Charlbury Restaurant Guide

“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”.

This “great Cotswolds gastropub” is a well-known watering-hole near Chipping Norton, with “excellent, hearty and delicious cooking”, “majoring in wood-fired dishes” including scallops in the half shell, iceberg lettuce, giant tiger prawns, gurnard fillets and Barnsley chop. Matt & Katie Beamish took over from GBM winner Emily Watkins a couple of years ago.

The “great food and amazing service” are everything you would expect at this deluxe Cotswolds gastropub handy for the Chipping Norton set and owned by Lady Bamford, chatelaine of Daylesford Organic (which supplies much of the produce) and hostess of BoJo’s post-prime ministerial wedding bash. It all comes, of course, “at a fairly significant price”. Sam Bowser, the latest chef to head the kitchen, did a stint as the Bamfords’ private chef a few years back.

“Excellent pub food, ambience and service” are on offer at this elevated Cotswolds village boozer (fka The Mason’s Arms) from the experienced team of owner Antony Griffith Harris and chef Nick Anderson, who first worked together 35 years ago. It’s a handy watering and feeding hole for the Chipping Norton set, and for escapees from Soho Farmhouse, a couple of miles away.

Lady Bamford (wife of JCB heir, Anthony Bamford) opened this chic farm shop and café near the family’s 1,500 acre Cotswold estate about twenty years ago (and later on, spin offs in London). Fans love it, declaring: “it may have a reputation for being pricey, but the interiors are great and the food is just not as expensive as you might expect, given the exquisite perfection of the place”. Critics can’t get over the lack of value though: “the popularity is undeserved: it is just an out-and-out very expensive tourist trap”.

This 350-year-old, Cotswold-stone former malthouse makes a “great setting” for a “smallish but very enjoyable menu”. These days it’s “more of an upmarket restaurant than a pub” under chef Matt Weedon (ex-Lords of the Manor and Glenapp Castle) – “and the prices reflect this”, starting at £29 for the wagyu burger, with a 6-course tasting menu at £80.

“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.

“Excellent seafood in the unlikely named Old Butchers” is the calling card of Pete & Louise Robinson’s long standing Stow venue, most of it delivered from Cornwall. “All the food served is of a very high standard” – even if arguably “the simple ambience doesn’t match the cooking”.

“Close to the centre of Oxford but a million miles away in atmosphere, at the end of the rural Binsey Lane”, this “delightful riverside gastropub” surrounded by Port Meadow is “a very special place”, complete “with elegant indoor dining and outdoor terrace, and also pub benches in the large garden with simpler food served from the ‘shed’”. “A lovely place for special celebrations and an excellent choice of dishes to suit all tastes.”

The “consistently high standard of cooking” at this French wine bar and bistro from Laura & Pascal Wiedermann (ex-Terroirs) in the north Oxford suburb of Summertown make it a valued favourite for numerous reporters, some of whom had their best meal of the year here. The “professional team makes us very welcome”, and the “set meals are really good value”.

“The dining room is a lovely room… the service is attentive… the food is interesting and very good” – this gorgeously located manor house hotel (part of the Brownsword group) receives nothing but praise in our annual diners’ poll, including for Nick Chappell’s accomplished three-course menu.

“You really feel like you’re in a continental bistro” at this “good-value and ever-reliable venue” in Jericho which has been popular for two decades. There is extra outdoor seating nowadays, which adds further to the Mediterranean atmosphere, and this year will see the opening of five bedrooms.

The “wonderful greenhouse setting” of this romantic and long-established north Oxford fixture was revamped and extended to the tune of £1.5 million during a three-month closure last year, giving it an appropriate leafy atmosphere. Originally a late-Victorian florist’s, the Grade II-listed building was converted into a restaurant almost 40 years ago. There’s a “nice buzz” to the place, and a “reliably good European menu” from new chef Matt Smith, but the feeling persists that – if you take into account the prices – the food is somewhat “run of the mill”.

This “old-school” Gallic bistro is “consistently good in every way, and still probably the best-value food within walking distance of the city centre”. It’s also “much better than the chain used to be” (having split off when that company went spectacularly bust 25 years ago).

This “independent & affordable” restaurant, wine bar and vintner in Jericho makes a “very welcome addition to the Oxford food & drink scene”. With more than 400 vintages available, wine is very much the star of the show, backed up by “very knowledgeable staff” and a “friendly ambience”. There are also branches in Salisbury and Frome.

This very “attractive hotel” just north of the city centre makes good use of a “lovely” seventeenth-century building with an ambience redolent of “Oxford academic power and money”. Foodwise, the ratings are dragged down by the odd reporter who feels its “bog-standard brasserie food needs more competition”. The best bet might be its “very nice traditional tea – especially when served in the courtyard garden”.

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”.

“Brilliant cooking and a very buzzy atmosphere” attract a “significant Chinese clientele” to this “big restaurant in the lovely Old School on Gloucester Green”, in the middle of Oxford. It has a sister restaurant at Westfield Stratford in east London.