Thame, British, Traditional Restaurant Guide

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”.

“Splendid surroundings for a plentiful and tasty afternoon tea” are again noted as a highpoint at this Jacobean/Georgian stately home spa hotel, with grounds laid out originally by Capability Brown and nowadays owned by the National Trust. Top Tip – “they are happy to give you a box for anything you can’t finish!”

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).

Either a short drive or leafy stroll from Oxford, surrounded by Port Meadow, this beautifully located Thames-side inn is as cosy in winter as it is glorious in summer with its conservatory and large garden. There’s a wide-ranging menu that’s not particularly ‘foodie’ but realised very competently.

This “very old pub in a great location next to Henley Bridge” has been a scenic boozer for yonks, but now comes in a “fabulous new incarnation”, having been taken over by seasoned restaurateurs Matt Dockray and Phil Renner, who relaunched in late 2022. The hugely stylish interior (not least in the vaulted dining room, strewn with trinkets) makes it a “great place for a first date”, and there are positive early reports on the elevated pub classics by head chefs Joshua Wilde and George O’Leary – both previously senior sous-chefs at Tom Kerridge’s Marlow joints The Coach, and The Hand and Flowers.