Eating and drinking around Chipping Norton and the Evenlode valley

The north-west corner of the county has a lot of good food in a small area. Chipping Norton sits on its hill, and below it the Evenlode runs south-east past Kingham, Chadlington and Charlbury. To the east are Great Tew and the Enstones. This guide goes place by place.

Chipping Norton

In town, The Chequers on Goddards Lane, next to the theatre, is a Fuller's pub with three bars, flagstones, beams and log fires. It changed hands recently, and since February 2026 the kitchen has been run by Nick Pullen, who cooked at Wild Thyme in the town until it closed in 2022.

For a coffee, The Old Mill Coffee House & Bistro on West Street serves a broad menu with gluten-free and vegetarian choices. Jaffé & Neale Bookshop & Café on Middle Row has been selling books in the town centre since 2001, and its café does coffee, tea and homemade traybakes. The café isn't open every day the shop is, so check before you go.

SaltPig Curing Company makes salami and cured meats from Cotswold rare-breed pork on the Worcester Road industrial estate, and sells mostly through local stockists and online. A few miles north-east at Swerford, Mark's Cotswold Bakery is a family-run sourdough bakery that uses flour milled at Shipton-under-Wychwood and delivers around the North Cotswolds.

Around the town: farm shops and Hook Norton

• Diddly Squat Farm Shop is on the Chipping Norton road towards Chadlington. Expect queues and traffic at busy times. The site's own notices say the car parks close at 5pm, the shop and café take cards only, and food queues can close early. In past years it has shut over the winter, so check before travelling between January and March.
• Wyatts Garden Centre & Farm Shop at Hill Barn Farm, Great Rollright, is family-run. John and Pat Wyatt opened the farm shop in 1988. It makes ice cream on site and has a tea room looking out over the hills.
• Hook Norton Brewery has brewed in the village since 1849 and still runs a working Victorian brewery with a steam engine and Shire horses. Guided tours must be booked. They involve over 100 steps and aren't suitable for under-12s, but there's a step-free alternative once a month. There's also a brewery shop, a museum and the Malthouse Kitchen for breakfast and lunch.

Charlbury

• The Bull on Sheep Street is a 16th-century inn with flagged floors and two open fires, and it has rooms. It is listed in the 2026 Michelin Guide.
• The Bell at Charlbury on Church Street is a 17th-century pub that reopened after restoration in 2024. It's run by Daylesford Stays, which belongs to the same Bamford family business as Daylesford Organic. It has a big garden and a barn dining room.
• The Rose & Crown, Charlbury on Market Street is an alehouse with eight hand-pulled ales and a range of traditional ciders and perries. It was CAMRA's Oxfordshire Pub of the Year in 2018 and hosts regular live music and a monthly folk session.
• Charlbury Deli & Cafe began around 1990 as the Good Food Shop, set up by about 60 residents, and is still community-owned. In November 2025 it moved across Market Street into the Corner House. Most of what it stocks comes from Oxfordshire suppliers.
• The Old Shed Charlbury is a family-run café at Banbury Hill Farm on the Enstone road. You can walk or cycle there on paths beside the B4022, and it welcomes walkers, families and dogs.

The Cornbury Park estate, just outside the town, sells venison from its deer park in season. Whole carcasses are ordered through the estate office, and cuts are sold by Denshams Butchers in Witney. The park isn't generally open, so don't just call in.

Chadlington and Churchill

In Chadlington, the Cafe de la Post on Horseshoe Lane is a café, shop and newsagent with a full licence. It serves breakfasts and lunches, does pizzas on Saturday evenings, and has also run the Cafe de la Gare kiosk at Charlbury station on weekday mornings. Chadlington Brewery brews at Blaythorne Farm and sells cases through its online brew shop. Its beer is on the bar at the Tite Inn at Mill End, which has been the brewery's tied house since 2021. The Tite is an Evenlode valley pub with a hillside beer garden and regular music and quiz nights.

West of Chadlington, towards Kingham, Churchill has the Chequers on Church Road. It's an 18th-century stone pub opposite the church that serves pub meals and Sunday lunches.

Kingham

Kingham has two dining pubs, both on or near the green.

• The Kingham Plough on The Green is a pub with rooms run by Matt and Katie Beamish. It serves modern British food from locally sourced ingredients and usually has cask ale from breweries such as Hook Norton.
• The Wild Rabbit on Church Street is an 18th-century house turned into a restaurant, bar and hotel, also run by Daylesford Stays. It was named Pub of the Year in the 2015 Michelin Eating Out in Pubs Guide.

Daylesford Organic's farm shop and café are just over the county line, near Kingham but in Gloucestershire.

Great Tew and Enstone

Great Tew was in serious decay by the 1970s. It became a conservation area in 1978, and its cottages have since been restored. On the green, The Falkland Arms is a partly thatched 16th-century inn with an inglenook and flagstone floors. It's a Wadworth pub with a guest ale and rooms. A few doors along, Quince and Clover at Great Tew is a relaxed café serving breakfast, brunch and lunch, with ice cream and cakes made in-house.

At Church Enstone, The Crown, Church Enstone on Mill Lane is a 17th-century stone pub with an inglenook fire, Hook Norton's Hooky on the bar, a walled garden and five bedrooms. It's run by the same couple as the Kingham Plough.

Before you go

• Opening days vary a lot between seasons in this area, and several of these places close a day or two a week. Check opening times before you travel, and book ahead for Sunday lunch.
• Charlbury and Kingham both have stations on the Cotswold Line, which makes a car-free pub lunch possible.
• If you have access needs, ask the venue directly.

You can find more places to eat and drink in this part of the county on the pubs, cafés and local food producers pages, or on the Chipping Norton town page.

Cover photo: Market Street, Chipping Norton, by Derek Harper, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.