The Bull, Charlbury
A handsome old village inn on Sheep Street, restored and reopened as a contemporary village pub, its kitchen leaning hard into seasonal British cooking.
A handsome old village inn on Sheep Street, restored and reopened as a contemporary village pub, its kitchen leaning hard into seasonal British cooking.
The Bull sits on Sheep Street in the centre of Charlbury, a lovely small Cotswold town in the Evenlode valley on the western edge of Oxfordshire. There has been an inn on this corner since the fifteenth century, and the present building wears its age well, with flagged floors, timbered ceilings, thick golden stone and a pair of open fires. On a dark evening the low-lit, candle-warmed rooms turn properly broody and atmospheric, the kind of interior you settle into and do not want to leave. It was carefully restored and reopened in 2023 by James Gummer and Phil Winser, the pair behind The Pelican in Notting Hill, who both grew up near here, and it manages the trick of feeling both properly a pub and quietly considered. In 2025 it was crowned National Pub of the Year at the National Pub and Bar Awards, beating hundreds of pubs across the country, and it sits in the Michelin Guide too, though the room stays refreshingly unshowy about it. We think of it as one of our nearest good village inns: close enough for a spur-of-the-moment lunch, but polished enough to build a whole evening around, and it shares the town with The Bell, which we send guests to as well.
The kitchen does contemporary, seasonal British cooking, and it is an all-day place, so you can drop in for breakfast, linger over lunch or make a night of dinner. There are oysters and a very good steak tartare to start, seasonal fish coming and going with the catch (plaice, pollock, mackerel), and meat dishes built around the signature Bull Pie, a double rib pork chop, rump steak and short rib, with vegetable-forward starters carrying the lighter end of the menu. On our most recent visit the pie was wonderful and the pork chop cooked to perfection. The drinks list is thought through too: a carefully chosen wine list ranging across Europe and beyond, cocktails, craft beer and a proper spread of no and low options for anyone driving back to the cottage. It reads as pub cooking done seriously rather than anything fussy.
Step out the back and the mood shifts entirely. The Bull's outdoor space, called The Bushcamp, has a genuinely brilliant vibe: weathered timber tables under fruit trees and festoon lights, terracotta pots, a wood-fired oven and enough room to settle in and lose an afternoon.
It is the reason to come when the weather turns warm and nobody is in a hurry to move indoors, and it makes a lovely contrast to the dark, candlelit rooms inside. Come for a long lunch and stay for the evening.
It is about nine miles and a twenty-minute drive from the cottage, mostly along quiet lanes, and Charlbury itself is worth arriving early for. It is one of the loveliest of the smaller Cotswold towns, an easy grid of honey-stone streets set above the Evenlode. It is a good town to build a slow morning around before lunch: a wander, a coffee, a look at the shops, then a table at the Bull. Our full guide to eating and drinking in the area runs from village pubs to farm shops and everything between.
“Possibly my favourite pub anywhere. The interior is dark, broody and wonderfully atmospheric, the garden has a brilliant vibe, and the food was fantastic — the steak tartare, the Bull Pie, and a double rib pork chop cooked to perfection.”
All of this on the doorstep, and your own thatched cottage to come home to. Sleeps seven, less than a mile from Soho Farmhouse.