The Red Lion - Bloxham

Warm welcome on the ‘phone and in person. Excellent atmosphere. Beautifully cooked food at a fair price. Servers pleasant. Prompt service.

Sunday dinner with the family, beautiful location, fantastic roast and fabulous service.

Visited for brunch Saturday morning with friends. Full English is a huge plate of food, with clearly really good quality ingredients - and properly cooked tomatoes! Great service and atmosphere. Highly recommend.

We turned up without booking having been double booked elsewhere. The welcome was amazing, they immediately bought into the big birthday we were celebrating. The food was delicious. Five of us with very different tastes all loved our meals. Will definitely go back!

8 of us had a really delicious lunch just after Christmas. Lovely welcome from the friendly staff, some of the best food we've had in a long time, from the juicy tasty ribeye to the "very best vegetarian wellington in the uk". The chips with peppercorn sauce was also very popular. Thank you Red Lion.

Absolutely delicious meal - we had all 3 courses and everything was amazing - food was outstanding & service very friendly & professional too! Excellent value for money as well. Highly recommend!

Met up with friends for Sunday lunch and we were not disappointed. Fantastic meal, great service and lovely atmosphere. Roast pork superb as was the sundae........yummmmm Will definitely recommend to others and will return soon.

Another great dinner at a convenient time. The staff all seem to have a great friendship which always makes a great atmosphere. Everyone is very friendly and personable, our go to for a nice evening out.

Absolutely bangin’ roast! Great selection of beers, very friendly and accommodating staff. Great banter. Both the waiters serving our table were exceptional; polite, lovely humble lads who made us feel very welcome. 10/10 all round.

Absolutely nice, friendly atmosphere and interior design. The staff was very polite and took care of us very professionally. The food was amazing and that is not an exaggerated compliment. I had the feeling that the food was prepared with full respect for the products and the consumer. The full English breakfast was out of this world.

Great pint of stout - Darky & Seedy - served with a smile. All staff were super helpful and friendly. I didn’t eat, but the food that I saw certainly looked good. Next time!!

Great food & service. Certainly going back again!

Amazing vegan sausage option for the Sunday roast. So tasty!! Very impressed with vege and vegan options. A refreshing change. Incredible food, good portions, lovely, friendly and funny staff. Will be recommending to everyone! Thank you

We came for lunch last Saturday to celebrate a special family occasion and it was absolutely lovely! The table was perfect for our party of 7, slightly tucked away and felt almost like a private room. The staff were so friendly and efficient and the food was absolutely delicious. We were a mixture of carnivores, vegans and I am coeliac and there was something delicious for everyone on your super menu. It really was such a huge success and I will be recommending you to everyone. Thanks to everyone at the pub who made our special day so perfect! We will definitely be coming again!

New management has elevated the Red Lion. Fantastic food but even more important is the brilliant service whether you’re there for Thursday night live music, Sunday roast or just a pint. Thoroughly recommend.

Food always fantastic, along with staff. Been going there for family celebrations for over 10 years, never been disappointed, very consistent.

Had the katsu burger, chicken was tender and delicious, the katsu sauce was outstanding. Great lunch atmosphere, even on a Monday. Staff very friendly and attentive. A little noisy next to a busy road

I recommend this pub to everyone I speak with. The staff are incredibly friendly and go out of their way to help in every way and offer a brilliant service. The food is always delicious and cooked to a high standard. Both the inside and outside area provide a fantastic spot for a drink or something to eat. The music played in the pub also adds to the fantastic atmosphere. The best pub in the area.

What a lovely Sunday lunch, service was fantastic all the staff were extremely friendly and lovely to our little boy. The food was tasty & pipping hot. The homemade rhubarb cheesecake was delicious. We will definitely be back

A dog (& people) friendly restaurant for a tasty breakfast. Excellent welsh rarebit and my friend had a vegan full english which was enormous. The staff were lovely and were great with the dog 🐕

Excellent in every way, food yummy, service second to none, staff can't help you enough. Would recommend this lovely place to all. We ate last two nights of our time in the area wish we had found it earlier.

Called in for lunch as my partner and I were visiting the area for a family wedding. We hadn't booked and the place was pretty full but we were immediately shown to one of the few remaining tables. Opted for the three course Christmas menu, although the standard menu was on offer too. Service was very quick and our waitress was lovely. The food was perfect! Absolutely spot on. Couldn't fault anything at all. Will definitely make this a port of call whenever we are in this area. Highly recommended. Thank you.

Dined here last night with the family. Pub was wonderfully accommodating for our large group. Staff were the friendliest I had experienced for a long time and the food was excellent (especially the slow-roasted pork!). Will definitely be returning when revisiting the area.

Brilliant comedy night, food van was absolutely delicious. Great night all round.

Our family of four adults visited for a family Sunday lunch. We were a "late lunch" booking. To get in the mood we shared a bottle of Prosecco, which was well cooled, and during the meal I had a decent glass of red wine . I started with the soup, which was excellent and the others the parfait, which was rapidly consumed, as they were gossiping! For mains three of us had the roast pork dinner and one the three meats roast all of which were good portions of meat served with a selection of fresh veggies, gravy and sauces etc which were really tasty and obviously freshly prepared. The mains were really substantial so we could not manage a sweet and were content with the latte coffee. We really enjoyed our meals and will definitely be back!

