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Rural England’s foodie capital the Cotswolds has long been fertile ground for fine dining, with top chefs such as Andrew Kojima and Charlie Hibbert putting their own spin on pub grub and British ingredients, smart restaurants-with-rooms tempting lazy Londoners away from the city and street food hawkers turned South Asian staples bringing Sri Lankan cuisine to the Cotswolds.
YOKU, Cheltenham
No. 131 Cheltenham has been one of our favourite Cotswolds escapes for a while, so we¡¯ve been waiting with bated breath for the opening of its new signature restaurant. YOKU is an unexpected splash of decadent glamour hidden inside an unassuming townhouse on the promenade, with gold-leaf vaulted ceilings, black panelled walls and giant crystal chandeliers. Chairs are covered in a deep yellow suede and royal red cushions add to the opulence; bonsai trees and hand-painted vases are dotted around the room, while the walls are covered in ancient Japanese scrolls and artwork.
In Japanese, YOKU means the art of doing things exceedingly well or skillfully, and the food certainly reflects the restaurant¡¯s name. The menu pairs Japanese culinary traditions of Shun (seasonal food) and Omakase (a menu selected by the chef), in this case chosen by the hotel¡¯s culinary director Ronnie Bonetti, former chef at London¡¯s River Caf¨¦, Soho House and COMO Hotels. Food is prepared in an open kitchen and brought to tables as and when dishes are ready. Standout dishes include platters of sashimi that dramatically arrive enfolded in plumes of smoke (the yellowtail is incredible); miso black cod, a burst of umami flavours that melts in the mouth; thinly sliced flash-grilled wagyu beef topped with lotus crisps and a truffle wafu dressing, and ebi ten, shrimp in a light and crispy tempura with avocado and wasabi mayonnaise.
Address: No.131, 131 The Promenade, Cheltenham GL50 1NW
Website: no131.com/yoku
The Potting Shed, Crudwell
The Potting Shed lies in a north Wiltshire village rather than the Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire territories of the Cotswolds, but it¡¯s most definitely worth driving south for. The focus is all things seasonal and local, and the menu changes monthly to reflect this, as well as the produce from the two-acre garden.
The Sunday roasts are some of the best in the area but it¡¯s also worth trying the main menu ¨C highlights might include a black pudding scotch egg with mustard mayonnaise, a fluffy smoked mackerel pate with sourdough toast or the crispiest beer battered fish and chips. Keep an eye on the specials board for the fish of the day too. The charming Rectory hotel (where you¡¯ll find The Potting Shed¡¯s sister restaurant) is just down the road and is worth spending a night or two, so might as well make a long weekend out of it.
Address: The Potting Shed, The Street, Crudwell, Malmesbury SN16 9EW
Telephone: +44 01666 577 833
Website: thepottingshedpub.com
The Double Red Duke, Clanfield
The Double Red Duke is the epitome of a successful venture born out of lockdown madness. It¡¯s the newest addition to the Country Creatures group, a growing collection of country pubs across the Cotswolds (The Swan at Ascott-under-Wychwood, Chequers in Churchill) and it¡¯s already making a name for itself.
In classic Cotswold style, this honey-hued 16th century building is in the pretty village of Clanfield and showcases a strong menu that focuses around an open fire, with seriously good looking interiors to boot. Red leather bar stools, velvet fern-green banquettes, a plant-filled conservatory and fun red-and-white parasols on the terrace are picture-worthy.
Steak is a specialty here ¨C Richard Turner and Richard Sandiford from Hawksmoor and Pitt and Cue are behind the open flame, but we suggest kicking off with a doughy sheep¡¯s cheese flatbread with herbs and honey and the glossy wood roast sea scallops with garlic crumbs. It¡¯s ideal to share, so try mixing and matching grilled fish plus the cow pie and mash or spit roast chicken. Don¡¯t skip on pudding either ¨C burnt cheesecake with lemon curd or fresh English cherries sur glace are dishes we¡¯d order again.
Address: The Double Red Duke, Bourton Road, Clanfield, Bampton OX18 2RB
Telephone: +44 1367 810222
Website: countrycreatures.com/double-red-duke
The Chequers, Churchill
Located in the heart of Churchill, The Chequers is a grown-up gastropub with flagstone floors, scrubbed wooden beams, candle-lit antique tables and a well-used dartboard. A blackboard over the bar lists specials such as the signature Twice Baked Cheddar Souffl¨¦, Bobby Battered Market Fish and steaks cooked to perfection in Josper ovens. But it¡¯s the impressive list of locally brewed beers and ales that the team are especially proud of: Cotswold Lager on tap, bottles of handcrafted Old Hooky by Hook Norton Brewery and Shagweaver golden ale by North Cotswold Brewery, which surely wins points for its name alone. Bag a table by the inglenook fire or order from the Josper grill.
