Red Lion — Restaurant in Cherwell District

Have been there twice now and have very good experiences with this place. Food is always good, the staff is nice and helpful. On this last trip I went there with my partner and parents, and we all ordered different food, my choice was a starter that was intended as a main meal. It arrived about half an hour before the rest of the meals so I started eating slowly to make it last as long as possible, but when the waiter brought out the rest of the meals half an hour later, he was appalled that my meal had been brought out so early, so he apologised profusely, took the half eaten dish out, and brought me a brand new and fresh one so I could eat with the others. I don't think such a thing has ever happened to me! He was bubbly and polite the whole way, super helpful when we wanted adjustments or condiments, and we left him a big tip which we hope made it into the right hands (we had to leave before he came back out to collect it). My only reason for giving it 4 stars instead of 5, is the thunderous volume of the music, which on both occasions has been so loud that we've had to escape outside to be able to talk during our meals. It seems supposed to be a family friendly sit-down-for-a-nice-meal pub, but feels more like a wannabe club when you're inside. We've asked the staff to turn the music down, but even though they've said "of course", this has...

Walked in on a Sunday evening to just be stared at by two young girls behind the bar - no greeting, smile etc or anything - not the best welcome. The place was about 15% full. Sat on the first table which turned out to be dirty (sauce drizzled everywhere and menus sticky) so moved to a second one which was slightly less dirty. Tried to order the vegan wellington but was told there wasn't any. No apology, just "we don't have any". Went back to table to look at other options and went back to try and order 2 x Vegetarian burgers. Had another young girl (older than the other 2) who was more polite and switched on, who said they "did have the vegetarian burgers but not the right things to cook them"....... whatever that cryptically means! We left pretty quick and went to a cracking Indian instead down the road. Avoid at all costs - if the sticky tables, mostly rude staff or lack of food doesn't get you - the drunk locals shouting...

We visited the place on quiet Tuesday evening. Nice looking pub with excellent range of beers. Because food was served for people around us and it was looking fine we gave it a try. I ordered bbq ribs and my girlfriend ultimate burger. 20 min wait and we got the "food". Ribs came almost cold and dry with a small smudge of what you can call bbq sauce. Burger was burned to the charcoal very dry with no sauce present. Only good thing was the fries. I wasn't asked for a feedback and the whole experience was upsetting. Originally we wanted to try desserts but couldn't stand to stay there any longer.

We Just moved to the area and wanted to try British pub. Not very thrilled to ever go back there. For the future I've noticed Tandoori next door was packed with customers and Black Bull have nice chinese takeaway. I will go there instead.

Very disappointed with Red Lion. Maybe the cook had a bad day. No excuse to serve poison to...