The Bell — Restaurant in Cotswold District

The Bell is a lovely place - but unfortunately we would not stay again due to several (very fixable) issues!

The rooms and decor of the whole pub/hotel is gorgeous. 100% the cozy countryside charm that we were hoping for.

Parking out the front was an added bonus too, with many other local B&Bs not offering this. Even if the car park is shut, there is a car park with ample spaces directly over the road.

The rooms had some lovely touches such as bay window benches with cushions in both the main bedroom and the bathroom. Everything was immaculately clean. The toiletries provided were very nice too.

The bed was comfortable and the food we ate at breakfast was excellent.

The staff were very friendly too.

All of this was unfortunately tarnished by several problems during our stay.

Upon checking in, our room was extremely hot. We mentioned this to reception who advised they would bring a fan to our room. When we got back late after our day out, we realised the fan was never brought to our room as promised and our room was even hotter than before. With the pub being shut, there was no one to ask about this again until the next day (when they did provide one).

Upon further investigation it turned out that the towel radiator in the bathroom was belting out heat on the maximum setting. The room was uncomfortably hot when you consider it is nearly June! The bathroom window was locked and we could not open this to cool the room. We barely slept due to how uncomfortably hot our room was.

We watched some tv before turning the light off, but discovered we couldn’t turn the TV off! Despite every other button working on the TV remote, the on/off button on the remote didn’t work! We had to pull the power cable out of the back of the tv in order to switch it off.

Our night then got worse. The fire escape/late night door to use for guests once the pub is shut was directly opposite our door. Unfortunately the change in air pressure each time this door was opened and closed made our room door rattle loudly and woke us up each time.

This was compounded by the fact that there was an extremely noisy beer keg delivery early morning on the first night of our stay. It sounded like all the barrels were being loaded in right by our bedroom door. This woke us up and went on for some time. The road outside was pretty noisy too, but this is something obviously outside of the hotel’s control. We barely slept due to all of these issues the first night and were exhausted the next day.

After getting up, we then discovered the shower was pretty terrible. Despite being very clean and attractive, the temperature settings were either scolding hot or freezing cold with no in between. The water pressure was atrocious and at stages was not even enough to wash the soap off your body! At its worst - it was a single solitary drop of water slowly dripping on you. At its best it was a slow dribble.

Breakfast however, was excellent. The staff were friendly and the eggs Benedict and coffee were both delicious.

We went out for the day and were extremely disappointed when returning around 10:00-10:30pm that the pub was already shut and that we couldn’t have a drink in the bar before bed. We were also disappointed with its early close time the other nights of our stay.

This was offset however by the very thoughtful honesty bar in our room which was a great touch! It included wines, beers and snacks and was a real plus point.

In summary: we loved the place and the staff, but experienced problems that unfortunately would mean that we wouldn’t stay again.

Despite this: we...

I was expecting a bit more from The Bell at Stow. The room was nice, but customer service left me with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. In-person, they were fine, but it was the stuff behind the scenes that just didn’t work for me.

There was a mix-up with the dates of my reservation (on their end), and when I tried to get in touch with them right away to resolve it, they didn’t answer their phone. After my first call, I left a voicemail and then followed up with an email. I then proceeded to call another 4 times throughout the day with no answer. I finally heard back from the general manager (by email) the next morning that it had been corrected. It’s important to note that I was on the trip while this was happening, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to have a place to stay the following day because of all this. So, that’s why I was urgently trying to get a hold of them.

It worked out, we had a room, but we were moved to a room in the Stuart House instead of above The Bell itself. Not a huge deal necessarily, but the theme of our trip was to stay above pubs, and the Stuart House didn’t check that box in any way. Honestly, in the end, relocating us there hurt them more than anything because we only went to The Bell for a beer and went elsewhere for meals because it was easier to walk out of the Stuart House and go to another pub.

Jumping back to the room itself... the shower was nice. It was decorated very well and had some charming character (like the beam and old fireplace). I liked the open storage cabinet they had. There were a few too many pillows on the bed, and very little space to put them anywhere. The bed wasn't overly comfortable, you could feel the springs in a not-so-nice way. Our room had windows out to the back courtyard which made us feel a bit on display when other guests were coming and going, but it...

Save yourself the money and go to Tobey Carvery… A dismal Sunday roast.

If you’re looking for a proper Sunday roast, do yourself a favour and steer well clear of this place. Our experience was nothing short of appalling from start to finish, with the meal itself being the absolute low point.

First, the service: the food took an unreasonably long time to arrive, despite the restaurant not busy when we arrived. When we finally asked the waitress for an update, it miraculously appeared just two minutes later—an indication that it had probably been sitting around.

The beef was non-existent, two measly slithers drowning in an insipid, watery gravy. The vegetables were a disgrace—soggy, lifeless, and completely devoid of any flavour. Speaking of flavour, the entire meal lacked even the most basic seasoning. It was as if the kitchen had given up entirely, serving up a plate of food with all the care and enthusiasm of someone forced to work a job they despise.

At no point did the staff check in on us—perhaps because they were already well aware of the reaction their food would get. We left much of our meal untouched, the waitress made a deliberate effort to ignore this fact.

Save yourself the disappointment and...