The Trigger Pond — Restaurant in Cherwell District

Nice pub, good parking. Two of us arrived at 4 pm roughly for a bite to eat and a couple drinks. Was told food isn't served till 5 pm, no problem, said we can wait and took a table with drinks.

Come 5 pm, no one brought us a menu or was around to ask for one. The place was very quiet, with some folk sitting at the bar and only us waiting for food by the looks of it. Ten minutes later I had to get up and go ask for menus at the bar, where 3 staff were just standing. When we did get our food the waiter didn't bring any cutlery, so we then had to ask again for that. Maybe he went to go get it after putting the plates down, but he didn't say anything and disappeared, so we just had to wait and wonder.

None of that is a huge deal, and doesn't bother me much. What does bother me was the bill. £71, for two mains (the pie and a veg curry) and a shared dessert (key lime). We had one gin & tonic, a coke and a beer. The food was decent, no complaints, but pretty expensive for what it was. The coke was £4.10...not far off the price of the beer! They also added a service charge to the bill automatically, which I think must have been 20% (was £12). I could have disputed it, but it's just aggro and certainly not a position they should put me in by default. We just were two people at a time when the pub was empty, not a larger group, and the service wasn't...

We have been to this pub so many times in the past 5 years and had a great experience. I can only think that it has changed hands. I recommended it for a group of 8 ladies for a birthday meal. Service wasn’t great, some of the food was cold but we were having a great time just enjoying each others company. However the worst experience came after we had paid the bill, each by card/ contactless. The waitress kept insisting we had not paid enough and demanding that we pay another £126 divided between us. We knew we had paid the right amount so fortunately kept suggesting it must be an issue their end despite the fact she returned to the table several times demanding that we pay. In the end it was a problem with their card machine but if we hadn’t been so sure they would have taken an extra £126 off us. It was a really unpleasant experience executed in front of everyone in the restaurant but worse was to come as when it was suggested that an apology might be offered that was flatly refused and the manageress (?) accused us of lying about what the waitress said and said we weren’t welcome in the pub again. We are 8 professional or retired ladies and we left the pub incredulous as to how the evening had ended so badly and how we had been treated so poorly. I would love to return to the Trigger Pond again but would be very nervous...

Went for dinner for my dads birthday dinner. I have had multiple people tell me how good the food is here and was extremely disappointed.

They had to shorten the menu due to a problem in the kitchen, which was fine. But it meant we couldn’t have the things we had planned on having. We ordered a starter of bread and oil/ vinegar and olives. Olives were really nice, but the bread tasted funny…. Was meant to be focaccia but really didn’t taste like it. I had the pizza and so did my partner, it was a bit gummy and very oily and greasy not a normal amount as it was dripping off. The chips were not nice at all pure oil and no potato flavour. We had the Cajun chicken burger and beef burger, chicken had no flavour at all for a ‘ Cajun’ one. Wanted to complain but didn’t, wish we had when we saw the price and £20! Service added when they had forgotten our water and had to ask twice for the music to be turned down as it was so loud I couldn’t hear anyone talking. The garlic bread was bland and tasted like it was a microwave meal. It was below average and I was very disappointed.

Safe to say I won’t be...