Address: The Chequers, Church Road, Churchill, Chipping Norton OX7 6NJ
Website: countrycreatures.com
The Bell Inn, Langford
This is quietly one of the best restaurants in the area. Peter Creed and Tom Noest have created a large and loyal fan base who return to the charming village of Langford for the seasonal small plates, epic wine list and laid-back vibes. Kick off with parsley-covered garlic and bone-marrow flatbread before mains of lamb neck with tomatoes and samphire, hake with fennel or doughy wood-fired pizzas. The lemon tart with Neal¡¯s Yard cr¨¨me fra?che is also a winner.
Address: The Bell Inn, Langford, Gloucestershire GL7 3LF
Website: thebelllangford.com
The Lamb Inn, Shipton-Under-Wychwood
With the success of The Bell Inn comes this new pub-with-rooms from the same owners. And it might just be one of the biggest Cotswolds openings of 2021, with bedrooms that are as smart as the menu. Peter Creed and Tom Noest are known for working their magic on derelict country inns that are in desperate need of a facelift. Here they¡¯ve redone the space with a proper standing bar, mismatched picture frames and a large garden out back. The menu is similar to its big sister (devilled kidneys on toast, juicy burgers) but this time with a French twist ¨C escargots and crispy frogs’ legs, bavette-steak tartare with game chips, confit duck frites with zingy aioli. Oh, and a must-order tarte tatin for pudding.
Address: The Lamb Inn, High Street, Shipton-under-Wychwood, Oxfordshire OX7 6DQ
Website: thelambshipton.com
Ox Barn at Thyme, Southrop Manor Estate?
Chef Charlie Hibbert may be the owner¡¯s son but he¡¯s done his time, at Ballymaloe in Ireland and Quo Vadis, one of the best restaurants in London. He¡¯s now cooking in this beautiful reinvention of a Cotswolds stone barn that once housed oxen: the wooden beams remain, but there¡¯s a poured-concrete floor and an ultra-modern kitchen overlooked by a sharing table, comfortable leather chairs and an open fire. It¡¯s the latest addition to the bedrooms, spa, cookery school and farm complex that is Thyme, one of the best hotels in the Cotswolds, and the winter tomatoes, the wild garlic for the chicken terrine or the radicchio to accompany the roast pork are all picked fresh from the Hibberts¡¯ own kitchen garden and farmland. This is sustainability you can taste, and in delightful surroundings.
Address: Ox Barn at Thyme, Gloucestershire GL7 3PW
Telephone: +44 1367 850174
Website: thyme.co.uk
The Kingham Plough, Kingham
Head Chef, Jonny Pons, formerly of Ellenborough Park Hotel, champions local produce, sourcing the very best fresh, local, seasonal ingredients for his modern British menu in this spacious, beamed dining room. Classic dishes include a fish pie with Thermidor sauce and a ploughman¡¯s board brimming with aged cheddar, pork pie, ham and chutney; but there’s also herb-crusted roast hake with brown shrimp and mussels and a breakfast menu which makes staying in one of the rooms upstairs even more worthwhile.
Address: The Kingham Plough, The Green, Kingham, Chipping Norton OX7 6YD
Telephone: +44 1608 658327
Website: thekinghamplough.co.uk
The Coconut Tree, Cheltenham
In 2016, five young Sri Lankans opened a street-food joint in Cheltenham, a city not previously known for its South Asian fare; their combination of informality, good music and high-spiced food has proved such a hit they now have three outlets elsewhere. This is not fine dining: seats are wooden benches with cushions, the ceiling is decorated with old Sri Lankan newspapers, and a paper-towel roll stands in for napkins, but this is a great place to try a hopper (a bowl-shaped coconut pancake filled with egg and sambals) or the delicious hotchpotch of roti, egg, vegetables and optional meat known as kottu. Prices are reasonable, cocktails potent (try a Drunken Sri Lankan 3.0, in a vessel shaped like an elephant) and the dal, lentils aromatic with cardamom and coconut, may be the best in England. This is adventurous Sri Lankan food in a laid-back venue.
Address: The Coconut Tree, 59 St Paul’s Road, Cheltenham GL50 4JA
Telephone: +44 1242 465758
Website: thecoconut-tree.com
The Wild Rabbit, Kingham
This lovely 18th-century stone pub with rooms, or rather cottages, has been judiciously updated: the flagstones are too regular and windows too wide for any bygone Cotswoldspeasant. But then, this is Kingham, where Alex James holds his annual Big Feastival and Lady Carole Bamford¡¯s Daylesford farm shop has been dispensing organic produce long before it became trendy. She owns this place, too. There¡¯s a Josper grill for the meat from Lady Bamford¡¯s Wootton Lodge, and its own market garden, with ingredients skilfully foregrounded by head chef Nathan Eades. The bedrooms are beautifully manicured, with two brand new cottages welcomed in late 2018. This place is the essence of the Cotswolds: rich, mannered and entirely delicious.
