The Turnpike — Restaurant in Cherwell District

So I have very mixed feelings about this place!

I came here last night with 2 friends. We had booked a table for 7pm, I got there a couple of minutes before 7 and was told our table wasn't ready yet. This was fine as I was still waiting for the rest of my party to arrived. About 705pm they had arrived and we stood by the entry table for about 15 more minutes. We were not assured that our table was being prepared or anything. We had to keep asking if our table was ready. Finally we were seated and left for a further 15 to 20 minutes. Our waitress did apologise and took our drinks order. We waited a further 20 to 25 mins for the waitress to come and take our order. Our mains took quite a while to arrive but the place was relatively busy so this was fine. After finishing our meals we waiting a further 30 minutes and had to then call the waitress over to collect our empty plates and request the dessert menu.

We got our desserts and finished. By this time it is 10pm the whole place is empty aside from a small part of 2 older men. Again after waiting we call our waitress over and ask for the bill. She says "yes I'll bring it over, do you have any codes?" We say no and she advises us that we can get 40% off if we download the app but there's no point now as it takes time to be sent to us or something. We ignore her and download anyway (lucky we did). We then wait for her to bring the bill but then notice her leaving the building to go home. So then I looked around the pub, aside from those 2 older men there is not another soul in sight. We wait another 5 minutes and finally i see the bar man and ask him if we can pay the bill. He was great and got the bill up, scanned the code and comes over straight away to settle the bill. We left there at 1040pm and our table was booked for 7pm. We had mains and the mini pudding. We had 1 drink each that ordered at the bar whilst we were waiting to be seated and one of my my friends ordered one more drink when we were sat.

Totally baffled by the extremely slow and odd service.

The food however was amazing. I ordered the chicken Thai style curry and it was delicious, I told the bar man when he was settling our bill that the curry was incredible. Which is why I said I had mixed feelings about this place. I want to go back for the curry but the service was...

Disappointment at the Turnpike

Sunday 6th November we decided to pre book for Christmas lunch, looking through the various restaurants and bars (pubs) advertising said fare, we thought, ‘let’s do a dummy run and try The Turnpike’, we arrived, the venue was bright and welcoming, we’re shown to our table, at which we browsed through the menu and ordered our food from the Sunday menu. We ordered starters, main and various side dishes. We thought while we waited for the food to arrive we would have a dish from the ‘Whilst you decide’ (Marinated mixed Olives with garlic and red pepper) section, we waited for the olives to arrive, nothing, I asked the waitress who promptly left came back with the olives and starters, not a problem I thought ok anyone can forget, the starter arrived, crispy Calamari which was far from crispy, and no mention of there being Coriander on the Calamari, not a good combination. Cut a long story short, Sue had Slow-cooked half chicken, I had the Candied vegetable roast, the food was cold, I complained to the waitress who was very apologetic, no one from the management could be bothered to talk to us. The only palatable food was the Sweet potato fries and the Cauliflower cheese the rest was a disappointment to say the least.

I have been sent a £20 gift card for my dissatisfaction. The idea of reviving a business is that the service improves to all customers at all times of the day. Fortunately, I will not be using the £20 gift card, as other venues in the ‘Vintage Group’ don’t fare much better, putting this down as a learning experience.

Don’t forget this was a personal experience that moment in time, make your own decisions about what...

The Turnpike Inn is so easy to find alongside a busy and easy to access road. As you go into Yarnton from Oxford you can't miss it as its located beside a busy roundabout. The entrance from that road is easy to navigate and there is a spacious private car park.

I loved the setting, its hard to find a traditional pub these days. The Turnpike still has original features with low ceilings and beams in places, an open fire (or more) and the dark wood that is associated with days gone by. There have been extensions added along the way and this helps to separate different areas of seating creating a type of privacy if you should wish to hold a meeting there.

I was visiting to go to a business networking event and because the area was up a set of stairs it had a feeling of privacy.

My meal was very good, served quickly and on hot plates and tasty, infact I was surprised as the reviews appear to be so varied. The whole place was clean and welcoming and the staff attentive but not intrusive.

The only area I feel could be improved was that I had to go up a flight of stairs to the Ladies. There may have been another set of toilets however if you struggled with stairs this could be a disadvantage and certainly a consideration if stairs were out of the question.

Overall I enjoyed my visit and would certainly add The Turnpike to my list of...