Downland Cafe in Vale of White Horse

We called in here as I’d never been and thought we’d try it out. We ordered two cheese scones with butter and two coffees and sat in the garden. Our very small scones arrived before the coffees, We thought as we buttered our not very cheesy cheese scones that the butter had a strange texture, the coffees were very small and not that hot. As we sat chattering I noticed on the butter wrapper, ‘use by 6/6/23’ The date of our visit being Monday 19th June!! My friend caught the attention of the waitress and told her we’d just eaten two weeks out of date butter, she just said ‘Oh sorry, I’ll tell the kitchen’ We sat for another 15 minutes half expecting maybe a further apology from the kitchen but nobody came near us, so we left having spent £12.30 on two small un-cheesy scones, stale butter and two small warm coffees. Obviously there won’t be a return visit.

Carpenters have now sadly closed I think due to retirement but the new tenants Blake’s Kitchen are well worth a visit and serve decent food

Good to see the Fox back open, New manager/Chef is very welcoming. Food was really good, tasty hot and large portions. We had burgers and steak. Pub is kept much cleaner than previously, tables wipes and cleared quickly. We'll be back. We could see more staff were required before they really market the place again. It would benefit from a few smaller tables in the restaurant area.

Only stopped for a drink. Good choices of ales and friendly staff

Nice service, quiet atmosphere and good Cortardo.