Cecconis in Cherwell

Cecconi’s offers an exceptional dining experience, seamlessly blending impeccable service with outstanding cuisine. From start to finish, my visit was a delight, with every dish surpassing expectations. To begin, the arancini were perfectly crispy on the outside and oozing with creamy, flavorful filling. The calamari was equally impressive—lightly battered, tender, and served with a tangy, well-balanced dipping sauce that elevated every bite. For the mains, the standout dishes were the Milanese and the beef bolognese. The Milanese was golden and crisp, yet remarkably juicy, paired beautifully with a fresh salad that added a touch of brightness. The beef bolognese was rich, hearty, and deeply satisfying, showcasing the kind of depth that only comes from expert preparation and high-quality ingredients. The service was outstanding throughout the evening—attentive, warm, and knowledgeable. The staff were more than happy to make thoughtful recommendations, ensuring an unforgettable experience. Cecconi’s is a must-visit for anyone seeking top-tier Italian cuisine in a welcoming, elegant setting. I’ll be returning soon!

All the negative reviews on here are spot on. Had to chase my wine order several times before it arrived (after the food arrived) and the food was disgusting. Nobody at the table enjoyed what they ordered. Tasteless and sloppy. Also, waiting staff unprofessional when serving the food and drinks. Not a good restaurant at all to have in a luxury shopping village. Very overpriced for what it is too.

Avoid at all costs ! Rude reception staff - prevented from going to table before third member of party arrive ( she was in a que opposite attempting to pay for purchases ). Tasteless/ wet spaghetti with rock hard prawns and pro fritter rolls which were obviously stale. The only saving Grace was the waiter whom was very apologetic. A most unsatisfactory experience at a high price. Never again.

An excellent experience, the food was superb. It was good to find an excellent dining venue in the bicester shopping village. The starters were good. I had meatballs in a tangy tomato sauce, followed by the rich tagliatelle bolognese. My wife had scallops and the spaghetti pawns , with copious prawns. Over all an excellent lunch after a hard morning shopping.

Very bad experience , went today to order a take away pizza and the waiter recommended time around 10mi. After waiting 30 min for a pizza and nobody came to let me know it’s going to be late.

Food was very nice and the restaurant décor is sublime, however I was horrified to discover that when it came to paying the bill, a whopping 13.5% service charge was added which made what was already an expensive meal even more expensive! I'm afraid to say that this would prevent me from returning.

I sincerely wish I hadn’t stepped in this restaurant. The arrogance and bad attitude of the manager and one staff member put me off. As a parent of a toddler (2yr old), I have never felt more unsafe. The restaurant placed cutlery in front of my child (not kid cutlery that most restaurants do) and when he banged it on the table, the server came and pressed his hand whilst I was looking at my friends and turned around to find the server’s firm hand pressing my child’s hand. I was so shocked I couldn’t believe. My friends with their family were equally shocked and angry. I wouldn’t recommend families going over. If it was a problem, they should have approached me as a parent or shown us out if the child’s behaviour was rephrehensive & uncontrollable but touching my child without my consent is a no go. They could have charged me for the so- called damage to their table. My child obviously got scared and cried. He was also visibly scared of the servers after then. I wouldn’t recommend and I would never visit this restaurant again. I wouldn’t deem suitable for neurodiverse individuals or people who require reasonable adjustments, God knows how they may treat another vulnerable kid or individuals. I spoke with the manager later and told him off about this- that they wouldn’t have dared to touch an adults hand in child’s place, who was more concerned how it came across in public so offered an empty apology and was concerned about the alleged damage that my kid could have done to the table. Again, I regret going there, most of all, not being able to see in time to get the hands of the server off my child.

My husband and I popped in for a few cocktails whilst we listened to live music in the square. We were made to feel really welcome by Marric (apols is misspelt), and we stayed longer that we originally planned. We tried the truffle arranccini and the whipped ricotta with truffle and honey - it was delicious. A special shout out to the Casa Verde cocktail, my husbands new favourite. I will certainly look forward to going back again soon.

