Review:

On the door of the Crooked Billet is a sign which I have never seen before and hope very much that I will see again elsewhere - 'local produce swap for lunch'. So they really do serve local produce on their menu. The local producers would get a good deal, too, because the food here is, not surprisingly, excellent. The Crooked Billet can't do much passing trade because it is buried deep in the Oxfordshire countryside and is the sort of place you need to know about to go to. You also need to book.

Review:
Raymond Blancs little Bistro in a drab Oxford side street is his real pride and joy - serving top quality French regional cooking at a fraction of the price of his much lauded Le Manoir aux Quat Saisons in Great Milton. Attention to detail is the key here - waitresses not afraid to guide you through the well selected menu. This was my main fortieth birthday bash and my choices of salmon and smoked haddock fishcake to start, with Coq au Vin for main was perfect.

Review:
This lovely and very old pub is on Red Lion St opposite the church in this small village (home to a regular folk festival in August). We stopped there on a trip on the Oxford Canal in June, mid week and unbooked. We were lucky to get served and booking is recommended in the season. The menu was short, tempting and very reasonably priced. We started with Tomato and Aubergine tartlets on Mozarella cheese and a pastry ring with pesto and balsamic vinegar dressing.

Review:

Travelling up to a much needed and deserved break from the junior agents to Le Manoir, a refuelling break was much needed. I have to confess to you here and now that after perusing the dull but useful AA Pub Guide, I settled on a stop at the Crown Inn in a place called Pishill. Childish, I know. At Pishill there is a breathtakingly beautiful pub & restaurant called the Crown. Attached to the Crown at the back is a large function room/thatched "barn" which doubles as a wedding venue, but has hosted a number of musical luminaries, who have "got down" there, including Dusty Springfield and George Harrison. The AA pub guide picks it out as a "pick of the pubs" place to go and its easy to see why.

Review:
The Lamb is a curious pub, listed in the Good Food Guides' "Guide to Country Pubs" as a pub with "above average food". We can concur but go further to say that the food here is delicious and well worth a visit to the area. The pub itself is a gorgeous yellow stone Cotswolds pub that has more of a feel of a hotel than a pub. The back restaurant is decorated in yellow and blue and has a slightly more "upmarket" feel but most tourists and village dwellers plump for the cosy bar with the hotel-bar chintzy feel.

Review:
Oxford is one of those towns, like Bath, Edinburgh and Cambridge, that is a slave to the tourist and, sometimes, completely up itself. QUOD is a cafe cum bar cum restaurant that likes to think of itself as groovy and chic - serving top quality food in a laid back and trendy atmosphere. I suppose, in truth, the food is not bad - the open kitchen in the corner certainly wafted familiar dreamy smells, but the service - aloof, the food - pretentious but ever so slightly not.......right, made us feel like fleeing the town.

Review:
The Rose Revived is a handsome and ancient hostelry next to one of the oldest bridges on the Thames. We decided to stop there despite its breaking a number of my rules: It's on the main road; it has big blackboards with fake-chalk writing, advertising food. What persuaded us was the beautiful hanging baskets, clearly well looked after. But we should have had more sense. Those flower baskets were the only good thing about this place - I'll bet their care is sub-contracted to some flower company.

Review:
Large pub in pretty village famous for its Fairport Convention inspired folk festival in mid August. Under new management. Ate here on sunny evening in August sitting in the large garden at the side of the pub. Tables and benches a bit primitive and two of the plates had cracks on them, but otherwise pleasant location and very friendly service. Six of us ate here - the standard menu was enjoyed for a crispy duck sald with lime and red pepper; baked cod in atomato and cheddar cheese sauce; traditional fish and chips with mushy peas; lamb shank with rosemary, garlic and red wine sauce.

Review:

Formerly known as the Mason's Arms, Jonathan's at the Angel is a handsome 16th century coaching inn turned nosher, styled as 'a bresserie with rooms' . It's got the lot: Cotswold stone, window boxes, and all that stuff and is situated in the main street in Burford, a beautiful old town ruined by tourists and their crap. Being one of these people, I popped in for lunch during a few days by the Thames with the Missus and Junior, and, lo, they served a delicious bottle of Adnams. They waved the lunch menu at us and I went for some seafood cassolet-type thing, and the lady wife had a 'tapas'. Junior had 'chicken strips'. Mine was very good indeed, with pieces of orange, lots of delicious fish and so on. Also it arrived hot, adding ten points to the score at a stroke, although they were a bit stingey with the spuds. (I had asked for boiled, was told we have 'crushed', I asked is that the same as mashed?, she said 'almost'. When they came they were 'boiled'). Junior's chicken was so sweet, he abandoned it, and the Missus was hugely disappointed by her tapas: I did warn her against it in this sort of place! Also service - initially good, from a girl who cared and knew her stuff - went downhill to the point where some oikish fellow tried to chat to us about the purpose of wasps while clearing the plates.