The Wild Rabbit - CHIPPING CAMPDEN

My visit to the Wild Rabbit was a so disappointing, even though the food itself was interesting and top quality. The big problem was the exceedingly slow service. My starter took 1 hour to arrive. My main took another 45 minutes. When I looked around the other tables, no-one else was doing any eating either. The kitchen's output was negligible. Both of the staff to whom I mentioned this fully agreed that I was right to be annoyed and that it was totally unacceptable. My other point would be that the mains were very small, only slightly more than tasters. And the wine prices were ludicrous £12 for a 175mm glass of supermarket Malbec). So I could not say that the value was good even thought the food-quality was undeniable. I left feeling angry and ripped off. And blaming myself for having been so stupid as to go there.

The food is great but the portions are ridiculously small. Quality and prices are the same than the Dormy House. The big difference is that the Dormy portions are a lot bigger! I was still hungry after my main!! Something I really found so cheeky was we were entitled to 10% staff discount but after it was applied they charge you 12.5% service charge!!!! Thank you

This is a lovely pub but the service is shocking. Unless you are one of the many millionaire regulars they have in you will be left standing aimlessly at the bar while staff ignore you and when they do reluctantly get to you the prices are stupidly high

So disappointed. It was my daughter’s 40th Birthday. Unfortunately her husband admitted to hospital 2 days prior but he encouraged her to go. Phoned to say we might be a little late as hospital visit en route spoke to Jodie who was lovely and accommodating. Opted to sit in bar. Very noisy from bar area, bottles thrown in bins, then breakage and blender ‘whizzing up’ whatever, not withstanding pervading smoke from a lacklustre fire. Asked for jug of water disappointed that water and bread not readily and spontaneously brought to table. It arrived without ice or lemon so we had tepid tap water. Then couple arrived next to us with dog no problem with dogs per se, as we had opted for bar but the waitress bought water for dog that got spluttered all over floor, owners allowed dog to completely obstruct thoroughfare. Bread arrived although good tasting bread, it was just served as a ‘ slice’ rather than chunks or a small basket plus a very small portion of plain butter for 3 adults. Food all dished were just disappointing. Prices not my ultimate decider, we’re more about the quality, flavours and presentation together with professional attentive but not intrusive staff and atmosphere conducive to dining. However, The Wild Rabbit failed to execute in all those areas. Very Small portions even chard not cooked properly ie stalks very tough tender stem broccoli a tiny portion in bowl not seasoned maybe a little squeeze of lemon might have enhanced. We had already decided we wouldn’t order deserts. The lady who brought a ‘small’ token to acknowledge my daughter’s Birthday two tiny, very tiny cubes of ‘something sweet’ on a plate she was lovely very pleasant and smily a few studs in her nose). but based on prices charged for such small and mediocre quality portions of food maybe 3 petit four might have been in order. Came here a few years ago and it was delightful hence the booking, but based on this experience will not return and neither would we recommend. Think they are resting on laurels of a beautiful location but bottom line is good food, staff and atmosphere. Perhaps a menu of ‘Good Pub Food’ in bar and the restaurant menu. Sadly, Yesterday burst a bubble on my memory of The Wild Rabbit

My husband and I got married on the 7th October 2023 and chose the Wild Rabbit for our ‘mini-moon’ to celebrate for a few nights away. We had mentioned a couple of times in emails that this would be a special occasion however, unfortunately this was not acknowledged and not one person said congratulations to us or made us feel special. We stayed in the beehive cottage which had a log burner and an outside area but nothing special, overall it was nice but there was a few things missing. There were no wine glasses, the radio had an iPod dock (who uses iPods these days?! and a leak in the kitchen ceiling. When I went to let the staff know about the leak, they said it had been like that for months and made me feel that I had done something wrong by coming to them. We got told it was the “Cotswold oldie worldie” feel. Friday night we booked in for the tasting menu, which I had emailed them about previously and stated again that we would be celebrating our marriage. From the moment we sat down the service was absolutely terrible. We were given menus and again no acknowledgement of prior communications, we were given a plate of dry bread and had to ask for the butter, it was then hard so I decided to try and melt it over the candle because we just felt like we were asking for too much. Luckily one of the wait staff noticed and brought over some soft butter. A waiter brought our canapé over and explained it so quickly and ran off, I didn’t understand so asked someone else and got an abrupt response. My husband asked for a drink and I had to call the waiter back to take my own order as they just walked off. My husband decided to say something to the manager and it just made it 10 times worse as the staff did not respond well. We felt completely ignored and that the waiters did not want to serve us. The only saving grace is that the food and wine was absolutely amazing, we really enjoyed it and the sommelier Wes made up for the poor service of the rest of them. At the end they brought over a ‘complimentary’ cheese plate but no apology or again acknowledgement of our celebration, they did not seem to know what the fuss was about. No discount due to service was offered. On check out my husband spoke to the manager, who did apologise for the issues with the cottage and presented him with the bottle of Prosecco that should have been in our room on check in. However she said the restaurant was separate so she couldn’t comment on our experience there. We really wanted this to be a special place for us which we could possibly return to on anniversary’s, however sadly we shall not be returning after this experience and the amount of money spent for something so poor.