We had a terrible experience with the customer service during our lunch at Cecconi's. It took an unusually long time before anyone took our order, and to make matters worse, guests who arrived after us were served first. A waitress accidentally dropped a plate of pasta behind us, causing us to be splattered with food and plate fragments, yet no one came over to apologize. The service we received was far from satisfactory.

Woeful, expensive & bland! Very disappointing lunch today with friends at this restaurant. I really don’t mind paying a little more for a destination restaurant if the food is good - however this restaurant has squandered its opportunity to give destination diners at Bicester Village a good experience. The food is quite pathetic - I had pasta arrabieta which literally was pasta in what tasted like tomato soup with a few olives. One pasta dish, Diet Coke & a coffee was £35. Despite having risotto and pizza on the menu neither were available. I’ll never dine here again.

We were welcomed by lovely friendly staff. The food and service was fantastic. A really great experience. Highly recommend.

This was the 2nd time we’ve eaten at Cecconi’s at Bicester Village. Offered the a la carte menu or a la carte and pizza. We opted for the a la carte and pizza and therefore seated in the left restaurant. But atmosphere was just as good. Food was tasty. Staff were friendly but I’ve given 4* as the service was slow.

Visited here with friends and our dog and it was great. There were plenty of space considering it was a bank holiday weekend so we were seated quickly. We had drinks and cakes which tasted great. Highly recommend!

Informal chic decor; swift cheerful service. Fair selection of pasta, pizza, meat, seafood and other traditional Italian dishes, freshly prepared and served in generous portions. Good winelist . . . perhaps a tad expensive.

Didn't actually get to have a meal. There are two entrances. We walked in and I asked for a table for two. Waitress said something which I couldn't understand - it was busy and she was flustered. I asked another waiter who then offhandedly pointed to a queue at the other entrance, not helpful at all. I cant comment on the food it might be fantastic as we walked out. But customer service was appalling - not welcoming or helpful in the slightest.

Excellent thin crust pizza. You can order a half and half pizza or have extra toppings added (for an additional charge) if you ask your server. My husband enjoyed the tiramisu was ‘homemade’. The earl grey tea came in a lovely china tea pot ( real leaves) and they were able to provide lemon slices instead of milk. Excellent service even on such a busy Sunday afternoon.

The food is OK we had a pizza big enough to share HOWEVER £11.50 for a small glass of white wine!!!! Daylight robbery when we queried it we were told that they charge London prices What a load of rubbish

The food is quite nice but it’s spoilt by the service being terribly slow. Not the first time that we’ve had this experience but unfortunately there’s not a huge selection of places to eat at Bicester Village! The staff are polite but just very difficult to make eye contact to ask for the bill or ask for a drink etc

Awful service at the door, the food is cold and nothing special..the food came before the drinks ( pressed juice in a bottle). Was asked if we would like some cheese - we kindly accepted but the said cheese was never offered. Asked to remove the service charge as the service was beyond awful and the waiter said that wasn’t an issue and apologised about the cheese situation. After we paid the bill and left but upon reflection of the receipt when we got home the service charge was never removed. I would strongly advise to avoid this place.

Dropped in for late breakfast at 11.30 and just made it. Service was prompt and efficient although the restaurant was not over busy. Full English was ordered it was magnificent. Poached eggs were done to perfection. Quality sausages and nice crispy bacon. My wife tells me the black pudding was equally good. Great atmosphere and ambiance, just what was required to get our shopping spree off to a good start. Staff very polite and helpful.

During our visit in the Shopping Village ... The empathy of Charly ( the manager) has not similar till now...( But I'm quite old) .. Perfetto Attentive and very proud on his job ! Bravo bravo we will miss you... Grazie for all your attentions.. So not simply but the BEST

Lovely atmosphere & decor; nice lunch menu. Restaurant was busy but the staff were super efficient, friendly & helpful. Napoli pizza and side salad were delicious. Staff could not have been nicer. Food came very quickly despite being a busy lunch-time.