Address: The Wild Rabbit, Church Street, Kingham, Chipping Norton OX7 6YA
Telephone: +44 1608 658389
Website: thewildrabbit.co.uk
Koj, Cheltenham
Seekers of raw fish, take note: the hashtag in this little city-centre restaurant is #NOsushi! British-Japanese chef Andrew Kojima was a MasterChef finalist and he¡¯s more interested in actually cooking. So there¡¯s an ox-heart burger bun and grazing dishes including miso roast cod, donburi (rice bowls with toppings), spicy pork mince and KFC ¨C Koj fried chicken. Strong flavours are everywhere: sesame mayo and shiitake, curry noodles and spicy peanut miso. Decor is simple ¨C with wooden chairs and tables, and Japanese logos and comic-book figures on the walls ¨C and, delightfully, so are prices.
Address: Koj, 3 Regent Street, Cheltenham GL50 1HE
Telephone: +44 1242 580455
Website: kojcheltenham.co.uk
Purslane, Cheltenham
The Cotswolds has no coastline but Cheltenham is hardly the Sahara, and chef-patron Gareth Fulford¡¯s pairings of fish from Cornwall or Scotland with local vegetables makes perfect sense. The menu, which changes seasonally, is packed with great combinations: gurnard with spiced lentils and tomato jam; scallops with hazelnut and smoked duck; and roe deer with autumn squash and black-pudding puree. Eggs, cheeses and beers are local, the bread is homemade, and the excellent wine list is international ¨C although it does have English options. Unfussy practicality never shades into dullness ¨C not even in the interior, where sensible greys are brightened up with yellow blinds and a giant cutlery wall hanging.
Address: Purslane, 6 Rodney Road, Cheltenham GL50 1JJ
Telephone: +44 1242 321639
Website: purslane-restaurant.co.uk
The Daffodil, Cheltenham
Cheltenham¡¯s Art Deco cinema now has tables where the stalls once were, a Josper grill instead of a screen and a smart bar area up on the terrace, but Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, who did the refit, has wisely left the best features, including the old film projectors and the sweeping staircase. Jazz Age pizzazz is kept off the table, where simple, well-made dishes include steak with chips, honey- and sesame-glazed salmon and, for those wanting something that chimes a little more with the surroundings, risotto of lobster from the restaurant¡¯s own tank or roasted duck breast with beetroot puree. The wine list is large and varied enough to make you grateful that you¡¯re only sitting in the Prohibition era, not ordering in it ¨C and then there¡¯s the cocktail list, for those who wish they were.
Address: The Daffodil,18-20 Suffolk Parade, Cheltenham GL50 2AE
Telephone: +44 1242 700055
Website: thedaffodil.com
The Wheatsheaf Inn
This 17th-century coaching inn, rustically covered in vines and ivy, is doing, quietly and well, what so many country pubs attempt loudly and badly: local, seasonal produce from good suppliers, cooked with respect. There¡¯s the odd clever touch ¨C celeriac puree, haggis and black pudding with the confit pork belly ¨C but, generally, combinations are old favourites, such slow-cooked beef shin and as rack of lamb. Beef is dry-aged for at least 30 days and puddings are better versions of the pies and ice creams you drooled over as a child. This is one of seven Lucky Onion properties, all with the same revolutionary policy: nice food, not messed about with.
Address: The Wheatsheaf Inn, West Road, Cheltenham GL54 3EZ
Telephone: +44 1451 860244
Website: theluckyonion.com
The Dining Room at Whatley Manor, Malmesbury
Within this beautiful manor-house hotel with its sprawling grounds ¨C 26 different gardens over 12 acres ¨C lives a very unusual restaurant. Head chef Niall Keating was just 25 when he took over and his sommelier is even younger, yet within a year he had won a Michelin star. The restaurant now holds two stars, as well as a green star for sustainability. The attention to detail is exceptional. Charcuterie, served in The Green Room which opened in March 2019, is prepared from the Aberdeen Angus cow they buy locally, and use in its entirety, each month. Guests nibble amuse-bouches such as melon juice with caviar oil or smoked eel in tempura in the kitchen, watching the quiet bustle and painstaking preparation. Then they move into the lemon-coloured dining room for seven courses that blend Asian and French influences using British produce in startling and delicious ways.
