Silks on the Downs in Wiltshire

Upon arrival at The Silks we were greeted and seated by the landlord, Thomas (Thomas Frake winner of Master Chef 2020) who made us feel very welcome, took our order and advised us on wine to accompany our roast sirloin of beef main course. We were then looked after by Jake. Nothing was too much trouble for Jake. We didn’t have to wait long for our jug of water and wine or for our starters, beer battered prawns and olives which were delicious. Our Sunday roast beef was “melt in the mouth” scrumptious and one of the best Sunday roasts that we have enjoyed in a long time. Our cheese and sticky toffee pudding desserts didn’t disappoint either. Thank you so much to Thomas and Jake for looking after us so well and making our lunch such a relaxed and enjoyable occasion and one that we now intend to repeat very soon.

Skate wings were tasty but not the largest you've ever seen

Stopped on our journey to the Cotswolds for a spot of lunch and found a very nice establishment and friendly staff. The food was good and priced sensible.

Where do I start Wow, what a terrible experience, which ruined a 40th birthday dinner. What should have been a wonderful “feasting” menu with ample food to share, was in fact more like a famine. We were a table of 14 (11 adults, 3, children) and due to the party size, we had to choose their “feasting menu”- food pre-ordered and 50% paid some weeks in advance. So, they had plenty of time to prepare. We had 2 plates of meat for 11 adults- these weren’t sharing plates, piled high. These were normal dining plates with a level amount of meat. Chicken was wonderful, however beef had lots of fat and gristle. HALF the table had what only can be described as a childs portion of meat and one member had no meat at all. I was sure more would arrive- surely 2 plates of meat for 11 adults is not suffice. But no, that’s all we got. When we told the waitress one member had no meat at all, she brought back a couple of slices of beef and said the Chef advised there was no more. Same with the potatoes- two bowls, one roast and one dauphinoise, some members getting little to none. We asked again- the chef advised none left, but we could have some boiled potatoes. Wow. The roasts were dry and hard, my knife struggled to get through them, they tasted 3 days old and had been reheated. The veg was boiled and plane. The gravy was in tiny little boats- again we had to ask for more. By the time it came food was cold Service was non-existent. Not once did anyone ask how our meal was, no one asked if we needed more drinks, no one asked if we needed sauces etc. We had to go to the bar to get our drinks ourselves. No cloth napkins, just cheap flimsy paper ones. The children’s meals were tiny as well, served on side plates and with no room for them to cut anything up. The desserts were below average. A sticky toffee pudding that tasted like it came out of the microwave, the crumble- I’ve had better supermarket ones. The table was booked by my dear Mother who hates to make a fuss and as it was a birthday she didn’t want to complain when we were all there. I have since tried to call to discuss the experience, with no joy. I have emailed and asked for the Manager to call; however, they want me to discuss it over email. No- I would like to speak with someone. Seems like they do not care for customer feedback or satisfaction. This was not a cheap meal either. If you are in a group and want to leave a restaurant where you’ve received no service, still starving, and ripped off, then book here.

Great atmosphere with fantastic food, tasty beers, and lovely staff. Highly recommend.

Absolutely fantastic pub. We popped here for drinks and dinner on a break away. The quality and condition of the beer was superbly kept. Staff were warm, welcoming and engaged in good conversation. The lovely waitress was attentive and polite. As for the food? Superb! Great homecooked food, quality ingredients, and great flavours. Would definitely visit again.

Stopped here with a group of friends for lunch and had a lovely meal. Staff were all very friendly and helpful and the Pub is a warm inviting place to eat or drink. Food was excellent and service was also great. Will definitely be going back.

It’s a pub. And, it’s a pub with Thomas holding the food reins. So it’s a very good pub! .. it was relaxed, busy and quickly filled up with happy, hungry folk. I wanted to try everything. I had chicken terrine with apple chutney, summer vegetables on toasted sour dough and chocolate fondant with milk ice cream. (No breakfast today) The terrine was meaty, clean and paired beautifully with chutney. The chocolate fondant was a little triumphant dream. Go with your appetite, expect to leave wanting to return to try more of this simple, delicious menu. Thomas appears to have stayed true to his food roots and that’s just perfect.

Had a great meal on Saturday 27th July, service was prompt, friendly and polite, food was good. Especially nice Tarte tatin, very generous portion.

