Burford, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

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”.

2021 Review: The co-founders of group that owns The Chequers in the Cotswolds and The Talbot in North Yorkshire have added another historic venue to their collection – a 16th century inn, complete with a 100-cover dining room and seven guest bedrooms. No survey feedback as yet, but press reviews are very upbeat.

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”.

“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.

A “beautiful village pub (with rooms) in the Cotswolds” that’s often “packed to the rafters”; local boys Peter Creed and Tom Noest took it over in 2017 – with the latter turning out “all the modern pub classics delivered with panache, along with some more unusual offerings” (“venison scrumpets”, anyone?); add in “smiling service”, and a beer garden overlooking the open countryside, and it’s an “outstanding” proposition all-round.

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.

This fancy Cotswold gastropub is popular with the Chipping Norton set, being owned by Lady Bamford, the driving force of Daylesford Organic (who supply much of the produce). Chef Sam Bowser’s food elicited very solid marks this year, despite the occasional critic who feels it’s “overpriced, even for those of us used to London mark-ups”. Best way to do it? “Go for a country walk before or after and grab a room for the night”.

This high-profile Cotswold gastroboozer near Chipping Norton is “always worth a visit” for its “relaxed ambience” and “consistent and tasty” food, from an “interesting menu which uses great local produce”. Matt & Katie Beamish, who have worked for luminaries including Raymond Blanc and Fergus Henderson, took over a few years ago from Emily Watkins, who put the pub on the map – and have created a local group by snapping up The Hare at Milton under Wychwood and The Crown at Church Enstone, too.

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).

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.

“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”.

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”.

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”.

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.

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.

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.

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”.

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).

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”.