The Bell at Hampton Poyle - Kidlington

Alex R.

Went for Mother’s Day. Service slow, rude inexperienced staff. Teenagers swearing and lounging around the pub. Used to be a proper dining experience but not anymore. Average £10 for starters and £25 for mains is steep. Had to keep getting up to find staff to get a drink. White wine was warm and again £9 for 175ml is high and would have expected it to be served at the right temperature. Food was tasty but the atmosphere and staff made it way overpriced as an eating venue. So many better places to go now. Save your money and go somewhere else. It says a lot when they bring the bill and knock off drinks cost and charge no service fee without saying anything. Maybe the owner should be there to oversee their business failing and do something about it.

Wilma B.

The Bell is a lovely little pub with friendly and helpful staff. The food was excellent, served from an open kitchen where you could chat to the chef. Our room was a good size, had a very comfy bed, we had a walk-in open shower and it was serviced each day. The location was perfect for our visit with the bus to Oxford/Bicester right outside. Highly recommended.

Alan G.

Our club booked our Christmas lunch for members and wives. 50 or so of us prebooked our menu choices well in advance. On the day, the first problem became apparent when we came to be seated. Three long tables of eight side by side took up the width of the room so that a fourth table across the top had no access for service once we were seated. ||My starter described as ‘Salt and Pepper Calamari, chilli, lime, squid ink aioli‘, was a dish with two calamari rings, six prawns and ten mussels. |The main courses came out spasmodically. Many of us had ordered ‘whole roasted plaice’ which some had enjoyed there the previous week. The whole plaice we were served was just one fillet, or part of a fillet, or for two members no fish at all and they had to have turkey. One person received no main course. The top table were served via the outside through a fire door.||We then waited an hour before some of the desserts started to trickle through although main course dishes had still not all been cleared away. By this time many of our members had given up waiting and left. ||The young staff were very pleasant but there appeared to be poor or absent management. What a disappointing ‘celebration’.

Laurie P.

We booked an overnight stay here as part of our 25th Wedding Anniversary and dined in the restaurant on the Saturday evening. The venue is beautiful with lots of character in an unspoiled rural location. Our room was spacious with a comfy bed and a huge shower/wet room. We were given a flask of oat milk on our arrival for the room which was great. The staff were mostly young fellas and they were very polite.

The evening menu had one vegan item, a risotto, that had ‘V/VG’ on it so I wrongly assumed this was vegan. It probably meant vegan option as it had a boiled egg in it. I removed the egg and although there wasn’t much of it, the dish was very tasty. There were no vegan desserts other than sorbet so we skipped dessert.

I had asked for vegan options when I booked but there were no vegan alternative items for breakfast. Given that I only had a hash brown, beans and a tomato I was shocked that they only put half a mushroom on my plate! 😄 What happened to the other half?!

So, a beautiful country pub with comfortable accomodation and attentive staff, but a bit stingy with portions and not much for the plant-based punter.

Alex D.

Staff is friendly and setting is lovely. That’s the positive.
However… and it pains me to say as I really wanted this to be special as it was my mums 80th birthday…. Things went wrong from the start. The wrong bottle of champagne was brought out and opened - never mind we thought let’s just have this one instead - but it was also warm and quite frankly warm champagne just isn’t nice.
Then the food, what can I say, very average, certainly not gastro. For £25 I would expect an outstanding roast. Starters weren’t great either.
And the glasses of wine we ordered to go with mains arrived after we had finished eating. We didn’t bother ordering dessert.
Overall very very disappointed. Service was slow even though the restaurant was pretty empty for a Sunday lunch which is an indication of its popularity I guess.
The end.

Dan T.

We stayed here for one night, following a trip to nearby Bicester Village, wanting a place to stay with a nice restaurant and good walking trails nearby.||Overall it was fine, but we have stayed in many similar Inns across Oxfordshire and the Cotswolds and to be honest this one doesn’t quite cut it for the price.||(We would have awarded it 3.5 stars if the TripAdvisor platform allowed it FYI).||Pluses:|- Dinner menu is really extensive and the food was really good. Wine list average but at least prices of wine are reasonable.|- Room was nice, if lacking any character and facing onto the road.|- Service was good, particularly in the pub and restaurant - it was a Friday night and there was a nice atmosphere there too||Other thoughts:|- location - Hampton Poyle is a non-descript linear village with nothing about it (no character)…literally a mile away from the A34|- breakfast was not up to scratch for a £150 B&B rate (minimal buffet, filter coffee only etc)||Overall I think it is a nice place but doesn’t quite justify the price. Inns like the Swan at Ascott Under Wychwood offer more atmosphere and better value rooms.

Jan

We stayed here a couple of weeks ago for 4 nights. We had a lovely room with large walk in shower, it was very clean and serviced daily. This is a nice quiet location, great for Oxford park and ride and Bicester village. Staff very friendly, fantastic breakfasts and we had a top quality evening meal. Would definitely recommend.

J E.

Visited for the first time in many years hoping for a better experience after being disappointed in the past.

The kitchen ran out of the roast dinner by the time we visited at 2.30pm (which is £25 pp btw!) so can't comment on that sadly. Ended up with a burger which was "ok" but not worth £18.50.

My wife had to opt for the fried chicken (£20) which was very average, very little flavour in the batter and id compare it to a kids chicken strips and fries, complete joke for the price.

£10 for a tiny bit of bread and butter pudding.

No problem with the service, the staff, the atmosphere and the Guinness, all good.

However the food is massively overpriced for what is on offer - no wonder it isn't very busy.