We just went to Cecconi’s for a family lunch while visiting Bicester Village. The place was noisy and chockablock. Just as we sat down my three year old grandson was tapping his fork on a glass and a few seconds in a young junior manager dressed in black walked up to him and very rudely and curtly told him that he was disturbing the other guests, which to be honest was ridiculous because his tapping was relatively insignificant. But that was not my issue. My point is that the young manager was rude, supercilious and he loudly chastised my 3 year old without addressing his parents or us his grandparents. All the patrons embarrassingly turned to look at his intervention. Even the guests sitting at the next table later told us that they were shocked at the unwarranted way the manager loudly chastised the child. If he had an issue with my grandson’s behaviour he could easily have privately (and politely) spoken to his parents or to me. We ate our meal in silence and avoided dessert as we just wanted to leave at that point. I have to say that the rudeness of that individual was heavily counterbalanced by the charming and professional warmth of our waiters. We were sitting at Table 18/1

Met up with my Mum, sister & niece today for a pre-Christmas catch-up. This was the first time we had met at Bicester as we live 120 miles apart. Really pleased we ate at Cecconis ….. food choice was excellent, food was delicious & service was both polite, prompt and we were not rushed to leave our table despite it being a busy Friday lunchtime. Don’t understand why there are so many poor reviews but looking at some of the very pretentious folks in Bicester today pretending to be wealthy it might be why. If you have to flaunt it usually means style over substance !!

Met girlfriends for a catch-up. Very difficult to hear each other as the music was very loud. Mentioned to lady who said “it’s the Soho volume level”. Well we suggest you turn it down then Soho, it was intrusive and ruined our evening. We are not old ladies before you think that. Food excellent. Probably shouldn’t ask us three times in 5 minutes if we want bread and olives before our meal though! We all live locally but the disco atmosphere is likely to put us off coming again which is a shame.

Horribly Rude Manager, we told him we were a group of 4 on the line and waited accordingly however one member had an issue with transport and wouldn’t be able to go, so when the waiter asked we said we were three and she got us seated, suddenly the manager told us to get up and that we would only be seated after the 4th member arrived!!! We explained the situation but he still wouldn’t let us sit. Completely ruined our experience, I’m a frequent shopper in Bicester and honestly I’d recommend going straight to Shen Shui!

Went to Cecconis Bicester 6/11/23 with my wife for brunch. Was asked by the server if we wanted water before ordering our meal. We said. Ok. I assumed it was complementary. We ordered our food and hot drinks. Asked for the bill and was shocked to see that we were charged £4.75 for the bottle of water I assumed was complementary. How sneaky and sly to do that to customers. I don't think I will go back there again 😡

What utter and absolute garbage food. Tasteless and bland steak at £38 each. Sauce tasted of absolutely nothing. Like brown water with some mushroom powder in it. Starter of parmigiana tasted like a recipe from Isleworth, not Italy. Oily and just highly unappealing. Yuck. £185 for lunch for two. Disgrace and utterly ripped off. They must be benefiting from having a captive audience at this place. Complained to the maitre d He said they usually taste very good and he loves the sauce. Wow. This conversation really happened. Assume he’s familiar with many complaints, as testified via this complaints page. If this happened in the London sister restaurant, likely it would be burned down. Don’t waste your time, nor money, on the awful slop in this place.

Lovely dining experience - consistent with Cecconi's in Mayfair. Food was delicious, and service was friendly and attentive. Recommend for a quick lunch in between shopping!

Great service. Attentive with a smile. Joined two tables for us so we could sit in the main area of the restaurant which was brighter and had a good vibe. Food was excellent too. I’m so surprised to see such a low rating overall. Maybe they’ve stepped up since those reviews. Thanks to all who attended to us today!

Tartare tasted of nothing - burnt oily bread- pasta was cold- one kitchen is not talking to the other as maincourses fid not arrive together infact - the pizza and chicken only arrived after 15 mins when we asked the waiter - very disappointing

Lovely restaurant with a wide-ranging menu to cater to many palettes. Very attentive and polite service. Lovely ambience.

