Where To Eat In The Cotswolds, According To One Of Its Best Chefs

Luke Rawicki is Head Chef at The Feathers in Woodstock, one of the Cotswolds’ most celebrated country house hotels. With a restaurant, The Nest, built on sourcing exceptional British produce and elevating it with modern technique, Rawicki has a deep fluency in what the region has to offer. Here, he shares his guide to the best places to eat across the Cotswolds, from a 12-seat tasting menu on the area’s borders to the finest burger you’ll ever eat.

A Chef’s Guide To The Cotswolds

You should know these restaurants: Le Petit Doigt, a brand-new opening in Abingdon, just on the borders of the Cotswolds. It is a very intimate restaurant with only 12 seats offering a tasting menu designed and cooked by the very talented Ollie Williams.

Blockley Café, this is a really top-notch Artisan Café in Blockley. They offer everything from one of the best breakfasts around to some great light lunches and afternoon grazing. Then at dinner they have a more refined offering with a set price menu filled with interesting flavours and incredible ingredients. 

On my days off I stay local to Woodstock. The Backlane Tavern is my most regular visit, they are absolutely nailing the casual small plates vibes. It’s a great place to go for really chilled lunch or dinner. Johnny’s food packs a serious flavour punch.

What we don’t have much of around here is real high-end restaurants. We seem to be lacking with Le Manoir now closed for a while, there is not too many other options for a real luxury, very special occasion kind of meal. It would be great to see a few more real top-level chefs make this part of the Cotswolds their home. 

At The Feathers we’re working on: Our summer menus, it is an exciting time of year for UK produce, with all different things starting to creep into season. Things like asparagus with so many different farms producing incredible quality, Isle of Wight tomatoes are starting to make an appearance and we are not too far away now from English berries and stone fruits. 

Luke Rawicki

The Best Restaurants In The Cotswolds

The Royal Oak, Whatcote

The Royal Oak is the perfect celebration of British season and sustainable food. A lot of their produce is from small independent suppliers and producers and is then treated with the upmost respect and skill to produce exquisite food. theroyaloakwhatcote.co.uk

Slaughters Manor House

A country house hotel just outside Bourton on the water, this is a beautiful property with a kitchen headed up by Nik Chappell who is an incredibly talented and creative chef.  Think classic French cooking with some seriously creative flair. slaughtersmanor.co.uk

Smiths of Bourton

Also in Bourton-on-the-Water it is a burger restaurant located just behind the main street. If you want a serious burger this is the place to go, they are some of the best if not the best burgers I have ever had. But not just plain burgers, think scotch bonnet and gochujang, and marmite and gorgonzola. smithsofbourton.com

William’s of Nailsworth

Williams is an absolute institution in the south Cotswolds. If you speak to anyone who has been in the Cotswolds for a while they will have at least heard of them if not been there. There’s a sole focus on fresh simple perfectly cooked fish without much fuss. A menu staple that has been of for years and is to absolutely die for is the spicy crab soup. They also have a little deli and a fish slab full of beautiful fresh fish. A real must try for fish lovers. williamsfoodhall.co.uk

The Double Red Duke

The Double Red Duke

This is the Cotswolds’ answer to live fire cooking; they are a constant feature in the Estrella Top 50, with a menu focused around quality meat cooked over fire. Think big sharing steaks and sharing plates cooked on the barbeque. countrycreatures.com/double-red-duke

The Stump

With a big focus on pizzas, they make a really good one. But unlike a lot of pizza places they have a wide choice of other dishes from small plates and flat breads to steaks and pastas. thestump.co.uk

The Nest

The Nest (mine!) is a modern European restaurant, it focusses on sourcing some of the best British produce, to create classic dishes and flavour pairings whilst enhancing with modern techniques. Set in the the modern luxury boutique hotel: the Feathers Hotel. feathers.co.uk/the-nest