The Fox Inn (Burford)

Without quite reaching the heights (or depths) of the gastro prefix, this comfortable pub puts some serious dedication into its food. A lot of the menu is locally sourced (sausages, veg, beer, pear cider and a range of speciality apple juices), and you can get interesting food without risking the frankly experimental. The menu is select but diverse enough for most moods: Cornish mackerel with herby tomato sauce, braised pigeon with bacon and shallots, local smoked chicken in cream and wine, Baileys bread and butter pudding and fresh Irish oysters with all the trimmings nestle up next to pub standards such as steak or lasagne and chips.

The service was polite and unbelievably fast - the starters arrived within 5 minutes and the mains followed a quarter of an hour afterwards. This was on a warm and relatively busy May Saturday evening. My companion started with whitebait, which were served with brown bread and butter and lemon, and were as simple and crisp as they should be. I had the warm chicken and bacon salad with pitta and melted brie, which was rather basic: small, suspiciously square chunks of meat on a little bowl of leaves. Not bad, but definitely standard pub fare rather than haute cuisine suggested by the menu title.

My pigeon with bacon and shallots, however, was lovely: tender with a really good flavour. It came with peas (OK), cabbage (flavourful, just-cooked and delicious), carrots (a bit dull and aged) and mashed potato (divine). My companion's steak and ale pie was, he declared, an adequate revenge on the cows that had chased us that afternoon. Again, the meat was toothsome and tender but the dish as a whole was a trifle undersalted.

We didn't have room for dessert but sat outside by the little lake, watching the birds and drinking the locally-brewed ale (Donnington Brewery) and Perry, the light, clear, fragrant pear cider which they have on draught.

As a whole, this is a delightful place to spend an evening in the Cotswolds: you won’t be carried to unprecedented heights of culinary wonder but the food is very decent, the surroundings are clean and cosy and the drinks are unusual and lovely. Starters cost between £4.95 and £6.95 and mains between £9.95 and £13.95.

Miranda Rose and Ian Threadgill (Unverified), 02/05/07

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