The story
The Lamb Inn is an 18th-century country pub and restaurant in the small village of Crawley, just outside Witney in West Oxfordshire. It sits within easy reach of the Cotswolds, Blenheim Palace, and Oxford, making it a natural stop for anyone exploring the area.
The pub describes itself as a welcoming, traditional place with a cosy atmosphere, a roaring fire in the bar, and low beamed ceilings. The menu focuses on good, simple, hearty pub classics: slow-cooked winter dishes, great roasts, and seasonal British produce. The kitchen lets the ingredients lead, with menus changing according to what’s available. The garden is a three-level suntrap with covered terraces, designed for alfresco dining in any weather.
The Lamb Inn’s recognition as a Michelin Recommended restaurant for 2026 reflects the quality of its Modern British cooking and the consistency of its hospitality. It’s a place where the food matches the setting – unfussy, generous, and rooted in the local landscape.
Recognition
Ambience
Details
History
*The Lamb Inn is now under new ownership.* Revamped and revitalised back in 2019, this incredibly welcoming country pub in a tiny enclave on the fringes of Witney hits all the right notes. Described by one regular as the ‘beating heart of the village’, it’s an attractive inn built from local butter-coloured Cotswold stone, with the bonus of a pretty, tiered garden for summer dining. Inside, there's a roaring fire and a warren of playfully decorated dining spaces – the Snows also run a pub design business, and it shows. A wide-ranging menu of pub classics such as chicken milanese or steak and kidney pie with mash and green beans is leavened with slightly more adventurous fare such as Asian-style pork belly with a sesame and ginger-spiced vegetable and cashew slaw, but everything is executed with impressive attention to detail and a lightness of touch. Portions are generous – if you decide to start with, say, a Double Gloucester cheese soufflé, you may struggle to find space later for a nectarine frangipane with crème fraîche. Impressively efficient service is universally praised by visitors, which is no mean feat given how busy the place gets – you'll need to book ahead to ensure a table at weekends. To drink, there are plenty of moderately priced wines by the glass, but perhaps try one of the local ales on offer in this free house.
Location
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