The Chequers at Burcot — Restaurant in South Oxfordshire

Well worth a visit. Quality food and accommodation slightly let down by a few small points. I visited as a last minute booking on my way back from Wales. Very reasonable rate of £95 for the very spacious and well appointed room, even included a drink at the bar. All extras in the room were well thought out with a selection of teas and a very nice coffee machine. Very spacious car park was welcome late at night. Complimentary water and a mini bar, good supply of toiletries. The attached pub is very cosy and well decorated, food is exceptional and a nice wine list to accompany the food. A little on the pricy side but I felt it was justified on this occasion. I had a prawn cocktail which was packed with prawns and nice accompliments. Followed by a cottage pie with a pickled cabbage. The cottage pie was home made with fresh minced beef which was lovely to see, topped with a creamy cheesy potato. I had a lovely creamy salted caramel ice cream for pud although there were nicer choice if you fancied a real treat. Finished with a rich well made coffee. I slept well on the very comfy bed and good quality sheets. Would like to have seen pillow protectors but you cant have everything. Breakfast was just as good as the dinner, good quality ingredients and well cooked except for the poached eggs that were cool in the middle, probably been pre cooked and re- warmed but just not for quite long enough to be hot. I always get frustrated when a place is so close to excellent but just let down by a few errors. These were: The room was cold and the underfloor heating had not been put on in advance so hence a cold room. The receptionist who showed me to the room and did point out the controls for the underfloor heating but as everyone knows it takes about two hours for this to warn up to a suitable temperature. I ran the shower and went back after a few minutes to find the shower flowing water over the shower tray edge and all over the floor. I had to spend time clearing this up to then find a sign hidden behind the soap dishes saying the the shower tray trap was indeed a plug and explaining it was likely to overflow. Well that's the first I have heard of a shower tray plug that becomes a plug. I do feel management need to just finally change the trap to one that only drains. The over flow of the tray has obviously happened on many occasions as the wood on the floor was water stained. It's something I did not want to encounter after driving 400 miles and feeling very tired. One other annoying thing was the two flashing pulsing white lights from the smoke detector on the ceiling which woke me up twice in the night. I only mention these things in a hope that the management will look at the points so you experience a faultless stay. Would I stay...

From the onset the signpost of 'Award Winning Gastro Pub' appears a bit over stated, looking at the virtual building site of what is meant to be a Car Park.... but lets just see what this hype is about I thought....

Customer Service.... lacklustre! Yes is was 1425, but despute the Open All Day statement, Food was apparently stopping at....errr 1430. We order drinks and initially decide to move on, but have menus forced at us and half-heartedly they say they're happy to cook from the Main Menu or simply provide sandwiches.

After being convinced to stay, we order, what looks to be rather over-priced Sharing Starters for what could be suggested from the Menu. Taste ok, but certainly nothing special for the cost and not a lot of it. Gastro style or not!

I order the Pie of the Day (which sounded nice) with simple mash and carrot sides. The other half goes for the 8oz Rump (Medium Rare).

Steak turns up more Medium to Med Well-Done with a HUGE lump of fat running right through it. Not akin to a decent Rump cut (and yes, I know a good Steak should have 'some' Fat and/or marbling). Its horrid from the start.

Pie is over cooked pastry, although the filling is nice and hot too, need a Steak knife just to cut the crust. The 'mash' just looks like a solid lump of cheese, dripping in goo and bacon bits. Yes.... tastes ok, but a coronary waiting to trigger!

All the way through, all the staff are either whinging of their lunch, the 'dodgy wifi' (more on that later) and then hovering around us to snatch and dump the pkates between courses.

Finally the bill.....first shock is.... its £99, for a less then mediocre meal and simple drinks (we have had much much better for less and that included a full bottle of wine at other nearby venues). Then to add insult, the aforementioned wi-fi failure along with the lack of atmosphere, fails to allow the Card machine to work. We are then tasked to drive 5 mins down the road, to the nearest ATM, to honestly return and pay ash cash for the service.

Unlike many other previously visited restaurants from fast/low grade to top-end/ delicious food, we were never asked even once if the meal was ok (as us usual). The Staff were more concerned about avoiding some PR thing as, in the words of one of the Staff "I have a business outside of here and don't want to be associated with working in this pub on Social Media'.

Says it all really!!!! Don't waste your money ..... we headed out instead to the very nice (unnamed) pub in Streetly near Goring-on-Thames named after a bird white bird . 😉......

First impressions really great, room great. Advertised free wifi but I irked to sign in as you have to provide your full name, date of birth email and telephone number so they can send you advertising and who knows if they sell this list to anybody. No permission option to reject. I find that is an invasion of my privacy. I stressed the importance of wifi on phone as needed to work in my room. They never mentioned I would have to give all my details. I would rather have paid for it or I would have gone elsewhere. The next morning I was meant to check out at 11 and because I was trying to finish an urgent project I asked whether they minded an extra 2 hours. The lady at my room said it would be 10 per hour so total £20. I said that was fine. At 11 on the clock a woman came to my door armed with a card machine and said it was £40. I am in the travel business and travel a lot. I never get charged for extra time yet. I think £40 in relation to the room cost of £90 room only is atrocious and just the attitude of coming to my door with a card machine as if I am going to flip before paying. Breakfast is £9. I said I would come for a coffee in the morning and possibly lunch. I had my coffee before all this saga and when I was leaving I thought I better go pay for my coffee. The man said it’s fine but the woman said no and again with her card machine charged me £5.50 for the coffee. More than half the breakfast! I left instantly not interested in lunch in case of another rip off. I understand costs but the way it was done, the attitude of the people and the rates for a small inn which I incorrectly saw as a welcoming place to stop over for the night left me feeling pretty miserable! I...