The Bell Inn

I'm sat next to the landlord and he's a big bastard. That said, the atmosphere is awesome, the food is exceptional pub grub and the location is great. Would thoroughly recommend as the best pub in the area.

My family and I recently went for lunch at the Bell as a party of four celebrating my mother’s 81st birthday! We’d heard that the Bell’s reputation had improved!

But we were immediately informed that they were expecting a party of forty-five, and that it might not be a good idea to order starters, as there would be at least a half hour wait between courses.

Firstly, considering that we were already present and about to order, why should we be the ones to wait? Not to mention that we all wanted starters; this was a celebration after all. We were then informed that the chef would try and make sure that there wasn’t a delay. Great!

The starter was okay, the Chicken liver pâté, was good, but the toast was burnt – and sadly it would turn out that ‘burnt’ would be the prevailing new trend at the Bell Inn.

I ordered the sirloin steak – and we all had dishes that included chips. As it turned out we didn’t have to wait long for our main course, but we were a little confused as to why we all appeared to have sweet potato fries? It was then that we realised they were indeed chips – just very burnt chips – the ends of which were actually black.

I had ordered my steak medium rare, yet it was very well done. I say well done: there were mushrooms on top of my steak, which were burnt to the point of literally being carbon.

How does one burn mushrooms, anyone? It was at this point that I realised it was possible that the food had been so quickly cooked because there was a fire in the kitchen? In any event, if I needed a quick getaway, I could have easily re-soled my shoes with that inedible steak.

Then we were informed that the chef – I say chef, but perhaps a better description would be cook, or even nuclear technician – had been working for seven days in a row. Possibly the thought of serving forty-five people at once gave him some sort of breakdown involving matches? Who knows?

Then to add burnt insult to injury, when it was suggested that the bill should reflect the disaster (towering inferno) that had befallen our birthday celebrations, the response was ‘…well I don’t know about that’.

Images: “A Towering Inferno of a Disaster! - or - How Does One BURN Mushrooms?” Photos: P A Black © 2018.

17th century building , great host, good bar, food experience wonderful
Room was clean and cool. Shower cubicle man size
Will most definitely stay again

Lovely quaint pub in an equally lovely location. Staff very friendly, rooms spotless and pub grub wasn't bad either. Actually the parmesan mushroom sauce on chicken was heavenly.

We come to Charlbury every few months and usually visit the Bull over the road. The weekend we dropped by the Bell for a roast instead and I have to say I preferred it, well cooked, great value for money and great service too. Will be back for sure.

Room wasn’t great with absolutely no WiFi connection and the food served wasn’t great either. The halloumi tasted like rubber and the soup looked like prison food with a stale piece of bread.
Poor experience overall

See picture of the dog water bowl which sums the place up!
Reluctant to serve food "as they had some large tables to serve " onthe lunchtime we visited! There were two tables of 4 people(all from the same family) - hardly busy! After we mumbled our dismay, the barman condescend to provide two portions of chips! I have some memories of good experiences at Greene King owned pubs, sadly this wasn't one of those.

The location is in a lovely pretty village and is perfect location for visiting other places in the cotswolds. The room was decent although the lighting could be better as no ceiling light. Also the room was incredibly hot even with the window open. Room was clean and bathroom was a good size. Staff were all very friendly and helpful. Food was OK but nothing special.