Address: The Dining Room at Whatley Manor, Easton Grey, Malmesbury SN16 0RB
Telephone: +44 1666 822888
Website: whatleymanor.com
The Lamb Inn, Burford
As one of the best things to do in the Cotswolds, Burford is a beautiful, quintessentially village beside the River Windrush, and this is the kind of place you¡¯d expect to find there: a restaurant with rooms in a cluster of former weavers¡¯ cottages, all refurbished in early 2019. It has an open fire and a bar with real flagstones and an excellent beer selection. Bar menus are smart updates of simple English dishes: crayfish and haddock fishcakes; pork and ale sausages with mash. The restaurant is finer dining ¨C there are terrines and fricassees ¨C but without the parsimony; no one tucking into braised feather blade beef or venison loin is going to come away hungry. And it has a great Sunday lunch, too.
Address: The Lamb Inn, Sheep Street, Burford OX18 4LR
Telephone: +44 1993 823155
Website: cotswold-inns-hotels.co.uk/the-lamb-inn
Lords of the Manor, Upper Slaughter
Cellar geeks will goggle at the 1,000-bin wine range here; this hotel puts its 17th-century basement to good use. The food is up to the same standards: chef Charles Smith, who took over in 2017, dishes up a seven-course tasting menu that offers elegant twists on old favourites: preserved lemon with scallops; whipped anchovy-and-horseradish cr¨¨me fra?che with English-rose veal; goat¡¯s-milk panna cotta with rhubarb jelly. The beautiful dining room, recently revamped in shades of grey, will please nature-lovers as it overlooks the pretty walled gardens.
Address: Lords of the Manor, Upper Slaughter, Cheltenham GL54 2JD
Telephone: +44 1451 820243
Website: lordsofthemanor.com
The Porch House, Cheltenham
Apparently, this is England¡¯s oldest pub, founded in 947 AD, and with no Anglo-Saxons around to ask, who are we to disagree? The look is antiquated, but not that antiquated, with golden stone, lots of wood and flagstone floors. It¡¯s owned by Brakspear, so the beer is good, and the food a little retro: roasted pheasant breast with honey-glazed vegetables; saut¨¦ed sea bass with samphire and spinach; fillet steak dry-aged for at least 30 days. Nothing jars ¨C the food is as welcoming as the bedroom pillows, the decor smart without being intrusive. None of which feels very 10th century ¨C thank goodness.
Address: The Porch House, 1 Digbeth Street, Stow-on-the-Wold, Cheltenham GL54 1BN
Telephone: +44 1451 870 048
Website: porch-house.co.uk
The Conservatory, Calcot Manor
Families love Calcot Manor, a hotel and spa that has play areas, kid¡¯s activities, family rooms and childcare on tap. But adults aren¡¯t overlooked: the Conservatory is an elegant glass-lined space dishing up ravioli of confit Cotswold white chicken with white-onion velout¨¦ and pancetta or line-caught Cornish cod, with sweetcorn, clam chowder and lemon-scented mash. The extensive wine list avoids the unusual, but is full of top names from all over the world, and the puddings are spectacular. And, while children are allowed, it¡¯s very grown up, even ¨C or especially ¨C the homemade ice cream.
Address: Calcot Manor, Gloucestershire, Tetbury GL8 8YJ
Telephone: +44 1666 890391
Website: calcot.co
The Refectory at The Old Bell Hotel, Malmesbury
Its claim of being England¡¯s oldest hotel may be open to dispute, but The Old Bell, right next to the 12th-century Malmesbury Abbey and a pit stop for scholars when this small town was a centre of learning, has certainly been welcoming guests for a very long time. The Refectory is a large, comfortable room with soothing deep-green wallpaper and high ceilings; there are suitably old-fashioned meat-and-vegetable main courses, such as lamb three ways with leek-and-potato fondant or ribeye steak with triple-cooked chips and peppercorn sauce, but presentation is elegant, vegetarians are well catered to and, once pudding is done, there are a series of cosy nooks and parlours to settle into with a digestif.
Address: The Refectory at The Old Bell Hotel, Abbey Row, Malmesbury SN16 0BW
Telephone: +44 1666 822344
Website: oldbellhotel.co.uk
Le Champignon Sauvage, Cheltenham
Amusing French name (it means wild mushroom); bland, brown-toned dining room; Michelin star¡ this place should be suffocating, yet it¡¯s anything but, because the food is brilliant. Chef David Everitt-Matthias has been here since 1987 and clearly loves what he does: the inventiveness (roast cod with confit chicken wings; pig trotter stuffed with snail and ox tongue; or rabbit loin pepped up with carrot and muscat jelly) is breathtaking but never feels, or tastes, like he¡¯s showing off. And the wine list is so good, and so extensive, that choosing what not to have may be the only painful element of your dinner.
Address: Le Champignon Sauvage, 24-28 Suffolk Road, Cheltenham GL50 2AQ
Telephone: +44 1242 573449
Website: lechampignonsauvage.co.uk
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