The Red Lion – Long Compton (Cotswold)

It’s always good to get out of this city from time to time and so we decided to head towards Moreton-in-Marsh to experience the greatness of Cotswold and true English countryside. We were greeted by a 20£ taxi fare for about 5 miles of car travel (and you’d think London is expensive…), from the train station to our destination in Long Compton; nevertheless, we did not loose our smile and we arrived in The Red Lion right on time!

After checking in, we decided to take a walk in the village and, it turns out, Long Compton is not that long after all and, within 20 minutes we were back in the pub to have some taste of local brewed beer. Don’t get me wrong, the village is lovely and it really seems to come straight out of some movies (including the incredible presence of the sun) and the peace and quiet you can get there really seems like coming from another world, especially if you spend your days in a city like London.
Anyway, you can get a taste of what it looks like thanks to our pictures below, although it’s highly recommended that you go there and take at least a night of break.

Now, onto the accommodation and all the rest.
The Red Lion offers few rooms to rent for people that wish to spend the night there; we booked a double room (pretty much 2 days before leaving) and we were lucky enough to have found some availability on the weekend. The rooms are all upstairs (unless they have some hidden ones) and the actual building is very traditional; cranky stairs, low roof, etc. All characteristics of the area, we are told by the friendly waitress that took us upstairs.
After explaining the basics of the accommodation, including a breakfast form to fill in (great idea if you ask me) for the next morning, we were left to explore our room.

Now, we do know how expensive and overpriced for what it delivers this country can be, but unfortunately this room was no exception to such trend: the actual bedroom had a very hard-as-hell carpet and it was really, really basic. The furniture were old, not in the vintage meaning, but in the actual grandma old. There was this discrepancy between the actual bedroom and the bathroom that, instead, was really great, with wooden floor, nice bathtub and the same size of the bedroom. All the toiletries were 5 stars (Molton Brown) and they were also available to purchase on the spot (18£ each).
For an asking price of 120£ per night, we were really left to wonder what could possibly justify such expense: yes, the bathroom is nice and all, but if where you sleep looks like your great aunt house and you can hear cars passing, voices from the other rooms, from downstairs and from some other people, then we are not really clear why are you asking this amount of cash. Not to be overly critical, but with 120£ you can really get a great sleeping experience in many places around the world.

In better news, The Red Lion has a great outdoor space and we were lucky enough to have experienced it with lots of sun, warm temperatures and plenty of locals that were enjoying a drink in the garden. We had few beers before dinner and our choice was directed towards an Ale brewed in the Cotswold area; drinkable and tasty beer. It’s also important to say that the staff was always very friendly and that even the facilities of the actual pub downstairs were really clean and comfortable. As dinner time was approaching, we had already a table reserved for us (another great idea: all the rooms have automatically a table reserved for dinner, as the place gets full quite easily) and so it was time to seat and eat and drink some more, as it seems we are really good in doing that.

The inn has two dining areas and one pub area that are connected between each other, making it not pretentious but quite easy going. Nonetheless they are beautifully decorated with wooden beams on the ceiling, two fireplaces, that I am sure they are lovely once the cold weather comes, and some nice dog paintings on the walls.

Our table was really nice, a window table for two not directly in contact with the bar area; as this is the only pub in Long Compton, it can get busy with locals, families with small children and also their dogs (yep, they are allowed in, something that I really enjoy).
We started off with two more pints of their local ale (the one enjoyed in the outside area as well), Hooky a very drinkable golden bitter, very balanced and in the same time with a nice malty taste.
Since the mains are generous we decided to not take any starters, so I ordered the pie and my handsome husband a pork cutlet.
My dish was a ‘’Homemade steak and Hook Norton pie with short crust pastry’’: lovely beef and ale pie, cooked with the local ale. It came in an oven proof dish all steaming hot; the pastry on top was crunchy and light in the same time, under the crust the beef and veg were tasty and the actual stew was actually the perfect description of comfort food. Just can imagine sitting by the fire and having this pie, a glass of red wine while it’s snowing outside. I feel like crying of joy thinking about this scenario.
Anyway, for pies aficionados this is not your regular pie having pastry top and bottom, it’s more like a stew with a lid of short crust pastry on top, but trust me it’s lush.

My husband chose one of their specials, the Todenham manor pork cutlet, apple, creamy onions, Stilton&sage.
When I tasted this I had such a food envy, the pork was cooked perfect with a nice char-grilled taste and although I am not a fan of Stilton cheese it gave the dish such a nice flavor. It’s also important to say that my husband is particularly good in ordering dishes that end up being better than mine: I don’t know how he can do it, but it’s a common happening.

Both mains came accompanied with a plate of vegetables and mash potatoes.
We ordered a bottle of red wine, a nice Argentinian Pinot Noir; they have each month a list of specials and this was one of them, a very lovely robust red with flavors of ripe red fruit, cherry, chocolate, toast and spices. If I write it down like this, it does make me feel more like a specialist and less like a wine addict.
Since we still had more than half of bottle of red left after we finished our mains, we decided to order the cheese selection. This was comprised of 3 cheeses : St Eadburgha, Berkswell, Oxford blue with homemade grape chutney, celery and biscuits. All 3 cheeses were good quality English cheeses, generously portioned and well-priced at £7.50.

The overall dining experience was really great and we went to sleep being full of food, happy and relatively drunk.

The morning after, in addition to a bit of hangover, we got a full English breakfast served by one of the owner of the place (she was really nice and friendly!). Incredibly enough there were no beans in the actual breakfast and pretty much all the ingredients, starting from the eggs to the sausage, bacon, etc. were really good and tasty; we were also given juices, coffee and pastry.

It was time for us to have another 20£ taxi back to the station in Moreton-in-Marsh: a lovely small town with plenty of different shops, people and small cafe. After spending a couple of hours there, it was time to get back to the craziness of London.

In general, it was a great experience thanks to how friendly is the atmosphere in the countryside, the good food and the good beer; the village of Long Compton really is a place were you can find the peace and quiet that you might need after spending too much time in this city.

The only downside was the price and the actual aspect of the room, that we still consider too expensive for what it actually is and that could really benefit from an overhaul.

Food Quality: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Value for Money: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Service: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Verdict: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Categories: Cotswold, Restaurant review, United Kingdom