Perched on a quiet hilltop in Nether Westcote, with views that roll down through farmland to the Evenlode, this is the sort of place you'd never stumble on by accident. That's part of its charm. Book ahead, settle in, and let the kitchen do what it does remarkably well.
The building itself is fifteenth century, a former maltings and pub that Tony and Amanda Timmer have quietly turned into one of the best restaurants in the Cotswolds. The cooking is fine dining in the proper sense (precise, seasonal, ingredient-led) without any of the stiffness. You eat overlooking a valley that seems to change colour every hour, and the service is warm enough that you forget you're in a dining room at all. Sunday lunch here is particularly good; so is the tasting menu if you're in the mood to linger.
It's about twenty minutes from Well Cottage, down quiet lanes through Chipping Norton and out the other side. Worth every minute of the drive. If you want to make a real evening of it, they have a handful of rooms upstairs, but honestly, you'll be just as happy heading back to the cottage afterwards, full and content, with the Oxfordshire dark pressing in around the car.
“The view from your table alone is worth the trip. Pair it with the tasting menu on a long summer evening and you'll understand why we keep going back.”
All of this on the doorstep, and your own thatched cottage to come home to. Sleeps seven, less than a mile from Soho Farmhouse.