We were excited to try a restaurant cheffed by a Masterchef winner but gosh, we were disappointed The menu was small and really no better than you’d get at an average roadside pub - the fish and chips, the burgers, fried chicken….. the sides were salad and chips We ordered soft shell crab with lemon mayo as a starter which sounded delicate and full of flavour - what we got was two odd shaped lumps of batter which tasted of deep fat frying What a disappointment! We were expecting so much more elegance and refinement

Excellent food and friendly service

My motorcycle broke down outside the Silk and I couldn't of asked for a better place to wait for my recovery, very friendly staff and a lovely chilled atmosphere.

Called in for lunch today; delicious food (freshly prepared), well-kept real ale and friendly efficient service. Recommended.

The Silk has zero atmosphere, and the service was lack luster. £50 of extras added on our bill. But the Sunday roast was maybe the best we have had so far when eating out.

Great place for a drink with friends. Very friendly staff and ample room.

Great pub! Very friendly with good food.

Superb food - imaginative and full of flavour.

Visited for Sunday lunch, the roast belly of pork was incredibly well prepared. The meat was fork tender, fat had nicely rendered out, and the crackling was gloriously crispy. The beef on the Sunday lunch also looked very good. Generous stripes were served which looked perfectly pink in the middle (although I did not try this myself). For the price per portion (£17 for the roast pork belly, £19 for the beef) this was excellent value, and somewhere I would recommend without hesitation.

Excellent food. Very convivial atmosphere. Service very good. Wonderful job by the community volunteers.

Amazing food and service. We had the chicken liver past with sourdough and the butternut squash spiced soup for starters. Then the chateaubriand for the main and apple tart for desert - of which was the only dish i thought to take a photo! We polished every dish off, cooked to perfection. Normally when we go out for food it's nice and sometimes slightly better than what we can cook at home, but we couldn't have cooked that 3 course meal at home and thats what you pay for. Very impressed with the food and the service. We are so pleased it is back open and now a local community pub. We will be back soon!!

A delightful local pub with affable and attentive staff (some of whom are community volunteers too). Stopped in for a Sunday Roast which was delicious. The belly of pork was cooked to perfection with crackling like glass! Spuds were golden and crispy, the black cabbage had a perfect texture and was very well seasoned, and the parsnips were like candy. All hats off to the chef, he knows his onions! I would highly recommend Sunday lunch here.

Wonderful chance find We were welcomed warmly and fed well with fresh very good quality food. Highly recommend. Dog friendly as well.

A really enjoyable lunch. Food was excellent, fresh and well presented. A great pub with excellent choice of food and drink.

Lovely community owned pub 15 mins from Swindon. Worth the drive.

Great Community Pub, highly recommend visiting!

Lovely local place with great food, good beer and lovely staff.

Excellent service when booking a table. We had a warm welcome. The food was excellent and thoroughly enjoyed it! Highly recommend.

Great food and beer. A real gem.

I wish I could give Silks more than 5 stars. I had such a great time, the volunteers are legends and the food is great, I can’t wait to go back and couldn’t recommend it enough!

Fab place. Great food and staff. Couldn't do enough for us. We'll be back!

What a great pub/restaurant. Charming service by volunteers at this community run location. Very accommodating on food choices and dietary requirements.

A really great village run pub, warm cosy and good food

Great community run pub in a great location outside Marlborough. Perfect spot to meet friends at for dinner. Decent menu, friendly staff albeit a little slow but the kitchen was very busy. Would defo return for both a drink as well as a meal. Thank you!

Quality, hearty food with a twist as this is a community run pub. Follow the Barbury Castle online walking route for incredible views of the Marlborough Downs.

DISAPPOINTED! I came here with hope that this place had changed for the better since it reopened, boy was I wrong! For a community pub it was very quiet, more staff than customers. Spoke to one of the volunteers and it is run without a manager. Bizarre way to run a pub. The food was the best part but didn’t wow us. I do wish the community all the best in trying to run the pub ‘on the cheap’ but my advice would be get a manager. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to come here.

Very strange experience. Only one beer on, food average at best. Very small portions and being served by three or four different people was odd. No one really in charge and most of the staff lacked experience. Looks very unprofessional. Maybe I’ll try again but not in a hurry.

Had a lovely dinner. The food was excellent and it has been beautifully decorated. Would definitely recommend it.

My family and I had a lovely meal at this wonderful community pub today. We were all really impressed with the food and thought that the staff were incredibly attentive. Brilliant to hear that the community are working so hard to keep their pub up and running. Well done. We’ll definitely return. Highly recommend the prawn starter.

A little gem. Heartwarming story of what a community can do when up against it. The Roast was delicious, we found this place by accident but will have no hesitation in coming back. Just give it a go, you will be delighted.

