The Bell — Restaurant in Cherwell District

Our experience at the kids Christmas dinner with Santa was incredibly disappointing. Right from the beginning, there was a lack of acknowledgment upon arrival. We placed our food order at 13:05, but an agonizing two hours later, it still hadn't arrived.

Feeling compelled to feed the hungry kids, we had to walk to a nearby shop next door for alternative food. It was evident that the pub was understaffed despite knowing the number of bookings. Other families shared our dissatisfaction; one even received a refund and left.

When the food finally made its appearance, the order was wrong – despite specifying no tomatoes due to an allergy, the burger was served with tomatoes.

To add to the frustration, the barmaid accidentally knocked over my pint, drenching my wife and her jacket. After cleaning up the mess, she brought the food back out, but in the process, leaned over my plate putting the children's food down and with her jumper brushing against my burger. At this point, my enthusiasm to complain had waned.Questionable hygiene practices

The disappointment continued as the kids couldn't eat their dinner; the utensils provided were red hot. Even Santa's presence was lackluster – he briefly walked around without engaging much with the children. The children did go meet santa and get a selection box from him. But even that didn't change their feeling on the day.

We endured the experience longer than planned because my wife's jacket needed time to dry on the radiator. Throughout our stay, no one bothered to clear our table of empty glasses or plates. Overall, a thoroughly disappointing and poorly managed event.

When leaving I did give the woman behind the bar the feedback as they need to understand how disappointing the whole visit was. Two families spending £150 combined were very disappointed. Its Christmas and money is tight so we were expecting an exciting visit for the children and good food. We got neither.

Once walking home the barmaid did message to say sorry offered to pay for my wife's jacket to be cleaned and two drinks on the house. I wasn't moaning to get something out of it. It was honest feedback. But the more I think of this. If we were to pay at the end and not at the start, I wouldn't have paid for the food!

Looking at the reviews we may of had came on the wrong day. but unsure if we will...

Wow. I don't normally write reviews but I felt compelled to tell people what they need to know about this place.

Visited in August 2012 (I don't know how it was previously, but I can tell you what it is like now).

Called the pub in advance as we were going to have some lunch, had heard good things. They said they stop serving food at 2.30 I think it was. We were going to arrive almost on the dot, the lady said that's perfectly fine. We arrived probably 5 minutes after this.

Firstly, we were greeted by a horrific smell in the pub. What was it? It smelt like something rotten. Not just your average stale pub smell. This smelt TRULY awful. Feeling slightly embarrassed that we were there 5 minutes after we said we would be, we decided we'd approach the landlady, apologise for our lateness and see if it's still ok to have some lunch (although by this point, the putrid stench was killing both mine and my partners apetite).

The landlady aggressively shouted at us "you aff to order food a day in advance if you want to eat ere", and turned around to what appeared to be one of a few scruffy regulars who seemed to find her agressive attitude amusing.

I can assure you that I, and anyone I have the opportunity to speak to throughout my life will be thoroughly dissuaded from going anywhere near this grotty little hole. On reflection I'm glad she was so disgustingly rude as I couldn't have stomached food in there anyway. However, it's people like yourself that give service, pubs, pub food, and general politeness in this country a bad name.

What a shambles. Be ashamed...

thank you to the bell for a great day with santa. we brought our whole family including my brother and his family and we had a terrific day. The food was lovely and santa was even in the barn and each child got to go and see him in the grotto to receive their gift. There was a slight wait on food but we loved this as it really dragged out the day for the children.we were even allowed to bring our dog and he was in his element as the pub also provided treats for him.

thank you for such a great time and to all the staff who really engaged with the children especially my little lad who has a lot of problems with loud noises.

thankful to have this pub on...