Eat & drink
Where to Eat & Drink in the Cotswolds: Pubs, Cafés & Restaurants We’d Actually Recommend
From proper village pubs and very good cake to the tables worth dressing up for, these are the Cotswolds places we’d happily send friends — and return to ourselves.
Eating well in the Cotswolds should not mean choosing the place with the most artfully stacked logs. The best meals here are often the least showy: a pie at a village pub, coffee and cake after a muddy walk, or a long lunch where the kitchen knows exactly which farms its ingredients came from.
This is not an attempt to list every pub with a hanging basket. It is a useful shortlist, spread across the Cotswolds and across budgets. Opening days and menus change, so check directly with the venue before making a special journey.
Proper Cotswolds pubs
The Duke of Cumberlands Head, Clifton
A proper country pub with rooms, good food and the sort of bar that still feels like a bar. The Duke has been serving the village since 1774, and it earns its place here for atmosphere as much as the menu. It is an especially useful stop if you are exploring Deddington and the north-eastern edge of the Cotswolds.
Best for: a relaxed pub lunch, a pint by the fire and staying over rather than finding a taxi home.
The King’s Head Inn, Bledington
This 16th-century inn sits right on Bledington’s village green. It balances the things people actually want from a Cotswolds pub: a handsome old building, a serious kitchen and an atmosphere that does not become stiff because the food is good.
Best for: Sunday lunch, a family meal or a rewarding finish to a country walk.
The Angel at Burford
Just off Burford High Street, The Angel is a useful antidote to the town’s busier tourist stops. Expect a welcoming pub, a walled garden and food that makes it worth staying rather than simply stopping for a drink.
Best for: lunch while exploring Burford, or dinner after the day-trippers have gone home.
The Catherine Wheel, Bibury
Bibury can feel crowded around Arlington Row, but The Catherine Wheel offers the thing you may actually be looking for: a relaxed, family-run village pub serving straightforward, locally minded food.
Best for: an unfussy lunch with children, dogs or muddy boots in tow.
The Woolpack Inn, Slad
The Woolpack has the history — it is the pub associated with Laurie Lee and the Slad Valley — but it is not surviving on the literary connection alone. The seasonal menu, garden and valley setting make it one of those places where lunch can quietly occupy most of the afternoon.
Best for: walkers, readers and anyone who wants the landscape to be part of the meal.
Cafés, bakeries and excellent cake
Huffkins, Burford, Stow-on-the-Wold and Moreton-in-Marsh
Huffkins has been baking since 1890 and is one of the most dependable answers when a group wants different things: breakfast, a light lunch, afternoon tea or simply a very good cake. Multiple Cotswolds branches make it useful rather than merely aspirational.
Best for: families, afternoon tea and a reliable pause on a market-town day.
Daylesford Farm, near Kingham
Daylesford is polished, busy and not the cheapest coffee stop in Gloucestershire — but it is also very good at what it does. The farm has several places to eat, from café food to a longer lunch, making it possible to choose according to time and appetite.
Best for: breakfast, a farm-shop lunch and taking home more cheese than intended.
Restaurants worth planning around
The Wild Rabbit, Kingham
The Wild Rabbit is the special-occasion end of the village-pub spectrum: a 17th-century inn with produce-led cooking and a genuine connection to the surrounding organic farm. Book it because you care about the meal, not simply because Kingham photographs well.
Best for: birthdays, anniversaries and a dinner where nobody wants to drive afterwards.
The Double Red Duke, Clanfield
Open-fire cooking is the headline here, but the appeal is broader: a lively country pub with rooms, confident food and enough energy to work for a celebration without feeling formal.
Best for: a long lunch with friends or a smarter dinner that still feels relaxed.
The Grill and Tavern at The Lygon Arms, Broadway
The Lygon Arms gives you two useful choices in one historic coaching inn. The Grill is the more polished special-occasion restaurant; the Tavern is the easier option for drinks and a less formal meal.
Best for: groups who want a grand Cotswolds setting but do not all want the same kind of evening.
The Painswick, Painswick
With views over the Slad Valley and a seasonal dining room, The Painswick is one to make a destination of rather than squeeze between sightseeing stops. It works particularly well for Sunday lunch, afternoon tea or a celebratory dinner.
Best for: a slower South Cotswolds day and a meal with a view.
Moda at House of George W. Davies, Broadway
One of the newer names in the Cotswolds, Moda opened in 2025 as an intimate tasting-menu restaurant. With only around 30 covers, it is firmly in book-ahead territory and best approached as the main event of the evening.
Best for: keen diners, tasting menus and trying somewhere before everybody else has.
Three easy ways to choose
- For a classic pub day: walk near Bledington, then book The King’s Head.
- For coffee, lunch and shopping: start at Daylesford Farm, then continue into Stow or Chipping Norton.
- For a proper occasion: choose The Wild Rabbit, The Painswick or Moda and make the meal the centre of the trip.
Before you set off
Cotswolds kitchens often close between lunch and dinner, and some venues take two regular days off each week. Sunday food may finish earlier than expected. Always check the venue’s own website and book ahead for Friday evenings, Sunday lunch and school-holiday weekends.
We will keep adding to this guide as we find places worth the detour. If you think we have missed somewhere genuinely brilliant, tell us — but be prepared to explain what you ordered.