Five Little Pigs — Restaurant in South Oxfordshire

We went to the Five Little Pigs after reading the Guardian Review. Finally a review of a place that was within a relatively short drive from where we live. Five Little Pigs is in a pretty Oxfordshire village which looked very sleepy on the sunny Sunday we visited. I liked the fact Five Little Pigs is not a pub nor a restaurant. It's not a cafe either. I'd probably call it a modern bistro. The design and decoration are great, in my view, loved the green colour theme throughout, the wall lights, the wall art, everything comes together nicely. Food was delicious. I went for the butterbean and truffle toast, which was a savoury dish with a sweet hint that stayed with you after every mouthfull. My partner wrongly went for the bread selection for starters. Wrongly, I say, as it was a huge portion of some bread selection, which meant he couldn't go for deserts. For mains I had the spring root roast with artichoke cream. Another luxury combination of textures and flavours. My partner went for the ham and chicken pie, which was a huge success too. Good portions sizes, which meant we had to reluctantly forego desert. So we will have to go back to try the famous donoughts with rhubarb custard. I washed all down with a Bloody Mary which was strong and full of flavour. I loved my cocktail. My partner had a local draught, which he really enjoyed. Service was the way I like it: polite and nice but not intrusive. The only little disappointment was coffee after our meal. I had an expresso and my partner an americano, neither of us enjoyed it. The Guardian review mentioned long waiting for service, it wasn't our experience though. You have a reasonable wait for service, nothing that was noticeable and it allowed us time for having a conversation and properly clocking the place. I can see myself returning to this place for their brunch after a walk or for another lunch meal with friends. Well done Five...

Hesitated leaving a 3 star review. Maybe it was the hype about how great food was. Maybe we’d set ourselves up for an exceptional experience on my birthday. Anyway, let me explain. We booked our celebration lunch through OpenTable. We started with Aperolspritz, warm breads with marmite butter (yum!) mini chicken kievs (very yum). Main courses were sadly a disappointment. Wife had chicken. It was leg, a small portion at that, she’d expected breast. We asked for it to be swapped out and the kitchen deboned the leg instead. Wife enjoyed the meal but meat wasn’t great. I had lamb. Looked amazing. The lamb was on the cusp of being too rare, to the point that the fat hadn’t rendered enough. The root veg on the plate was tepid although potatoes were warmer. To be fair, we both ate and finished our plates. The stand in manager asked us how it was and we said. He offered us deserts, we declined, he apologised again and he gave us a bottle of wine to take home. Will update the review next time if we go. Personal gripe about mens toilets being unclean in decent restaurants and why was the toilet roll holder unscrewed and left on the side? Odd.

To be fair, service was good (although forgot our wine) and...

Be prepared to lose the shirt off of your back here. Popped in for an afternoon session in the sun and left nearly broke.

Selling Hawkstone Session Larger at £8 a pint is daylight robbery. Its not even that pricey at Clarksons Pub !

6 pints (3 each) cost £50 ! Only found that out on settling the tab.

Update: According to the owner its £6.30 a pint and apparently we had 4 pints each, which was not the case. So the only Explanation would be we were over charged by 2 pints by inexperienced bar staff. On leaving and questioning the bill I asked is it really £8 a pint? and the barman nodded and said yes.

Non the less this is still a disappointing experience.

Bar staff were slow and struggled to pour a pint that wasn't 60/40 beer to head. Then in topping it up by pumping till it overflows, they wiped the rim and sides of the glass down with a blue bar wipe down cloth.

Also, the beer garden stinks of dirty fryer grease, so probably best to lose your shirt.

Nice pub, spoilt by gouging...