The Boxing Hare
A handsome stone pub on the edge of Swerford, barely ten minutes away, now one of the more serious kitchens in the area.
A handsome stone pub on the edge of Swerford, barely ten minutes away, now one of the more serious kitchens in the area.
The Boxing Hare sits just off the main road at Swerford, a small village between Great Tew and Chipping Norton and only a few miles from the cottage. From the outside it is exactly what you would hope for: a solid, honey-stone country pub with a garden looking out over open Oxfordshire countryside. Inside, though, the ambition runs higher than the average village local. Over the last few years it has quietly become a proper dining destination, the sort of place people book a table at specially rather than just wander into, and it is one of the closest good kitchens to Well Cottage.
What sets it apart is the cooking. The kitchen is led by chef Nicholas Anderson, who has held two Michelin stars over his career, and the food is refined, seasonal modern British built on properly sourced ingredients: rare-breed meat from a local farm, day-boat fish from Cornwall, vegetables from a nearby greengrocer. It is a notch smarter than a standard pub lunch, without ever feeling stuffy about it, and it makes a lovely close-to-home choice when you want to eat well but not drive half an hour to do it.
Come for a relaxed lunch, a Sunday roast, or a longer dinner: the menu changes with the seasons and leans on those named local suppliers, so it is worth going with an open mind and taking whatever is at its best that week. There is a garden for warm days and a warm, low-key room for cooler ones. Because it is small and has built a real following, tables fill up, especially at weekends and for Sunday lunch, so we would book ahead rather than turn up on the off chance. Rather than list hours that shift through the year, it is best to check the current days, menus and times on their own site before you set off.
Swerford is only around ten minutes from Well Cottage, an easy run up through the lanes towards Chipping Norton. That makes it one of the handful of genuinely good kitchens you can reach without it turning into an expedition. It sits close to Great Tew and Hook Norton, so it slots easily into a day around this side of the county. For the wider spread, our guide to eating and drinking in the area runs from village pubs to farm-to-table kitchens and everything in between.
If you would rather something more traditional, the Falkland Arms at Great Tew is a proper thatched country pub a couple of minutes away, and the Killingworth Castle near Wootton is another reliable local favourite.
“It's the one we book when we want to eat properly well but cannot face a drive. Ten minutes up the lane and the cooking is as good as places twice as far away.”
All of this on the doorstep, and your own thatched cottage to come home to. Sleeps seven, less than a mile from Soho Farmhouse.