Great service, the young lad couldn't help us enough. Food was also good. let down by not able to print bills etc

Lunch today for 4 at this lovely pub. Our first visit and we were very pleasantly surprised at the friendliness and welcome from the volunteer staff. Our waitress Lindsay was charming and helpful and did a wonderful job, especially considering this was her first day as a volunteer waitress. The food was fresh and delicious, the minute steak, fish and chips and BLT on sourdough were all fantastic. All the people we met there were lovely. I cannot recommend this place highly enough.

Really good food, lovely community run pub with friendly and attentive staff. Would highly recommend.

Visited this community run pub on the last day of our stay in Wiltshire. The pub is run by locals and currently all employees except the chef are volunteers. This did not impact the fantastic service and the warmth of the people that run this place. Food was delicious and we thoroughly enjoyed every plate. Highly recommend this place as a must visit if you are in the area.

What an amazing welcome! Greeted by a lovely young lady, with a beaming smile. Gave name for booking and she was immediately aware of our group. Staff attentive at every point of our stay. The 4 stars are just pickiness. Chose halumi burger in toasted brioche bun - would have liked outside if bun to have also been toasted *and warm). We were sat in the 'white' conservatory style room, which was beautifully warm, clean and bright, but despite the jockeys on the wall, lacked the character of the rest if the building. Would most certainly come again.

Az angol kocsma hangulatát és ízvilágát tökéletesen visszaadó étterem. Gyors és udvarias kiszolgás.

Fantastic food at this community owned pub.

We (9 guests ) had a wonderful evening , the food was delicious, freshly cooked and fabulous presentation. The staff were very friendly and efficient and ,as we were nine ,we sat in the private room but still felt apart of the pub . All at a very reasonable price . Highly recommend !!

Don't let the main road location put you off. A gem of a pub serving great Sunday roasts with excellently kept real ale and a great selection of wines. Atmosphere was spot on, nice and relaxed, yet perfectly attentive staff. Made our family of 8 including two young ones feel really at home. A great blueprint for other small communities at risk of losing their local pub.

Had a great Sunday roast with the family (8 of us in total). Great pub, good service, lovely food. Would highly recommend. We will definitely be going back.

Fabulous pub which was saved by the local community. Charming staff and totally delicious food, we had the fish and chips which was outstanding. There's some outside space which could do with a little tlc, but overall would definitely recommend this character full, quirky pub!

Great meal this evening. Excellent service.

Early evening arrival so kids running round and in and out. Very much a locals pub but staff were really sweet and offered.tonrun a tab immediately...good beer choices and a decent.pint of IPa on tap....will return...

So friendly, and the food was spot on.

Great birthday meal. Excellent food and service

Great food and lovely atmosphere for a family meal.

Desperately understaffed, uninspiring menu, echoey canteen atmosphere.

Very good spur of the moment drop in. They fit it in straight away. Very helpful

Wonderful pub - lovely people and fantastic food! Definitely a must visit if you're in the area.

Absolutely awesome Food, service and atmosphere.. went above and beyond! Fantastic!!

We had a wonderful family dinner, its such a lovely pud with friendly staff and fantastic food at a good price

Stumbled upon this place, and were so pleased we had. Recently renovated, the decor is very pleasant, airy and comfortable. The lunch menu was not extensive but varied and interesting, and the food was cooked well and presented with care. Its great to see a community enterprise of such quality, and we wish them well.

Good options for Gluten Free including roast dinner

Fabulous evening ..Great staff ..amazing food we will be going back

A chef that knows his stuff. Tempura prawns, delightfully fresh and crisp with a hint of chilli; rugged fish finger sandwich served on really good home made bread with fresh-out-the-air-fryer fries and a asparagus risotto finished to order. All in all, great value.

Lovely pub lunch food was good and nice amount for a "light lunch", young lady served us was polite and attentive.

Lovely food and good beer. Its well worth a visit.

Great food and excellent service!

One of my favourite pubs in Wiltshire!

Great food and lovely atmosphere. Perfect for family and friends for lunch/dinner

Truly excellent food. A friendly relaxed environment. Will definitely go for Sunday lunch again

Saturday night, only one chef on duty. Ordered olives and charcuterie nibbles, olives arrived but no charcuterie until we chased them up. Waited over an hour for the main courses. My medium steak was warm chewy and bloody. I left it in the end. Service was poor at best and they had the cheek to add a service charge to the bill. The pub itself is very pleasant as were the drinks.

Such a lovely welcoming pub. Beautifully restored by the community. Well worth a visit.

