Brothertons Brasserie — Restaurant in West Oxfordshire

Appalling We booked this restaurant primarily because we couldn’t get in anywhere else in Woodstock on Saturday night. The reviews on TripAdvisor seemed relatively good and the website looked promising, although I’m fully aware that neither of these things should really be taken at face value. The first problem was them finding our booking. This was after we’d waited at the bar behind some other people who also seemed to be having trouble finding their booking or a free table. By the time we were at the front of the queue, we were way past our booked time and the queue behind us had lengthened so much that people were waiting in the street. It seemed very disorganised and little attention was paid to us. They clearly just take all bookings that come in and then desperately try to seat people. Eventually a table became free and we sat down. I have to say that all of the staff were very friendly. We quite quickly placed our orders and the drinks arrived quickly and so did the starters. My starter was artichoke hearts with prawns. It was tinned hearts, which didn’t taste of anything, frozen small prawns, some Marie Rose sauce and a few lettuce leaves. It was edible, but very poorly prepared and served, and no self-respecting Italian would ever serve up something like this. The calamari that others had was, I am told, quite nice, but it was served with some massive chunks of red onion and some tomato and lettuce - hardly Italian. The main courses were far, far worse. Again, poor quality ingredients, poorly prepared, poorly cooked and badly presented. As other reviewers have said, what self-respecting Italian serves their food with fried potato slices (over-cooked) and boiled carrots (under-cooked)? The sauces tasted like they were out of a jar. One fish dish smelled so fishy we had to send it back. Risotto was seriously bland and had cream in it (a definite no-no for Italians). Pizzas were bland and undercooked - in the centre they were stodgy and doughy. To the manager’s credit, he had no problem replacing things we didn’t like, but we didn’t like the replacements either. We couldn’t wait to get out. It spoiled our family reunion. There’s no real Italian chef here, this was stuff churned out by someone that used to be a lorry driver or something before this. No culinary knowledge, no finesse. There was also a table of roughnecks next to us, who were absolutely bladdered and were loudly f-ing and blinding throughout the evening. I thought quite hard about whether to put this review up as I don’t want to damage anyone’s business, but I paid a decent amount of money for a meal for my family and I definitely didn’t get a decent experience. I’ve travelled an awful lot (mostly on business) and have come to realise that the worst type of restaurant you can go to when you don’t know the place is an Italian one. I went against my gut feeling on this occasion, chiefly because there was nowhere else available. I’m really sorry to say it, but this has to rate as one of the worst restaurants I’ve been to. If you want a truly decent meal in Woodstock, for not that much more money, go to The Feathers around the corner (or absolutely...

Was taken here by my partner for my birthday. The restaurant is well lit, light and warm. I'm not quite sure who was serving us, as our drinks orders were taken by one waitress, given to us by a gentleman and another waitress, then our food orders were taken by a third waitress. The service was prompt, but it threw me a bit.

The house red wasn't bad and I quite enjoyed it. The downfall unfortunately was the food...

I ordered the pan fried prawns. Unfortunately they were rubbery, and apart from a small crisp bread, there wasn't much to it. I'm not sure why it was served on a ribbed clam shell dish, as I couldn't really get at the whitewine sauce. Disappointing for an £11.50 starter.

My partner had the garlic bread which was nice.

My main was mean in terms of portion size. £29.50 for a sirloin steak is expensive, especially when there's not a lot to it. The steak was cooked beautifully but was drowning in a peppercorn sauce, that had more bullets of peppercorn than I was comfortable with. This came with two small pieces of brocoli and two small pieces of cauliflower, and a few small potatoes.

My partners pasta was nice, but became cold quickly. Not sure why you would put pasta on a flat plate, when a pasta bowl would retain the heat for a bit longer...

I left still feeling hungry, which is a shame considering we spent £90.

I'm not sure how they can justify some of the prices. I assume its very high rent in this area, being where its positioned.

It was a disappointing birthday meal, so needless to say, I'll never be back. Thanks for having us though. The...

First off customers were advised to wear face coverings while away from their table but not one staff member did? Right from our arrival we felt rushed. The waiter went marching off to our reserved table and we were expected to follow when we were not asked to 🤔. The chairs were rickety. He slapped 4 menus on our table, took wine glasses off the table before i'd even found the wine list which was towards the back of the menu😱. Drinks order was taken then the food order. There was a specials board but the dishes looked just like a slight variation on what was already on the menu e.g. different sauce 🤔. The food arrived. The accompanying 'sauteed potatoes' just looked like slices of boiled potatoes and never seen any hot oil. Some were also discoloured. The vegetables were what appeared to be diced aubergine and courgettes but what cooking method was used is anyone's guess. They were tasteless, soggy and one was like a rubber ball😱. I swear They were from a tin. The 'main event' of my dish was chicken breast in a spicy tomato sauce. That was ok, a well cooked breast with a simple tomato based sauce. We kept getting a whiff of cigarette smoke when the doors to the kitchen were open😱, no sooner had we downed our eating irons we were asked of we wanted sweets! It was all very rushed. Would not recommend. I thought all the eateries would be very eager to please customers back after lockdown but this establishment is way off the mark. Really can't understand it. Not...