The Lion Bicester — Restaurant in Cherwell District

So let me tell you my story . On day 1 of our 6 day stay in Wendlebury, after over 14 hours of traveling with a 2 & 4 year old I walk down to the (Pretty awesome looking) Lion at Wendlebury to see if they did take out. I knew there was a good chance they didn't but thought it was worth a shot given how good the menu looked. So, I walked to the bar in the all BUT empty restaurant, ordered a beer and inquired about whether they did take out. I was quickly and aggressively told by a weasely little twerp that " We Don't Do That Here!! OK, I thought and drank my beer, went back to our cottage and ordered kebabs. Didn't think much more about until day 4 of our otherwise great visit. We had a late lunch after a day of exploring Blenheim Palace/Woodstock, so we didn't get hungry again until around 7 or so .We were just going to snack on some things we had at our cottage but decided the four of us would walk up to The Lion for some starters instead. Upon arrival at about 7:30 we went and seated ourselves, just as I had witnessed a couple do during my prior visit. The restaurant was only slightly busier than last time, at about 1/4-1/3 capacity at best .Having our two small children in tow, we find a table in the back of the restaurant in a seemingly out of the way area. After getting set down (and no one showing up to take our drink order) I walk to the bar to order drinks/get menus. A nice waitress starts taking the drink order but is interrupted midway through by little Mr .Weasel from day one . He all but slams some menus down on the bar in front of me and says, " You better order quick because we have a bunch of people coming at 8 and the kitchen is going to get VERY busy, your food might take a VERY long time. " I said ok, and he began to walk away, but then started berating the female bartender because she had poured a lemonade from the tap which was apparently "bad" . Then she couldn't find the bottled version he pointed her to, so he said to her, in the most pompous manner, and I quote, "what's wrong mate, it's right in front of you, I mean, I know you're a blond, but COME ON!" I felt terrible for her as the embarrassment was obvious in her face....Finally got drinks, walked back to our table only to discover that the spineless little weasel had already spoken down to my wife in front of our two small children. Needless to say we ate nothing, and will tell every person we possibly can to stay AWAY!! We have never been treated so poorly, much less at such a mediocre place as this. Bottom line, order in, cook, or drive to a real restaurant who have REAL men working there! P.S. Good luck to the owners with this guy...

To Anthony My name is Peter and I had the pleasure of my daughter booking a table at your restaurant for four persons on the 23rd February 19:30 pm in aid of my up and coming Birthday. My wife and I had travelled all the way up from Kent for the weekend and on entering your establishment we were very pleased with what we saw the place itself and the menu. We ordered drinks which took a while to arrive but we moved on to ordering starters and main course for the four of us – when the mains arrived at about 8.30 pm only two were bought out, the waiter looked a bit confused as he placed the two Tomahawks on the table with associated side orders and asked if that was all!! We explained there should be two burgers for the ladies and this appeared to concern him – he left the table and a lady came back stating there was some confusion over the machine she had placed the orders through and that the burgers had been deleted that she would take the mains away to keep it hot and would bring all four out together. Although not too happy about two meals being kept warm We ordered more drinks when the mains all eventually came out some while later but the drinks never arrived, we had eaten out mains and my wife had to get up and go and ask what had happened to the drinks – she was given another apology- the bar girl is new and told they would be chased up – to which my wife said not to bother as we really would of liked our drinks with our meal to which the waitress replied I’ll have the drink removed from your bill that we hadn’t even got. We were then offered coffee or desert but to be honest after the evening so far we were in no state to sit for even longer and wait again for service when we could evidently see other tables being served a lot quicker than us .One couple had had three courses and drinks by the time we had got our mains. The bill arrived, the only drinks removed from the bill were the two we never received. I was shocked after the service we had received and there was not even an acknowledgement of apology, to even remove the first round of drinks. I was not prepared to get into a discussion on the night about the extremely poor service the way we felt treated and embarrass my daughter who had recommended your restaurant and had wanted to treat her dad to a nice birthday meal. I did not feel if fair to review your restaurant with such a bad evening, as I haven’t had any communication with you regarding the disappointing evening until...

Actually a lovely place with a lovely garden and beautiful plants and flowers. And of course the cat. By the way somebody should have a look on her, maybe she have a cat colds (runny nose and eyes are watering). The design from the hotel and the rooms are quite nice and romantic. The rainshower is also very good after a long day out. I liked the shower gel and shampoo as well. But there are some points, I didn’t like and I think you should know this. At the hotel itself actually nobody wants to feel responsible to listen to us, so here we are. The cleanness was unfortunately very low. The backside of the bed was covered with much dust (wolly mice like) and you found dust just everywhere. The glasshelf in the bathroom was covered with sticky dust like no one cleaned it since many years. The kettle was full of calcium carbonate, forget about a warm tea enjoying at the room. The dishes itself where not clean. Funny that everyone asking you for allergies but only for food and not for environmental things like dust. 🙈

And one last point about the breakfast system. You can order from the menu card, there is no open buffet. Even the stuff tried to do everything possible to fulfil our wishes the system is not to be recommended. You loose so much time for ordering and serving breakfast… I didn’t feel comfortable with it. What makes me really upset is that we didn’t get breakfast on our last day. No way to get anything to eat in the morning because our flight starts early and they start with service in the hotel at eight. When we booked the hotel there was no choice to vote out the breakfast for this day. So take it or leave it, at the end we paid for but couldn’t use it. Sadly there was no cooperation from the hotel.

In summary I can recommend the hotel for a short stay if you travel with your own car (for locals) but for foreigners it’s not comfy enough. I took the compromise to take a taxi every day because I thought it could be worth it to stay in this lovely hotel. Unfortunately it was not and little bit...