As a very regular visitor to the village and living locally we often come for an afternoon wander and hopefully a lovely meal.I must say I was very sad when the Wolseley left as it was always a very good and special experience. We had already had coffee and dessert here before and wanted to try dinner . I’m not that fond of the decor if I’m being honest, split into two rooms, very hot and stuffy. Odd but clearly expensive decor . Lights were good , chairs not terribly comfortable. Ordered a starter, courgettes, ok but really not that good, rather greasy, nice lemon mayo but out of a jar and the lemon wedge was solid with no juice, burrata, a real favourite of ours, this was not one of the best , actually quite dry , sprinkled with cold peas. . Mains , large portion of pasta, meat sauce was again just ok, not uncious. Nasty Parmesan from a bowl on the side , at £18 a portion would of expected freshly grated. I had the pizette, smaller pizza, omg ! Dreadful , dry as a bone the tiniest amount of cheese making it even dryer , just awful with burnt oven cooked patches, not a delight. Onto the previously good pudding of the ice cream profiteroles. It was clear service was grinding to a halt earlier, slow water top ups etc, the place was clearly still busy but the staff vanished to one or two to run both sides. No criticism of the staff , they were extremely good and very pleasant but there’s only so much a couple of them can do. The time lingered on and after 15 plus minutes dessert arrived, clearly had sat on the side as it was melted . It was removed from the bill at my request . What a disappointment, the prices are very high, the food no where near matches the quality you expect to recieve. I totally agree with a previous review about this is not fit to be here at the village . Real shame as it really should be occupying the prime site .

I believe that when beautiful small restaurants or brands are bought over by big multi national companies that is the end of it. I have visited Cecconis in Mayfair for years and since Soho house takeover it's gone downhill massively, I was in Bicester Village for a meeting and decided to give this branch a go. Big mistake. Bland food and non existent service and my goodness; the prices. However I blame Value Retail who own Bicester Village for this. Cecconis is NOT the type of restaurant for a super busy outlet centre. The sheer volume of people means that it cannot measure up to its prices and the staff will be poorly trained and locally sourced certainly not trained for a higher end restaurant. Feel sorry for overworked staff and a brand like Soho House aka Cecconis who are not delivering for the money asked. Rip off.

Visited yesterday and were horrified by the service and food. First of all they couldn’t give me a cold drink ‘the bar man just stocked up’ and my partner got the wrong drink which had to be changed and we wait another 10 mins for it. Anyway that was that, not a great start. Then the food came after around 5 minutes which worried me. The burrata was OFF. No doubt about it. It had a smell that burrata doesn’t have, tangy taste and wasnt soft in the middle when burrata is usually creamy, soft and spills out. Reported to a female server (after having to wave her down as no one around to check on us) no apology she just took it back, so we asked for a manager and she came. Wow, we were not expecting at all a rude and argumentative attitude. From Soho House brand? Surely they train better than that! That’s what we got, an argument. She said ‘we tasted it and it’s not off’. With respect I said, we know burrata and it’s off. She said ‘well that’s your personal preference it’s not off’. ‘Whatever you think’ she then said, I’ll take it off the bill. No apology. No understanding, just general argumentative attitude and zero respect for a paying customer. It must be busy there so they don’t care what customers think? Never would I become a soho house member if that’s how managers treat customers in their establishments. We then noticed the avocado had a fizzy taste to it. Prawns not deveined and still lots of shell left on. Too much lemon/lime juice in the avocado or this was off aswell. But who knows as the floor manager certainly doesn’t know her food. Maybe things sit around at ambient temperature waiting to be served within 5 minutes of someone ordering. No care or attention from the kitchen. No chance to speak to anyone just left at our table whilst she stood around clearly chatting to other staff about us. No offer to help us with anything else. At the point of paying the £90 I told the waiter how annoyed we were and that we were still hungry and going to go elsewhere, he didn’t take us on and just took the payment and left. Although he did say ‘I’ll take the service off’ which is discretionary anyway! How does someone get the position of floor manager with no customer service skills I ask myself… do not recommend. Clearly too established to care. Hopefully EHO are due a visit to check their food safety and hygiene practises because serving off food is not okay.