Good was amazing. Plenty of staff, parking and beer garden. Found this place as travelling through. Would definitely recommend.

Attractive pub with nice garden. Car parking available. We had a lovely lunch. The staff are very friendly and helpful. The male waiter was very kind when one of our party became unwell. Good value for money.

Great local pub, menu is reliably excellent, generous portions, and any pub with Neil Young and Little Feat on their playlist gets a solid 10 from me. Onwards and upwards!

Not a pub, far more interested in eaters than drinkers. Great food, good service, at a price.

Went to comedy night in the gazebo outside after it had snowed. Staff were incredible at trying to make it warmer

Nice afternoon meal here today. Good portions and tasty. Staff were mostly stood around the bar which made it strange that we waited a while for our table to be cleared. A bit pricey for pub food but maybe a bit posh for us.

Went to the Red lion for a lunch time meal, so didn't have a starter for this reason. The main meals were top class, the house speciality 12 hour slow cooked pork was laid on dauphinois potato which were crisp top and bottom, sat in a good amount of very flavoursome gravy which I really like. The veg carrot and tenderstem broccoli were cooked perfectly with a little bit of a crunch, my only thing I would have liked a little bit more veg. The crackling was light, not greasy and crispy. The others all enjoyed their meals. On to the puds, Ella's kinder chocolate brownie was one of the best I've had, the ice cream was good quality, strong vanilla. The brownie had a warm, gooey center and was melt in the mouth, then the little bit of fresh cream just set it off. The beer was a good pint too. So down to my final question would I go back again? A definite yes.

+6

Good little pub/restaurant, with good quality food and a reasonable menu choice. DOG FRIENDLY!! Our visit was for food, and the service we obtained was typical of a restaurant, and felt as such without much the feeling of a pub. Atmosphere marked down for this as we were expecting less of restaurant atmosphere and more of a pub atmosphere. That being said, we didn’t explore the building and not sure if there is another section to it that would be for patrons. In any case, staff were very friendly, and could not do any more, for that I would love to visit again. Food itself had a reasonable menu, with specials boards. The quality of food again was on point, seems to be a Cotswold thing, as pubs I’ve gone into recently have been producing restaurant quality food, not typical pub grub. I had the Katsu chicken burger, which was something different and worked well. Parking on site, and spacious area out the back in their pub garden. I would definitely visit again.

Whilst I can’t fault the deliciousness of the food, my word the portion of fish in the fish and chips is very small for £17.50! Here’s a photo from a recent visit. So two portions plus two drinks came to £46. That seems a bit far fetched for such a small amount.

Disappointing. We arrived on a Tuesday evening in September as 5 adults with a pre booked table. We were late but I had rung ahead and advised so they were expecting us, we got there at 18.45. The Landlord advised they had a private function going on that evening in the garden so he wouldn’t be taking our order until 7.30pm to help the kitchen team. We got some drinks and chatted and after our prompt at 19.40 our order was taken. All the food for the garden event had gone past us and had been completed, but sadly we then waited over an hour to get our food order with no apology, no explanation, and no check up from the waiting team. The pub was now empty and we were the only ones left. The Landlord spent the evening complaining loudly about problems with the till, the engineer who hung up on him over the phone, the broken till in the garden and didn’t acknowledge or attempt to offer any drinks or an apology for the really late service. We had to go up to the bar and remind them we had ordered further drinks as they had forgotten. I am an ex Pub Landlord, and we had a Chef and two waitresses in our party, so we are all aware and forgiving of external events and large functions but we were all very unimpressed by the lack of contact from any of the team all evening. From arrival at 18.45 we actually got some food at 20.30 which is not acceptable. The table next to us commented how tolerant we had been before they left, which was telling. Our first visit to the Red Lion about six months ago was excellent, sadly we won’t be coming back for another.

My niece had an entire meal spilled down her back. No apology or compensation was offered. I withheld payment as her dress may not be recoverable by cleaning as it is velvet. Perfectly happy to pay if it is. However, the manager has responded to her review by saying we declined two bottles of champagne as compensation. This is a lie and supports my decision to withhold payment due to lack of trust. We had two bottles of champagne and these were paid for by my sister.

We returned here yesterday after two good meals and friendly service previously- this time for the set Xmas menu. Crab starter didn’t taste fresh and the butter piped onto the plate was straight from the fridge and unspreadable. Pâté was piped into a very unappealing shape 💩. Toast on both starters was rock hard and difficult to eat. Green veg was overcooked and soggy with watery, grey sprouts - just the type that put people off them! The plates from the main took a long while to be cleared - we eventually had to ask as it was becoming hard to entertain two young children while we waited. We then waited a long while to get dessert - despite having pre-ordered and being the only table eating in the whole pub. One dessert was forgotten- staff claimed it had not been on the pre-order - this was in spite of a waiter asking if we were all having dessert when giving us dessert spoons. A disappointing visit for a family Christmas lunch after two very pleasant meals here previously.

