Oxford

[Bapi]

Can anyone offer me some help as to where to visit in Oxford this coming weekend?

Any recommendations for eateries and pubs would be very welcome.

Unfortunately, La Gousse d'ail is off the agenda as its a Stag Do.

[Mrs Woman]

la gousse is off anyway as its still shut.

Sorry don't really know Oxford, but I do believe they have a Le Petit Blanc and there's a Quod (owned by the bloke who set up Browns)

[AdamLawrence]

Edamame on Holywell Street is good for Japanese food at bargain basement prices, but I'm unconvinced that's what you'd want for a stag do. Al-Salam on Park End Street is the best of the three city centre Lebanese places and has a good atmosphere for a party, but in the circumstances you might want to try Restaurant du Liban above Boswells on Broad Street, 'cause it has belly dancers.

I am no longer a fan of Le Petit Blanc because I think it's way too pricey for the quality provided and the service sucks. Chiang Mai Kitchen on the High Street is best for Thai; Luna Caprese on North Parade (about a mile from the city centre) is a fun old-style Italian and has an excellent pub called the Rose and Crown just across the road. Aziz on the Cowley Road is the best Indian food in town. There's a new Spanish place on Little Clarendon Street that I haven't yet tried. Given that I've fallen out with Le Petit Blanc we lack for good mid-market French-influenced places.

Pubs: it depends what you want. I like good real ale and an individual atmosphere (don't much like chain pubs) and find there are few boozers in the city centre that do it for me. The Old Tom just opposite Christ Church is an old standby but I don't know how it's changed since Morrells closed the brewery. The King's Arms and the Turf are the big name haunts, and both are good if expensive. The Turf will be full of tourists, I don't know about the KA at this time of year, because the students aren't around. The Hobgoblin on St Aldates keeps winning awards but has never really appealed to me - the signs outside in four languages shout 'Tourists' and I'm not fond of Wychwood beers. The Bear has excellent beer but again suffers from the tourist problem, especially since it's tiny.

Hope this helps - if there's anything else I can add, please ask.

Adam

[AdamLawrence]

la gousse is off anyway as its still shut.

Sorry don't really know Oxford, but I do believe they have a Le Petit Blanc and there's a Quod (owned by the bloke who set up Browns)

La Gousse d'Ail is closed? I must have missed that - I keep meaning to go but get appalled by the prices every time I think about it.

I don't like Quod very much; if you just want a snack and a drink in that part of town I like the Grand Cafe much better - lovely, if slighty over-the-top room. Owned by the same chap (who also used to own the Lemon Tree, which he sold and became La Gousse d'Ail) is a place down the Cowley Road called Kazbar. Sort of Moorish, tapas-y place. I haven't been but friends who have say it's good and fun.

Adam

[Bapi]

Adam,

You sir- are a Gentleman and a scholar. Thanks for your comprehensive responses. Restaurant du Liban and Kazbar sound like distinct possibilities.

Could you let me know of any Waterside Pubs that may be worth a pint in? I remember the Head of the River pub from my days in Oxford way back when, studying for A levels.

Isn't there another one out of town in Summertown (or is it Jericho) that's supposed to be good?

Mrs Woman- thanks also. Petit Blanc was the one I was thinking of but I may well give it a miss now.

[Gavin Convery]

Waterside pubs - there is the Trout in wolvercote (N. Oxford) featured in many a morse but I think it is renamed now for some reason. There is also a pub or maybe pubs on Osney which is a sort of Island surrounded by the Chertwell.

I like the White Hart in Wytham just a mile or so from Wolvercote but I have sentimental reasons as I had my wedding reception in the village hall - but it is a nice Cotswold pub.

[AdamLawrence]

Adam,

You sir- are a Gentleman and a scholar.

It's one thing to be a gentleman and a scholar, but I always wanted to be an acrobat too.

Waterside pubs: there's a place down at Iffley Lock whose name I have forgotten that people rave about. My favourite is the Victoria Arms in Old Marston (not far from Summertown - is that the one you meant) - get a punt from the Cherwell Boathouse, punt upriver for twenty minutes, tie up outside pub, drink six pints of Farmer's Glory, punt back downstream in a very unsteady fashion. The famous waterside pub is the Trout at Godstow, at the top end of Port Meadow. It's just been tarted up; I haven't been in since, but the setting is perfect. It's always very busy, though, and the beer used to be crap. It might be better now. I never liked the Head of the River much.