Amazing service provided by James at the Bicester restaurant. He was a delightful host. The food was not great and i shared this with the Manager. next time I wont be paying if the food tastes like it did . Bland - no flavour - inert. The service from James made up for the poor food. you might say - well why do i need to go to Cecconis if the food isnt great. Well i would agree. I wouldnt go back. BUT the service was good. so i would be delighted to be served by James - BUT if the food was the same quality as per my last visit - Bland , pointless and tasteless - with no care - i would not pay the bill and would walk out . chef's taste the food before it leaves the kitchen ! it was an expensive meal for rubbish bland taste

Truffle and Napoli Pizzas were delicious freshly made and even altered to remover olives from one as don’t like them. Tiramisu dessert was lovely too can’t fault at all. Only down side one of the waiting staff forgot about topping the wine up as they...

Great service and atmosphere. Served by Charlie who gave outstanding customer service. Great quality food. Had the vegetarian breakfast, which I can recommend. Will definitely be returning when I get the chance.

Came with a friend and we had a lovely lunch and wine. Great service and lively setting. Restaurant was very busy and tables too close to one another would be my only negative. When you need to use the restroom, you are literally squeezing past...

Had lunch today, meal was ok ish , bill was £77for 2 people and when the bill arrived, we produced cash, to be told it was card only….we were not informed of this prior to the meal nor were there any signs up informing customers...

Lovely restaurant, beautiful decor and friendly service. My friend and I enjoyed our meal here, arancini, courgette fries and lovely pasta.

We arrived at 14.15 this afternoon. I suggested that my husband get a table and order some wine as I needed to pop into a shop quickly that I knew he didn’t really want to go to. We were looking to have lunch which would...

Weirdest service I have ever experienced , worldwide. I arrived at around 14:15 without my wife who was going to get to the restaurant 10 mins after my arrival, but, I wasn’t allowed to sit at a table until she arrived. I was told to...

The staff are rude and act like they want to go home instead of serving you. The food is mediocre and very overpriced. Seriously, stay away as there are far better restaurants nearby. Also, beware of the bottle of water they offer at the start...

Just avoid as the quality of food is sub par for the price. When a menu item does not state mayonnaise (aioli) yet arrives swimming in the stuff, it just isn’t on. The pasta was uncooked for a chunk of my main course and over...

Can't fault this place for the food and drinks. Very pleasant lunch of fresh salads, beef carpaccio and calamari - cocktails were good too. Slightly expensive but no complaints. Staff attentive overall - considering how busy the place is they coped very well

It's a nice restaurant with above average food but prices are steep! Definitely caters for tourists with deep pockets who are spending big on designer clothes in the retail village, so caveat emptor (buyer beware). Pinot Grigio is £38 a bottle... made me gulp for...

Previous reviews don’t do this place justice at all, fantastic service and food. Definitely the best place in Bicester to wine and dine.

The food here is good, calamari was excellent, but the staff are extremely good. I would definitely eat here again on my next visit

Selected Cecconis at Bicester Village for lunch but choked on the bill. For two Cannelloni, one side of small potatoes, one soft drink plus one small glass of wine. Just how much do you think we payed...the bill came to over £72.00. I mean is...

Really horrible service, cold and unfriendly staff. I was charged for bread that's normally free at Mayfair, I would have asked for that bread atleast 5 times before it was brought. Was a hassle to get someone to do anything (take the order, get some...

We went for dinner at Cecconis yesterday and we’re turned away as they stop taking orders at 7pm in Bicester. How can that be? We were disappointed and also very surprised by the charmless manager on duty. Not sure this restaurant is going to add...

Love the Mayfair restaurant so was curious to see how this compared. No reservation we were a walk in around noon so it was just starting to get busy. Restaurant is bright and airy. Two different sections depending on what you require. We opted for...

There are not that many places where you can sit down and eat in Bicester Village. After a tiring morning shopping, the newly opened Cecconis restaurant looked inviting so we stopped there for a late lunch. My wife and I ended up with two pasta...

We were a table of 5 and had a great seat looking over the village, which was all twinkly and beautiful for Christmas. I was disappointed when The Wolseley shut and didn’t know if it could be bettered. It can. The same staff remain who...