hard” and it’s handily located if you’re en route in or out of Oxford.

2021 Review: It’s the picture of a traditional thatched pub, but the “cosy” interior and “heartwarming” menu have been funked up at this rural inn, which was consistently highly rated last year.

This characterful pub has a “very pleasant location” in a village five miles from Oxford, and is best enjoyed in summer in the “lovely garden”; with meat from the local Sandy Lane Farm in Tiddington, and game from Oxfordshire estates, the food is “good” by all accounts, and the service “acceptable”.

Mike (chef) & FOH Imogen North’s “stunning” historic venture is “always a treat”; “it’s a proper pub”, yes, but also doubles as an acclaimed restaurant, where Mike’s “simply sublime” food (seven-course tasting menus or à la carte at lunch, and tasting menus only by night) “cannot be recommended highly enough”.

In 2021, after selling The Ebrington Arms near Chipping Campden, which they’d run for 15 years, Jim & Claire Alexander were able to fully focus their attentions on this seventeenth-century inn, handy for Blenheim Palace; chef Adam Brown (a Ramsay alum) oversees the locally sourced food, which inspired solid marks this year, if little in the way of commentary (other than to say that it’s “good again at last” – perhaps a result of the Alexanders’ renewed focus).

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”.

2022 Review: This rural pub (complete with beams and roaring fire, and also accommodation) in a lovely Buckinghamshire village still achieves solid ratings, and – notwithstanding gripes from the occasional reporter about its takeover by Oakman Inns in late 2019 – most feedback rates the food as “very good”.

2023 Review: “High-quality pub food” and a “lovely setting by the river” earn high ratings across the board for this traditional Cotswolds inn. “On a brilliant sunny bank holiday Saturday, The Swan was rammed but the amazing staff never missed a beat – the chef & kitchen churned out really delicious food, and nobody was less than delighted with their choices”. Top Tip – “the sticky toffee reaches new heights of orgasmic satisfaction”.