The Howard Arms Ilmington

Restaurant review only. Booked last table in the snug for lunch so quite last minute. Lovely gastro pub and well worth Michelin rating. Started with William Pear and blue cheese salad followed by Stone Bass with Pak Choi, deserts rice pudding and Orange chocolate mousse. Everything cooked to perfection. Entertained throughout by Mac who is a brilliant host. Can't wait to come back.

A delightful country try pub with rooms. Went for a late lunch in a quintessential country pub. Fabulous roaring fireplace, very friendly staff and great lunch menu . Food was superb, beer was a delight and staff superb friendly , although were very busy and our mains arrived a little late. Can't wait to return

Came here for Friday evening meal. Location is perfect, plenty of car parking, ambience was fabulous- we were greeted by staff with nothing but smiles. We ate in the dining area and later moved into the bar area for drinks. |Firstly, Mac was serving us who was delightful, chatty and just brilliant - he even apologised for the large group celebrating a special birthday a few tables away - which he didn’t need to do as they were just having a fabulous time.|Option to order at the bar when we first arrived or get taken to our table when we first arrived. Drinks bought swiftly with time to presented menu. |We shared the olives to start which were lush. For main I have the guinea fowl and my hubby had the chalk stream trout both were great portion sized but not overwhelming, full of taste & flavour. Really good quality & cooked to perfection! We shared a cheeseboard which had local cheeses - it was immense!|We were joined by our son who dropped by - Mac got him a chair to sit him with us & made him feel very welcome.|After dinner we moved into the bar area for a few drinks - ambience was still fabulous- we didn’t want to leave.|I live that they don’t out a service charge on the bill so you have the option of giving a tip (should you want to) and his much. |We cannot wait to return as we had such a fabulous experience- we’ll done to all the staff xxx

First time visiting and we are absolutely blown away! Date night out for me and my fiancée sat in a quiet cozy part of the pub. We had bread with a lovely homemade butter and very tasty olives to start. The mains were divine! Guinea fowl and the best liver and bacon I’ve ever had! Excellent wine choices and great cocktails- espresso martini and old fashioned especially. We finished the evening sharing a cheese board and rice pudding with prunes. We will definitely be coming back with friends and family next time! Definitely a high recommendation 5*

We stayed with our Welsh & Canadian family on Sunday night and booked four rooms! From start to finish, everything was perfect! From check-in, to drinks, to the delicious Sunday roast (which just happened to fall on our Canadian Thanksgiving - it worked out perfectly!), we couldn’t have asked for a better experience. We had a great night’s sleep in the beautiful rooms and a yummy breakfast the next morning. The service was truly 10/10 — a special thank you to our lovely waiter from Scotland (I’m so sorry your name has escaped me!) and to the wonderful lady who looked after us at breakfast. Thank you for taking such good care of us - we’ll definitely be back again soon!

We had an absolutely fabulous dinner at Howard Arms. We had a table in the bar area - which was buzzing and had a great atmosphere. We were by the fire, which was cozy and not too hot because the window was cracked - so the perfect temperature. The food was outstanding. We had the calf liver and the guinea fowl as our mains. Both were cooked to perfection. For dessert we had the rice pudding and the plum frangipane. Both were great, but the frangipane was special. It was one of the best desserts we have had in a while. I hope they keep it on the menu and I would highly recommend it to anyone. We look forward to our next meal there!!

The food and service is very good , however I was very disappointed on this occasion, I booked a table for four nearly a month in advance in the dining room to be shown to our table in the bar area . I did ask if we could be moved but unfortunately we could not. I really wanted and expected a dining room experience and not a pub experience. I did receive an email to inform me there was an amendment to my booking from 13.00 to 13.15 which I happily accepted , however my table was moved to the bar because a bigger party had booked ,if this is what happens I really feel what is the purpose of giving customers a choice as to where you would like to dine, if I had been on a country walk and wanted a cosy Sunday pub roast I would have selected to be seated in the bar, but I hadn’t I was expecting a more refined and special dining experience. with my family particularly having booked so far in advance . I suspect when the booking time was amended it was known the table had been relegated to the bar it would have been courteous to be asked if I was happy for that but unfortunately no correspondence took place .

