Where to eat in Bicester, and the better pubs near it

For a meal in Bicester itself, the Littlebury Hotel on Kings End does a Sunday roast and dinners, the Penny Black on Sheep Street is a Wetherspoon open from 8am, Mizu on the same street cooks Japanese plates to share, and Bicester Village has restaurants among its boutiques. For a better meal, drive 10 or 15 minutes out: the Horse and Groom at Caulcott, the Muddy Duck at Hethe, the Fox at Souldern and the Oxford Arms at Kirtlington are the four we would pick.

How we chose: we list only places whose own website showed them trading in 2026 when we checked in November 2026, and nothing here is paid for. Nobody from the guide has eaten at them for this page, so the descriptions are from the businesses' own menus and pages. That test still leaves Bicester's own list short. The town has chains, cafés and takeaways, mostly round Sheep Street and Pioneer Square, but beyond Mizu and Noughts & Nibbles we found few independents with their own dated evidence, so we have not padded the page with them. If you run one, tell us.

In the town

The Littlebury Hotel has been run by the McKeon family since 1959, on Kings End just west of the centre, a short walk from St Edburg's. Its lounge bar opens from 10am to 11pm every day, lunch is from noon to 2pm and dinner from 7pm to 9pm, except on Sunday evenings, and Sunday lunch runs from noon to 2.30pm, with the roast of the day at £17.95 and a children's menu at £9.50 on its sample menu. It has its own large car park, which matters in Bicester.

The Penny Black at 58 Sheep Street is a Wetherspoon pub in a purpose-built post office that opened in 1914. It opens from 8am every day, which makes it the reliable breakfast in the old town, and it suits a Friday market morning. It is what you would expect of the chain, in a better building than most.

Mizu, at 73 Sheep Street, is an independent Japanese izakaya: dishes made to share, sushi among them, with staff to suggest a drink for each. It opens for lunch and dinner from Tuesday to Sunday, with dinner until 10pm, or 11pm on Friday and Saturday, and is closed on Mondays. Book online for up to six; a table is held for 15 minutes, and a no-show is charged. At the top of the street, in the old bank on the Market Square corner, Noughts & Nibbles is a board game café with hundreds of games, barista coffee, toasties and cake. Play is charged by the hour a head, with under-5s free, and coffee and cake alone cost nothing extra. It is the answer to a wet afternoon with children, and it is closed on Mondays too.

At Bicester Village, the restaurants and cafés sit among the shops. We have listed three from their own pages: Ottolenghi, for a booked sit-down meal with a deli counter and a terrace; Cecconi's, Northern Italian, bookable for breakfast and dinner but walk-in only at lunch; and the Double Red Duke, a British grill open all day from breakfast. The others' menus and hours are on the Village's own site, so check there before you plan a meal round one. On a Scramble day at Bicester Heritage, the site has two coffee shops, Seven Mile and Auto Wax Works, and the organiser promises food for all tastes.

The Horse and Groom, Caulcott

The Horse and Groom is a tiny family-run free house on the Lower Heyford road at Caulcott, about 4 miles west of Bicester by road. It is run by Jerome and Stacey Prigent, and Jerome is a chef with more than 30 years in kitchens in France, the United States and Britain, and the pub is known for a speciality sausage menu alongside a changing one. It opens from Wednesday to Sunday, with food from noon to 2pm and 7pm to 9pm, and only lunch on Sundays. It is small, so booking is essential. Dogs are welcome in the garden only. Its Christmas menu runs from Wednesday 2 December to Sunday 20 December 2026.

The Muddy Duck, Hethe

The Muddy Duck is the pub on Main Street in Hethe, a small village about 6 miles north of Bicester by road, about 15 minutes by our routing. It cooks small plates and sharing dishes with a Japanese twist, beside a Sunday menu and a children's menu, and it runs ticketed supper clubs. It opens from Thursday to Sunday. Well-behaved dogs are welcome in the pub and the garden.

The Fox, Souldern

The Fox Inn, on Fox Lane in Souldern, was licensed by 1784 and is the one survivor of the three pubs the village had in the 1850s, the Victoria County History records. It pours Timothy Taylor's Boltmaker and guest ales, serves lunch from Wednesday to Sunday and dinner from Wednesday to Saturday, and is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Dogs are welcome in the pub. It is near junction 10 of the M40, so it suits a meal on the way between Banbury and Bicester, and it has four rooms upstairs.

The Oxford Arms, Kirtlington

The Oxford Arms, on Troy Lane in Kirtlington, cooks British pub food with a twist and pitches itself at walkers with dogs. Food is served from Wednesday to Saturday at lunch and from 6pm to 8.30pm, with a fish and chip night on Tuesday evenings and a Sunday roast with a vegan choice. There is a private garden and a dog-free dining area inside. The 24 bus from Bicester stops outside four times a day, Monday to Saturday, and the last one back to Bicester leaves Kirtlington at 3.53pm (3.48pm on Saturdays).

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Three more within a short drive

The Chequers at Steeple Aston, the old Red Lion, reopened in July 2026 as a Hook Norton pub with seasonal British food and Sunday roasts. Since November it also opens from 9am from Wednesday to Sunday for coffee and pastries. It is closed on Tuesdays, so ring first midweek.

Kizzies, at Heyford Wharf on the Oxford Canal, is a licensed café and village shop. Its own page gives daily hours of 9am to 5pm, with breakfast until 11am and lunch from noon to 2pm, but no winter hours, so check before an out-of-season visit. Most of the tables are in a large garden, with seats indoors for bad weather. It is first come, first served, and groups of more than eight are asked to get in touch first.

The Holt Hotel, at the Hopcrofts Holt crossroads on the A4260, serves lunch every day from noon and dinner from 6pm, and a cream tea at £12. It is the place for an afternoon tea after Bicester Village, about 15 minutes away by the hotel's reckoning, with a day's notice for the full tea.

For a special occasion, the Killingworth Castle at Wootton, near Woodstock, holds three AA Rosettes and a Michelin Guide recommendation for 2026. It is further, beyond Kirtlington, and opens from Wednesday to Sunday.

Pubs that have closed

Several pubs you may find on older maps or websites have shut, and we would rather say so than send you to a locked door. The Bell on Lower Heyford's square has been closed since April 2025, CAMRA records. Fritwell's King's Head and George and Dragon have both closed. The Jersey Arms at Middleton Stoney closed as a pub in 2021 and is now a bed and breakfast. In Bicester, the Six Bells on Church Street is no longer a pub. The Red Lion at Stratton Audley reopened in July 2025, the parish council reported, but we found no website of its own, so ring before you go. In the other small villages, the Trigger Pond at Bucknell and the Peyton Arms at Stoke Lyne are listed by their breweries but have no sites of their own that we could find, so ring before you go.

Without a car

Most of these pubs need a car, and the buses that reach them do not run on Sundays. The 24 from Bicester's Pioneer Square stops by the Oxford Arms in Kirtlington four times a day from Monday to Saturday, and the 81 loop runs to Souldern from Monday to Saturday a few times a day. Kizzies is beside Heyford station, on the Banbury to Oxford line. Getting to Bicester has the routes.

Or eat in Banbury

Banbury, about 13 minutes up the line from Bicester North on average, has more choice than Bicester: the best pubs near Banbury starts in the town and works outwards, and Bicester Village and a better lunch builds a day round leaving the outlets to eat somewhere better. If you are staying the night, where to stay in Bicester has the hotels and pubs with rooms.