Great food, lovely decor with friendly staff and good choice of beer on draft - really nice to see a community pub and pleased to support a great investment in the local area

Enjoyed a great meal with friends, food amazing, great ambience and really friendly service.

Great food and lovely atmosphere. A lovely country dining pub!

As a local to the pub, I can safely say the beer is great, food lovely and staff really friendly! I thoroughly recommend a visit

Disappointed, the main meal was an open BLT, but only one slice of bread, they didn't have the pudding I wanted, & the alternative was ok but not great. No soya/almond/oat milk for a coffee and then no peppermint tea. £30 for lunch. Service fab and lovely atmosphere but lunch itself not brilliant. Will not be rushing back

Fabulous Sunday lunch, friendly and attentive service

Just returned from an excellent Sunday lunch at the Silks. The beef was beautifully cooked - can thoroughly recommend. Also accommodated my elderly mother-in-law with a small portion of fish and chips which she really enjoyed. Service was first class.

Newly refurbished and crowded funded pub. Nice decor and atmosphere with friendly staff. Good beers and food. Recommended.

We booked a table for my wife's birthday. The pub is very nicely presented with a lovely ambience. We all had starters, mains and deserts. Everything was cooked to perfection and beautifully presented. we would definitely go back again and would recommend to others.

Had a snack lunch there with a friend recently which was very good. The staff were friendly and the pub was busy. Will definitely be going again. Recommend booking.

The food is delicious, the staff are all friendly and welcoming and the atmosphere is lovely

Lovely pub and atmosphere. Very friendly staff

No vegan options and very scarce and poor vegetarian options.

Came here for a Sunday lunch, it was great, staff were very helpful, nice atmosphere. Lovely location, will be back for a weekday lunch.

So glad to see this open again as a community owned pub. Stuffed myself with three courses and the food was excellent. Service was great and the place looks amazing.

Very good value for money on our dinner and simple, lovely food in a charming and cosy environment. We were looked after very well, so highly recommended.

Fab service and great food, well priced and decent portions. The place has been sympathetically renovated but still retains so much history, and is really well located. Offers a great selection of local beers and spirits too. All in all a very nice place for lunch, dinner or drinks!

Great menu, loved the fish and chips and the selection of local beers!

Had our first lunch at Silks today , fabulous food lovely atmosphere

Great food and good value. Lovely setting for a family get together and enjoyed 3 delicious courses. The burgers from the kid’s menu were a real hit as was the macaroni bites starter and tub of Marshfield ice cream for desert. For adult starters we had the olives and roast peppers with roasted garlic salt, which was enjoyed by all. The seafood Bouillabaisse with a mini garlic loaf with a side of sweat potato fries was a real treat and the tasty 8oz beef burger were the adult mains of choice followed by either ice cream or sticky toffee pudding. Every dish was superb and the staff really made us feel welcome. The ambiance in the pub was really nice and it is very clean and stylishly decorated. We will certainly come again. Highly recommended.

An excellent pub which has undergone a great refurbishment with new management. Good prices and fantastic food and drink. Highly recommended

Took the family out for lunch. Lovely crab starter and tasty fish and chips main. Fabulous kids meals; 1 had the burger from the local butcher the other had fish and chips. Both the kids meals were delicious, good quality and great value. The pub has been taken over by the community and they have transformed it into a classy joint.

Stopped for unplanned lunch on their opening day. Simple hot lunch menu served and very tasty. The standout was the wonderful greeting. Wishing you the very best of luck for the future.

Lovely ales and always good quality food in the five times i have been there. A nice country pub with tables spread out, for private conversation, generally a nice place for couples having a meal out. I tend to have a main course and pudding as the starters are quite dinky and go in a a few seconds. Worth a trip for a nice meal more costly than an average pub, bur better food for it. Well done!

Went here for my birthday dinner, very good meals and will definitely recommend and return again.

We only live a few miles away and decided it was about time to visit for husbands birthday. Food was amazing, the best I've tried in a long time. We both chose from the interesting Specials Board. Pan fried salmon with a white wine sauce was to die for and hubbys traditional liver and bacon was cooked to perfection. We also had deserts - sticky toffee pudding and creme brûlée which were so good! Staff were very friendly and helpful and all in all a very good night and really don't know why we have waited this long to visit! Will certainly be making this a regular

Great and friendly staff and service! Totally delicious food! Small carpark, but there are a couple of spots within a minute or two's walk if its busy at the time you arrive! Thoroughly enjoyed it!

Just called in when passing as it was lunchtime. Very friendly landlord, nice menu, good food. We will call in again when passing.