The Old Parsonage is the kind of Oxford hotel that locals actually use, not just tourists. Its restaurant, the Parsonage Grill, sits behind a wisteria-covered fa'ade on the Banbury Road, serving quietly excellent food in rooms hung with modern British art. It is one of those places where a quick lunch tends to stretch into the afternoon.
The building dates from the 1660s, and you feel it the moment you step inside: thick stone walls, low ceilings, a sense of enclosure that somehow never tips into stuffiness. The dining room is lined with paintings (the hotel's collection is serious, worth a slow wander on its own) and the tables are set just far enough apart that you can talk without performing. The menu is classic British, done well rather than done cleverly. A good steak, a properly made fish pie, seasonal vegetables that taste of themselves. The afternoon tea is one of the best in Oxford, layered on tiered stands with scones that arrive warm, and it is worth booking ahead for a window table overlooking the garden terrace.
From the cottage it is about 35 minutes by car, straight down the A4260 through Deddington. It pairs well with a morning at the Ashmolean or a walk through the University Parks, which are just around the corner. On a rainy day you could happily spend the whole visit inside the Parsonage itself: lunch, a browse of the art, then tea. The Banbury Road location puts you slightly north of the city centre, which means parking is less of an ordeal than it can be elsewhere in Oxford.
“If you only have one proper lunch in Oxford, make it the Parsonage Grill. The room, the food, the art on the walls. It all just works.”
All of this on the doorstep, and your own thatched cottage to come home to. Sleeps seven, less than a mile from Soho Farmhouse.