Best restaurants in the Cotswolds

Under new ownership since 2019, this famous gastropub, housed in a 17th-century inn, combines reasonably priced pub classics with splashier special-occasion cooking. It’s the same on the drinks front: local ales or well-chosen wines.

The Bull is under the direction of the same team that looks after The Pelican in Notting Hill (another brilliant gastropub) so it’s no surprise that this lovely old boozer looks set to become one of the very best restaurants in the area. There’s an emphasis on cooking much of the menu over open fire, whether it be quick, intense charring or hung high over the fire for low and slow cooking.

Stow-on-the-Wold is the quintessential Cotswold market town but this informal restaurant looks rather more modern than its surroundings, though the European-style brasserie cooking is as classic as it comes: rib-eye steak or calf’s liver.

This modern European fine diner is a local institution. Having opened in 1987 with David and Helen Everitt-Matthias at the helm, the service here is uber friendly while the food is always seasonal and indulgent.

Eckington Manor has become one of the most respected food destinations in the Cotswolds, with food that is rooted in sourcing the best local ingredients from the rolling fields around the country-house hotel. Head chef Dan Neal-Hewitt turns out modern European plates that taste as good as they look.

Chef-proprietor Gus Ashenford and his front-of-house wife Kate ensure a warm welcome at their cosy dining room. Fixed-price menus (including one for vegetarians) deliver premium ingredients and rich flavours.

Near the antiques paradise of Tetbury, swish spa hotel Calcot Manor conceals a swish modern restaurant, complete with open kitchen and cocktail bar. The cooking is comforting rather than creative but always executed with care. 

Oak panelling, flagged floors and roaring fires all look the cute Cotswold part at this 17th-century farmhouse, but all eyes are on the beautiful view through the full-length windows (open in summer) of the immaculately tended garden. 

The very charming Lygon Arms has welcomed a new chef to the restaurant - none other than James Martin, who brings his classic, seasonal British cooking to the stunning Grill Restaurant, with its high arched ceilings and chandeliers. The more relaxed Tavern is great for quick bites and a drink with friends, and The Lygon Arms does afternoon tea as well.

Named after the 19th-century former oxen house in which it is housed, this vast space makes the most of the farmland attached to luxury estate Thyme. The seasonal ingredients are put to good use in inventive modern European cooking.

This is as grand a dining room as you'd expect to find in a Palladian mansion that looks straight out of Jane Austen. Chef Hywel Jones lives up to the setting with intricately crafted dishes and ornate flourishes.

There's more to the Cotswolds than honey-stoned country pubs – there are honey-stoned country-house hotels too, although only one with a Michelin star. Experimental cooking is showcased on an adventurous 12-course tasting menu.

The Wheatsheaf is everything you could hope for from a Cotswold country pub: wisteria-clad walls outside, open fires inside, seasonal cooking that is more gastro than pub, sugary puds and a roast on Sundays. 

The Double Red Duke’s full-throttle British gastropub grub and comfort food has made it a smash hit in a relatively short time, scooping all sorts of awards. Serving food all throughout the day (and with rooms for overnight stays too) this magnificent spot really has something to suit everyone.

Young chef Charles Smith is the talent behind this intimate dining room within one of the Cotswolds’ most famous hotels. Dinner-only tasting menus reflect the influences of Smith’s training with some of the world’s most famous chefs.   

As much of a local for Broadway's residents as it is a destination for the tourists who flood the village's impossibly pretty streets, Russell's serves classic European dishes (crab cocktail, clafoutis) in interconnected dining rooms.

This old cider house now trades as one of the many excellent gastropubs around Chipping Norton, overlooking the lovely Bledington village green. The restaurant does justice to comforting classics, and you can eat on the sunny terrace or in the cosy dining room, complete with antique pine furniture.

The Feathered Nest is as comfortable as its name, with cask ales to sup on leather sofas by the fire in the bar, hearty, seasonal cooking in the dining room, and views of the Evenlode valley from the terrace. 

Ingredients at this 17th-century inn come from the Southrop Manor Estate's farm fresh every day and are put to clever use in cooking which often has an Italian accent. Contemporary furnishings contrast with open fires and wooden beams.