Not sure if we were unlucky but the size of fish we were served was absolutely minuscule. Was really disappointed, especially with the price of the dish, when you order fish and chips in a pub the fish is usually hanging off the plate! This was the size of a piece you would get from the freezer in the supermarket. Shame as it was delicious but felt like daylight robbery.

The Red Lion has been a regular Sunday breakfast for us for a while. This Sunday was the first since the new owners. Service was excellent as ever, the staff are always enthusiastic & helpful. We were, however, somewhat disappointed with the quality of the breakfast compared to how it used to be. The bacon was meagre, one rather small disappointing sausage with the space being made up with rather a lot of mushrooms. Will probably be looking elsewhere for future breakfasts. Had an evening meal with friends on a weekend, sadly disappointed. The Nachos with chilli sharing platter was pretty mediocre. The chilli was pretty tasteless & very dry, it felt like it had been reheated many times, & the cheese didn't taste particularly fresh. I wonder if the Nachos had been pre-prepared & then reheated, I somehow doubt it was freshly made. Followed by my main. Their burger. Had it before, many times. This particular one had a peculiar flavour & was quite dry, it just crumbled away as you tried to eat it. There was some bits of lettuce stalk, the white bits from the end of the leaf in there which wasn't pleasant. The bacon wasn't cooked evenly, resulting in it being rock hard on one edge & just about cooked on the other, & a rather thin, sad looking piece of tomato. I couldn't eat the burger, just unpalatable. They informed me that they no longer buy the burger in, its now made on site, with tarragon. Tarragon. Tarragon? What the...? Horrible. This doesn't excuse the rest of the burger being mediocre. I wasn't offered another main, although they took the burger off the bill. (I didn't complain about the Nachos). We will be looking elsewhere for evening meals, which is a shame.

RESPONSE Thank you for your reply. I note, still no apology. My uncle did not accept your proposal to pay in full and you reimburse us later. He doesn’t know you - why would he trust you would honour this suggestion? The bill was £454 (not including the champagne that was paid for separately, by a different person.) The dress cost £400 and dry cleaning will be at least £25. I later noticed that sauce had also been spilled on my £850 coat that was hanging on the back of my chair, so withholding £454 when you may have ruined two items totalling £1,230 is very reasonable. No one at any time offered to ‘comp’ the champagne. - I feel very sad to have to write this review. I have lived in the village for 20 years and been to this pub countless times. I came here for Christmas Eve dinner with my family, and whilst the main courses were being served an ENTIRE PLATE OF HOT FOOD was DROPPED DOWN MY BACK (shin of beef plus mash and gravy, to be precise). The waitress who did it immediately ran off without a word and never returned (I understand and am sympathetic to the fact she was probably very embarrassed herself.) The back of my dress was soaking with gravy, as was my chair which was covered with food. I immediately stood up and the entire room stared, which was very embarrassing in itself. I also feel that I was very understanding and nice about this accident in the moment and didn’t scold the waitress or make a scene at all - I understood it was an accident. A member of staff took the food covered chair away straight away and another member of staff who was about 17 years old came over with wet paper towels and meekly apologised to my mother, not me (I am 34 years old and a fully grown woman so this felt strange, but we assumed all of the very young staff were all shocked and a bit ‘rabbit caught in headlights’ and someone would return to properly apologise later). After we wiped down the bulk of the gravy and food off the back of my dress to the best of our ability, it was still soaking, and I had to sit in a wet (and now cold) dress. By the time we had dealt with this debacle, our food was mostly cold too - we said nothing. NO ONE at any point returned to apologise to me or offer any sort of gesture by way of apology. A good way to turn this unfortunate incident around would have been a member of staff (senior or otherwise) coming over to say something along the lines of ‘we are so, so sorry madam, what can we do to make this right?’ or at the very least offer MY meal or a round of drinks on the house. Nothing was offered by way of apology for dropping an entire plate of food down my back, and no proper apology was given beyond a teenager awkwardly apologising to my mother. My dress is completely ruined. My uncle withheld payment as the bill total equalled the cost of the dress plus £25 dry cleaning - he fairly withheld payment on the basis that he will pay IF the dress is salvaged by dry cleaning which is perfectly reasonable considering the circumstances. He gave all his details and said if dry cleaning salvages the dress he will gladly pay. The manager even asked my uncle when he complained ‘well didn’t you enjoy your meal?’ - the teenager who feebly apologised to my mother and not me also sarcastically said to my fiancé ‘well I hope you’re able to battle through this and have a merry Christmas’. They thought WE should pay THEM for ruining my velvet dress (that is now rock hard and could be cracked over my knee 😂) and having to pay for dry cleaning? It was very, very strange and unprofessional behaviour. I can’t help but feel like perhaps the teenage staff didn’t relay the full truth of the incident to the manager in order to not get in trouble? Or perhaps they did and he simply didn’t care. Perhaps they were all having a bad evening, but this was really appallingly handled. Had this been my business I would have come over and apologised profusely. It is absolutely, unequivocally unacceptable to drop an entire plate of food over a costumer. People make mistakes - it is how you handle those mistakes that matters.

+1