If you have someone to drive who won't be on the booze there are loads of nice waterside pubs out in the countryside. Try the Ferryman at Bablockhythe, west of the city, or the Rose Revived at Newbridge, near Kingston Bagpuize. Too far out for your purposes but really worth trying if you're around the Cotswolds for a weekend is the Fox at Great Barrington (just west of Burford) - nice riverside setting, good food (chicken piri-piri excellent), fab beer from Donnington Brewery.

[Basildog]

Is the Blue Coyote still there?

[AdamLawrence]

Is the Blue Coyote still there?

No, it's now a place called the Pink Giraffe (do we recognise a theme here?)I used to like the Blue Coyote, but that may be related to the fact that I got a free meal there when I was an undergraduate editing student union publications.

Adam

[Jon Tseng]

on the riverside pub spot, there is also the perch in botley (west across port meadow, though driveable too)

so what happened to the gousse d'ail? sound like another place joining the wannabe-one-stars-opening-at-the-wrong-time club (charter members, high holborn, conrad gallagher et al)

j

[Bapi]

Thanks for the information.

Spent five glorious hours at The Trout at Wolvercote - wonderful location, OK - beer, but it is sadly part of the Vintage Inns Chain, so the food was very, very average.

The White Horse, King's arms, Turf Bear and Quod were all visited and suprise, suprise, we ended up in some risible curry house on the High street.

And yes La Gousse d'Ail was shut when I walked( staggered ) past, but then again it was 3.30 a.m.

Thanks again

[John Whiting]

I am no longer a fan of Le Petit Blanc because I think it's way too pricey for the quality provided and the service sucks.

Alas, too true. Mt wife and I tried to like it and gave up. It became so generally disappointing as not to merit an itemized report.

[AdamLawrence]

I am no longer a fan of Le Petit Blanc because I think it's way too pricey for the quality provided and the service sucks.

Alas, too true. Mt wife and I tried to like it and gave up. It became so generally disappointing as not to merit an itemized report.

It's a shame, because when the Oxford end first opened, I had a couple of good meals there, at not-too-outrageous prices. The day after I first ate at the Fat Duck, we had lunch at PB, and the chicken liver and foie gras parfait at the latter was not dramatically worse than at the former, and I recall the lapin a la moutarde 'facon Maman Blanc' as being excellent. But my gripes recently have been as follows:

* lousy service - being stuck right next to the kitchen in an almost empty restaurant when we wandered in for a pre-cinema bite; service too rushed when we were trying to have a more leisurely meal;

* wine list poor in scope and gruesome in pricing; particularly bad selection of wines by the glass

* non-alcoholic cocktails (a good idea) being spoiled by absolutely disgraceful pricing;

* a few poor, or at best deeply uninspired dishes (though I find the puddings consistently good).

Bapi - glad you had a good day. But, mein Gott: five hours in the Trout AND all those other pubs? You must have stomachs of iron. No wonder you ended up having a grotty curry, though if you were in the place I suspect, you were less than 100 yards from good Thai food at Chaing Mai Kitchen.

cheers

Adam

[Bapi]

Adam-

The five hours at The Trout was an extended stay due wholly to an inability to get a Taxi back into town before 7pm, not because of any pact made with Bacchus!! Rest assured- a few tactical cokes where imbibed during the days proceedings. Cheers again

I will be venturing back to Oxford with the missus soon, as I loved it. Rekindled many happy memories of my time studying for A levels there (although I may divulge only an edited version of my time there to her).

Would anyone recommed La Gousse D'ail as a a port of call when it

re-opens ?

[John Whiting]

One episode relating to our last visit to Le Petit Blancmange is worth recounting. My wife and I were sitting next to one of the loudspeakers which was blaring out Musak from the local Virgin Radio station. We asked the waiter if he would turn it down. He explained very apologetically that Richard Branson was about to arrive for lunch, that he was a heavy investor in the restaurant and that he insisted that Virgin Radio be the "background" music. Alas, our schedule did not allow us to await his arrival and tell him very loudly what we thought.

[Bapi]

Thank God Mr Branson has divested himself of any interest in the group.

See here

http://www.caterer.com/archive/articledeta...articleID=42291

[Andy Lynes]

Here's the rather sad confirmation about the closure of La Gousse D'ail. I wonder where Jonathan Wright will pop up next?

caterer news