Ben Jonson Spud Pub — Restaurant in Cherwell District

I’m beginning to think the 2 most beautiful, historic country pubs in Weston on the Green near Bicester are cursed. The Chequers pub just around the corner has had more landlords in my 20yr history of visiting and is now currently closed. As was the Ben Johnson for all of last year but reopened to much local celebration last Winter 24/25. If you visited in January it was all roaring open fires, attentive service and great food. What the hell happened? Visited over the weekend with a friend for Sunday lunch. We anticipated fresh local produce and a home cooked roast. Sadly, this was not to be. Every single item on the Sunday lunch menu was dumped unceremoniously inside a giant jacket potato. I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t really want my roast chicken, veggies ( and a very sad looking, mini frozen Yorkshire pub) heaped on top of eachother inside a huge jacket spud so I asked for mine without. My friend had his with. Sadly, when it arrived, bc I could actually see my veg, the broccoli and peas had both been boiled almost to the point of individual atoms both a sorry hue of watery olive green. No roast spuds ( I suppose they don’t fit in a baked spud very well, but would have been a nice addition). The meat was frozen strips, nothing was fresh or flavoursome and the staff were more interested in doing their nails or untangling their long white hair extensions than serving drinks behind the bar. And price, I hear you ask? 1 Spud with Sunday ‘roast’ chicken interior will set you back £16-17.

Perhaps for a quick supper in the week it would be worth a visit as long as you don’t mind paying over the odds for sadly tasteless edible offerings, but if you are looking for country atmosphere, an adequate chef and staff who take pride in their environment (we had two ashtrays full of fag butts on our table in the beer garden from previous patrons the whole 2 hrs we were there) - I’d give the Ben Johnson ‘Spud Pub’ a...

It’s a very nice pub, beautifully decorated with a good atmosphere. Unfortunately the service was agonisingly slow and inattentive. We were told there’d be a 15 minute delay when we arrived because they were busy. Okay, fine. But it was actually more like an hour and a quarter before we saw any food. During the wait no one checked on us or suggested we might like some more drinks. The only time anyone acknowledged us was when we spoke to them, and then it was just muttered apologies. I ordered the chicken and bacon salad from the main menu which is fourteen pounds. It was really very tasty, but a small portion for that price. I expected a substantial salad for that kind of money, and perhaps some bread (none was offered). It was, I think, less than a chicken breast, maybe one rasher of bacon, and a few salad leaves. During the meal no one came to our table to ask if our food was okay - and by this time the restaurant was nearly empty so being busy wasn’t the reason. No one suggested more drinks. No one suggested dessert. We had to chase up the bill. It’s a shame as they clearly have a good chef, but we won’t be back thanks to the...

Oh my god this place was terrible! The first time we went there not long after they opened we decided to forgive the fact that they were so short staffed a patron was having to help out behind the bar and the staff were clearly run ragged doing their best to attend to everyone, there was no food including bar snacks, and the fact that the owner didn't know how to connect the gas to the fizzy drinks pump so all the spirits were being served with flat syrup rather than coke/lemonade. We gave them the benefit of the doubt since it hadn't been open long, and returned the other night hoping things may have improved. But they had several lagers unavailable, as well as 2 of the ales. Still no chef so no chance of food, and a condescending uptight owner that spent the evening bringing down the tone. At least the barmaid was nice and they had some crisps this time, pretty much the only good thing I can say about...