Bathurst Arms — Restaurant in Cotswold District

Very friendly slightly older waitress. Other than that, pretty dire culinary experience. Children’s mac ‘n cheese came as an overly complicated battered brick of under-seasoned macaroni cheese with a dollop of cold ‘nacho cheese’ which looked and tasted like a job lot of excess from Cineworld. Children expect a mainstream seasoned version of what is described on the menu, not a poorly executed Masterchef invention test. The veg was undercooked (beyond aldente), unseasoned leeks and kale. My son enjoyed his burger thanks to the kid lady waitress warning us that it is usually a ‘beef brisket’ patty and proactively suggested asking the kitchen to replace it with a minced venison one instead. We had the burger… At £16 without any sides, I would have expected something in line with Bleeker, Burger & Beyond, Meat Liquor etc. However: The venison patty was overcooked and dry; the beef brisket on top had all taste and fat boiled out of it and as a result was also ironically dry; the onion bhaji was tasteless, again no seasoning; the pickle was like soggy cabbage - no tartness or any other flavour from it for that matter; finally the bun was over-toasted. The £5 portion of chips we ordered additionally were basic skin on chips - a bit on the greasy side...in a medium sized bowl. The friendly waitress kindly sensed that we were not impressed by the standard of food and went to get the owner (who also turned out to be the head chef) while returning the food to the kitchen. The owner apologised that we were not happy with the food but then his ego managed to turn that apology into an unfounded theory that it was our unsophisticated palates that simply could not comprehend the genius of his fine dining cookery. Whilst mansplaining the lean nature of venison (which should by definition not be overcooked to leave it like a dry sponge), and that undercooked leeks shouldn't be unpleasant to eat because they are 'al dente', he was decent enough to not charge us at all for the meal. One positive. Unfortunately, I get the impression that the owner does not take criticism well or use it constructively, so I doubt anything will change in future; and for that reason will not...

Lovely setting by the stream.

"They can have burgers"

Recently changed hands, but I am not sure they are happy being anything more than a drinking pub. There seems to always be a bit of a song and dance about ordering food. A lovely menu but every time we have booked or turned up; there has been eye rolls,sour comments and look of disgust when trying to order food. It normally ends with; "They can have burgers"

Fabulous looking menu, but they will only serve food when in the mood. Unless it's burgers. And then there will be a huff and puff and maybe a teenage styled sullen face (from a middle aged woman) as they take your order.

We had this spot for our pre-wedding meal and the attitude of staff was embarrassing, unprofessional and stand offish. It made my pre-wedding day evening actually quite stressful and although the location, and meal was nice; family and friends found staff to be very rude and unhelpful.

To give a bit of context to our pre-wedding meal we did have a large group of people book. But just like the pub asked we put our orders in 3 days before, and allowed the pub to pick an eating time that suited them, we were also explicit that food could come out at different times and we were in no rush to be served. The attitude on the night was appalling, from one friend being told that all 20 people will need to vacate the pub after we had been seated for an hour to make room for others. (We were Sitting in the garden and still plenty of seating around the table). To huffing and puffing at serving food and taking drinks. It was a common theme around the table.

I put this down to being a slightly busy Friday night. But last night we returned, fresh faced and ready to have a lovely evening and we had the same attitude and burger comment. We had different family with us and they were equally disappointed, we ended up leaving and going to another pub. Such a shame.

Sad bit is it's one of our local pub and we would love for it to be a place we could visit for a drink and pub grub!

Overall we are...

Looked at coming here for a drink and a nice evening meal as part of our Cotswold break. The reviews looked nice and the location great and had a free drink that was advertised with the pub through Birra Moretti which we wanted to use.

Went to order our drinks first, spoke to a nice waitress who said she would check the codes were valid and she wanted to be sure so asked her landlord. The landlord came down and he was just oozing arrogance and did not make us feel comfortable. He made it very clear our vouchers were not valid, despite it specifically show his pub as one of the registered pubs as part of the deal (they get paid for every pint of Moretti they sell). He moaned that it would upset his stock take and when one of the staff members mentioned that he had redeemed one of those vouchers the other day he said to him, 'we will be having words' - I hope he hasn't been sacked since.

This 'landlord' could be do with learning some customer service skills, being a bit more compassionate and not so dismissive. It was as if 'how dare you come to my pub and expect a free drink'. We tried to reason with him but his arrogance got the better of him and he was not worth the time of day arguing. My partner and I both felt that he just couldn't be bothered as he knew full well the drinks offer was valid there and just wanted to assert his authority with his massive ego.

Sadly his loss as they lost out on us purchasing further drinks and meal with them. Cannot fault the other staff behind the bar but this landlord left a very sour taste in the mouth, funnily enough when asked for his name he refused to give it as well.

I've worked in hospitality for nearly 20 years and this one of the rudest people I have ever met.

Lovely pub and setting, nice staff, shocking landlord - learn to treat your customers with some more respect and honour the promotions you...