Market Tavern, Bampton

The Market Tavern has quietly built a reputation for excellent food and warm hospitality, recently earning an AA Rosette for culinary excellence. Leading the pub is general manager Will Morris, formerly of the Fleur de Lys and before that The White Hart at Fyfield. Describing itself as an independent, modern pub with rooms.

The Market Tavern promises community spirit, great food, and proper hospitality, and after a Sunday lunch visit, it’s easy to see why people keep returning.

We arrived towards the end of Sunday service to find the restaurant absolutely packed, always a good sign. With an impressive 4.9 rating on Google Reviews and plenty of praise for its roasts, expectations were high.

We started with a few dishes from the snack and starter menus: monkfish cheeks with tartare sauce (£9), pea and mint soup (£8), and grilled shell-on prawns with chilli garlic butter and focaccia (£12).

The monkfish cheeks were excellent, panko-breaded until perfectly crisp, with a surprisingly meaty texture and none of the fishiness some people expect from monkfish. The tartare sauce was light and fresh, making this an ideal snack to share alongside drinks.

The grilled prawns were another standout, three generously sized prawns drenched in a rich chilli garlic butter that was so good we found ourselves mopping up every last bit with the focaccia.

For mains, I ordered the half roast chicken with pig in blanket (£19.50), alongside a side of cauliflower cheese (£6). One detail I really liked was the option of a “light roast”, swapping heavier traditional sides for a soy and sesame dressed salad, ideal for warmer days and a thoughtful alternative you don’t often see elsewhere.

I stuck with the traditional roast and thoroughly enjoyed it. The gravy was rich and deeply flavoured, the pigs in blankets were beautifully cooked, and the stuffing came as its own little board on the side. The Yorkshire pudding was exactly how I like it, slightly doughy in the centre rather than overly crisp. I’d requested a slightly smaller portion, so I can only imagine how generous the standard serving must be, as this was still more than enough food. The cauliflower cheese was wonderfully indulgent and properly cheesy, and the honey-roasted parsnips and greens were both packed with flavour.

Alongside the roast, we also tried the pan roasted hake with royal new potatoes, samphire, and cockle velouté (£24).

Beautifully presented, the hake was cooked perfectly and although slightly smaller in portion size, the delicate flavours and balance of the dish was spot on.

Dessert was a dark chocolate delice with salted caramel ice cream and honeycomb (£9). The delice itself was a little too rich for me personally and perhaps slightly oversized, but the homemade salted caramel ice cream was absolutely exceptional.

The atmosphere throughout was relaxed and welcoming, with genuinely friendly service and a laid-back Sunday playlist adding to the leisurely feel of the afternoon.

The Market Tavern comfortably earns a new top entry in the Bitten roast rankings. It’s a seriously solid choice for a Sunday lunch, with enough interesting snacks and starters on the menu to make us want to return and explore more. It’s also wonderfully dog-friendly, making it the perfect destination for a countryside walk followed by an excellent roast.