I'll be in Stow Aug 9-12. Do I need to make dinner reservations in advance for every night there (or neighboring Upper Slaughter or Bourton-on-the-water? Or just for the nicer spots? I'd prefer not to have to plan that much in advance, but I've read a few things that make me wonder if I'll be able to eat at all if I don't.
Thanks in advance!
You might want to check with an app similar to Open Table to see what reservations are looking like or the best bet is probably checking with your hotel. We were there a year ago this time and needed them at the restaurants we wanted to eat at in Stow on the Wold which included the Sheep on Sheep, The Old Stocks Inn and the Porch House.
I would definitely make dinner reservations. We were eating in the Cotswolds last year over a week time and had a dinner reservation for each location we ate…and were glad we planned ahead. They were busy, and most restaurants were fairly small. Excellent food, too!
We didn’t make reservations for any lunches, though.
I would make reservations. When you get there if you see somewhere you’d prefer to eat that has space you can always cancel.
I have a favourite restaurant in Stow-on-the-Wold. The Stow Lodge Hotel is wonderful especially if you dine in the garden! Slaughters Country Inn in Lower Slaughter is also one of my go to places! Again lovely to dine out in the garden! It's probably worth booking ahead but both are hotel restaurants and I've never had an issue getting a table on the hoof.
The Queen's Head pub. Reservations needed for dinner but not needed at lunchtime. Dining room is in the back--walk through the front door, through the small pub area (front room) where people are standing at the bar with their well-behaved dogs sitting at their feet.
Continue on to the room in the back, where there are perhaps a half-dozen tables.
Excellent food.
when I was having lunch or dinner at the Grapes in Stow on the Wold or the Horse and Groom in Upper Oddington on the way to the Rollrights and Chipping Norton (not to be confused with Chipping Campden which is entirely the other direction), my two go-to places before covid, and to be honest a couple of decades ago, we always needed reservations for indoor dining.
20 years on I would have thought that reservations - or a degree of patience and arriving early - were pretty much needed, even if just a telephone call in the morning or night before.
By the way, it has been some time since I have been to either, and certainly not after covid, so I can't vouch for either - both of which I believe have changed hands. Just an example of how do things in the area. (I've moved away).
just remembered that I have been successful just rocking up at dinner time at The Plough in Cold Aston, but again that was some time ago. Good steak and kid pies.
You'll miss the Autumn Stow Horse Fair so at least you won't have that congestion to deal with.
Maybe in August the rain will have stopped, but usually it waits to September. Good luck