Fantastic service, food and ambience. We received a very warm welcome and a handshake on departure from a friendly (and smiley) team member. Gorgeous food (a little overpriced) and a great selection of beers and wines. Thank you 😊

Made reservations 24 hours in advance. Arrived and was seated right next to servers station and bar. Told no other seating available. Watched as seating for other guests were accommodated. Is it because we were two older women? I hope not, but felt it to be so. Food was good. But did not have a designated server so no one came by our table after being served. By the time I was able to flag a server for condiments for my food it was cold. Would not return.

DO NOT COME HERE!!!! Just kidding. This was one of my favorite places on our drive through the Cotswolds. The staff was friendly and welcoming. The bar area had great character and felt like a traditional country pub. The drinks were fantastic and the Guinness pour was spot on. We started with the salami and pickles, could have eaten 50 of them. My fish and chips were as good as any that I have ever had. Will forever compare all others to this. The back garden dining area was green and peaceful. Would have sat out there all day and had drinks and food. I hope that this place continues to do exactly what they are doing. Will make this my first stop on returning to England.

We stayed here when in the Cotswolds and had a wonderful time. It si a classic Georgian inn and pub, very charming, nicely updated and modernised while maintaining much original character and many old elements in the pub/dining area as well as in the rooms. Rooms were very comfortable, service excellent. The food was outstanding - we had breakfast, dinner, and one Sunday roast here. The only negative point regarding the food is common to almost all places we've been to in England on our trips in 2022-2023: no fried bread at breakfast (only toast or hash browns), and I have difficulty envisoning a full cooked breakfast/fry-up/English breakfast without fried bread. Otherwise, the food was excellent. The old bar/pub area has lots of charm, a group of locals played live music one evening, the cask ales were excellent -- Landlord was always available and in perfect condition, and the village charming and quiet, a little less gentrified than some Cotswolds places have become, which was nice and refreshing. This ranks amongst our favourite places we have stayed and we look forward to going back.

This is not only a great restaurant, but a great hotel! I'm not usually one for country hotels as they don't usually seem to have great amenities. This place was very modern, great amenities, great rooms, and great service!

This is the place to eat as far as I am concerned! The food was outstanding, the level of service was quite excellent and it was all set in a lovely, old traditional English pub environment within a beautiful village. Each course was delightfully presented and oh so tasty! The desserts were to die for! The prices were not as steep as you might expect for such a quality offering. I suggest that you would likely have to book if you weren't quite late showing up like us, though. It looked busy but certainly not cramped. During and after the meal the manager came to check on us and ask our opinions while giving us some insight into the business. She can be proud of what she had presented thank you for a great experience!

What a charming little country boozer! If you're in the Ilmington area and want somewhere to go for a lovely civilised meal then The Howard Arms is definitely a spot you should consider. The food's top notch, the service is attentive, and the pub's got a great vibe about it. Any weekend in the Cotswolds would be enhanced by a meal there. Pricewise it's on par with London classy pub grub thinking about £12-15 for a main which places it well about cheap & cheerful, but not up in the gastronautical leagues of some of the more conspicuously rarefied places either. Worth mentioning too that the real ale was in top notch order so often choosing a pub in an unfamiliar place is a bit of a roulette spin. Thankfully, this pub is a solid bet. Interesting group of locals, too. I spent the evening chatting with a bloke who restores carriages for the Duke of Westminster. That's fairly irrelevant, isn't it?

We stayed here for my birthday. The staff regarded us with mild amusement (we are an odd looking pair) but the menu was first class. Beautifully cooked food, super wine and ale and a roaring log fire in a respectfully maintained pub atmosphere just this side of pretention. There were one or two locals having a drink which was nice (and reassuring). Not cheap but not highly inflated either. Their standards in the bedrooms were high. A lady who we took to be the landlady served us breakfast the next morning. The breakfast was excellentbut again we were eyed with great susspicion..Fortunately we have a sense of humour. Very pleased overall.