The Porch House — Restaurant in Cotswold District

I can’t get this experience out of my head. I was in England for 2 weeks, and this was the only negative experience we encountered, even though it was the place I was most excited to visit.

We had a group of 12, most of which were older women ages 70-90. Our lunch was planned far in advance and we were told to choose our food via the link that was emailed to us. Our names were attached to our orders. A week later we finally visit for our reservation, and the food keeps coming out, except no one remembers what they’ve ordered because it’s been over a week and we’ve been to a dozen restaurants at this point. Instead of having our names attached to the meals like the website prompted, the staff became frustrated at us. It was a whole ordeal and they were even out of things we had pre-ordered. That was all fine, no big deal. The food was pretty good and drinks were good, so we had a good lunch.

It was a dreary and cold day, but we ventured out into the town after lunch for a few hours. Before departing separate ways at lunch, we all agreed to meet by the entrance of the Porch House at 4pm since many had parked nearby.

Later on, it begins to rain harder and some of us meet up a little earlier than expected. It’s really coming down, and we had a 90 year old with us with no cover, so we step inside the Porch House. We ask a young man if we can sit in the waiting area because of the rain and told him we’d just had lunch there a bit earlier. He hesitates, but agrees.

At this point, the PC is completely empty and it’s just us. A few minutes go by and a woman (who had helped bring our food out and wasn’t very nice even at that point) spots us and yanks him aside. We can hear him get in trouble for allowing us to sit inside (mind you- it’s still raining hard and it’s only 5 of us from the group.)

After she walks away, I go apologize to him for getting him in trouble and explain that we’d just had lunch here for a very large group that spent well over 4-figures, we had a 90 year old with us who was tired and needed a place to rest, and it was, of course, raining very hard with no place to take shelter. He smiles and says we can stay.

We were only inside maybe 20 minutes before the rest of our group arrived to unlock the cars. Not a single soul walked in while we were there, nor did anyone leave. The place was empty, I imagine because it was a strange time to eat. While chatting (and feeling very unwelcomed from the woman with long dark hair in a tight ponytail and red t-shirt, who kept scowling at us any time she’d angrily pound by) one of my friends told me about the witch’s marks in a room right beside us. I went outside to read the plaque and came back inside excited to see them, as I’m sure most people do. I asked the young man if I could see them, because that dining room was completely empty. The woman walked up and squawked angrily, “they’re right there!” I tiptoed in and took a quick look while she rolled her eyes.

The thing is- we were nothing but polite, quiet and kind this entire experience. I’m not sure why this woman hated us so much as to be angry we took shelter in an empty place we had spent loads of money at, but it left a bad taste even until now. I’ve never felt so unwelcome at a place of business. The young man was lovely and helpful. Since she seemed like a manager, I would look long and hard at how your employees treat their guests, and who’ve you’ve hired to be the voice of...

It’s bizarre when you spend £300 on dinner and a room and feel like you’re an inconvenience.

From the first moment we arrived they made us feel pretty unwelcome, rolling their eyes at any requests, no chance of a smile, making it feel like a chore that we had even come. We took it less personally when two other people enquired about dinner and were told “sit there and I’ll get to you in a minute”

It felt like the staff were all having such a bad day they wanted customers to leave as soon as possible, just so they could do the same, counting the minutes to 10pm.

This is something that continued into dinner where they tried to take our order within seconds of sitting down. The food I’m afraid to say was poor. We had the shared camembert to start, which was nice, but it was quickly downhill from there. The mains at a combined £55 were both pretty dire, sea bream and gnocchi, served with no care, in a bowl with, with no real real flavour and hotter than the sun (my wife was convinced it has been microwaved). The steak had chewy fat not rendered down and clearly old chips, that were powdery. We only ordered desert to prolong the dinner which had been rushed, but it was all style over substance with undercooked apple in the crumble. We both ended up leaving over half which the waiter seemed delighted about.

As for the atmosphere, with the exception of the locals rampaging through the restaurant, fully charged with premium lager, speaking to each other like a hearing impaired stag party and getting verbally abusive with a poor American tourist who was asking about the heritage of the inn… it was fine. They probably got better treatment than most of the guests.

And that really is the crux of the matter. For a community that fully survives on tourism, there was an attitude of ‘ you should be grateful to be here’, rather than ‘we are grateful that you are visiting’.

I have to make a notable exception for one member of staff who organised breakfast the following morning (Lisa). She was warm, welcoming and really helpful. It really doesn’t take much, just some minor enthusiasm and a smile and it makes all the difference.

The pub/inn is beautiful, as is the town, but maybe if you are going to run an place like this, just realise how lucky you are to live in a place of natural beauty. You didn’t make this a beautiful place, you just chose to live here, and the only way communities like this can continue to thrive is with tourism. So please appreciate that support, there is no lack of options and the staff and service will certainly keep us from coming back to The...

Updated to add: It’s been almost 2 weeks now and even though management/ownership is replying to other recent reviews, they still refuse to show any acknowledgment towards this one. The blatant disregard for accountability, professionalism, and respect from a business is appalling. You would think that after hundreds of years of being in the hospitality industry, you’d be even slightly good at it. Best of luck to anyone else that tries to stay here - I hope you also aren’t left stranded in the rain.

I don’t even know where to begin. My husband and I planned our two week honeymoon in the UK and this was the worst, most stressful and frustrating experience of the whole trip.

We booked and confirmed our reservation to stay at The Porch House back in April, and received a second confirmation one week before our stay on Thursday 10/19. We rented a car and drove from Oxford arriving around 7pm in the dark, pouring rain. It wasn’t until we’d rolled up all our luggage and were standing outside in the rain that we realized all of the lights were off and the inn/pub were closed. A random pedestrian stopped and told us about a festival happening down the way and that every single business in town closes because of it. I tried calling multiple times and no one answered. If it hadn’t been for another very sweet pedestrian stopping and helping us find somewhere else to eat and sleep we would have been driving all the way back to Oxford (having already paid for a car just to come see the Cotswolds).

I have called every day since (receiving the voicemail 99% of the time) to try and talk to management about the situation they left us in, and even though I’ve spoken to one customer service rep and one pub worker who both assured me that a manager would get back to me, it’s been almost a week and I still have not heard anything.

We were looking forward to this leg of our trip and even made sure to make time for it despite it being extremely out of the way (hence the car rental). Had we known the entire town we wanted to see and the inn we booked would be shut down, we would not have added it to our plans. This was extremely disappointing and an expensive wasted detour. Communication 0/10. Customer service 0/10. Two nice pedestrians 10/10. The Old Stocks Inn (that took us in last minute and saved our night) 10/10.

Being our honeymoon, I did not expect to have such a frustrating experience from what seemed like a well established destination spot. This night was filled with tears and we still have not even received the...