It was in the freezing January of 2010 when I ventured out of my way while heading up from Devon to visit my mother in Oxfordshire…
The place I set upon was Cirencester in the heart of the Cotswolds. An outstandingly beautiful part of the UK and in the case of this town – a historic centre of Roman commerce.
The reason was that comedian, author and traveller Dom Joly simply could not stop raving about a local eatery by the name Made By Bob..
Let me put you in the picture a little;
Dom travels the world, eats in all sorts of places and tries everything, his knowledge when it comes to places to eat on a global stage is frankly encyclopaedic!
So when this guy says, it’s his favourite place to eat – I listen…
Back on that cold winter day, there was ice and snow everywhere as I headed off to find this place courtesy of Dom’s directions.. and I think you can read that story for your self HERE.
Roll on to just a few days ago and I’m showing this blogs hindrance and help, American blogger, marathon runner and of course Big Rig driver – @Gabsatrucker around a few bits of the UK during her busy schedule..
With fair warning to Dom to avoid the place and after getting names of great villages to show to Gabby from Robert Llewellyn - we headed to Made By Bob…
It was very busy as we waited for our seat, Bob suddenly looked over, smiling and acknowledging…
The food and service had not faltered one bit!! It was stunning…
Now between the present time and last time I visited my hair has grown into a shaggy mess – and I was having a bad hair day – yet here, 18 months later a with firm memory attached to the back of his eyes – Bob said hello and thanked me for my previous write up…
He went on to explain that they were about to start expanding the place and major alterations would begin in the coming days as they start to go straight through the wall and into the next place…
I was simply gobsmacked that all this time, nothing had faded, if anything it was better!
Hard work, dedication – almost to the point of exhaustion has made this place one of the most (if not THE most) outstanding places to have lunch in the UK today!
Even with the place busy the welcome was outstanding and the food brilliant…
Now roll on a couple of days and imagine sitting in a Café Rouge in Windsor… Where we suffered terrible service, very poor quality food and waited, oh boy did we wait for our food… almost to the point of leaving!!
And then paying a LOT more for the pleasure…
No, I could mention many places to eat, not as much as Dom – But I have to concur, there is probably no better place to eat in Great Britain at lunchtime than at Made By Bob in Cirencester…
If you haven’t been, GO!! But be fair to yourself – eat somewhere the day before and somewhere the day after – you’ll know exactly what I mean.
Heck we went to one old favourite place to eat, The Rose Revived in Oxfordshire and never even got to eat… A place I’ll never ever return to…
So to Bob, his better half and his team, thank you for the great food and outstanding hospitality… If I ran approval ratings, this place would score full marks and then some… (there’s a thought)
Thanks also to Robert Llewellyn and Dom Joly without whom the day simply would not have been so awesome…
