Our regularly updated top ten favourite places to eat in Oxford. There are some obvious choices in here and some less obvious but we hope you’ll enjoy them as much as we do.
They’re in no particular order, just places where we know you can get consistently good food and they will change as we discover new places or rediscover old. There’s food for when you want to scoff and food for when you require more of a fine dining experience. But they’re all good.
Let us know what you think and if there’s somewhere you think should be on here, tell us and we’ll listen. We may not agree, but we’ll listen!
June 2016 Edition
We haven’t updated our best Oxford restaurants list for a while, partly due to there being so much going on elsewhere and partly down to some good old heated discussions about who should remain, who should go and who should be added. Unlike the EU referendum though this isn’t a democracy and so our decision is final. Ish!
So in no particular order, here are our current favourite places to eat in Oxford.
1 . The Chester
Home of the famous steak platter and according to Jacqui, one of the best roasts in Oxford. An evolving seasonal menu that’s an entire staircase up from your usual pub grub. Save room for pudding. And possibly a sausage roll to take home (for lunch the next day, obviously!)
Run by Baz, he who totally revitalised St Giles Cafe (passed into new hands now) and has now brought a lacklustre country pub back to sparkling life. The menu focusses on local and seasonal produce, an epic Sunday dinner and a new Argentine Asado grill for al fresco steakage.
3. My Sichuan
Currently our favourite Chinese, although we are still working on tasting them all! Full of punchy flavours, lip tingling and fragrant Sichuan peppers, but mix your dishes. Don’t make our mistake and order all chilli-based dishes! Strongly recommend the house speciality fish – cubes of white fish in a clear broth with LOTS of chilli and peppers. Toe-curlingly good.
4. Oli’s Thai
I finally managed to get a table! And by God, it was worth it. Who cares if you have to spend days on the phone at those extremely specific times and then get a table in four months time when the food is really that good. Handy tip, book your next visit whilst you’re there because it’s guaranteed you will want to go back.
Some discussion on this one. It’s good. Sometimes it’s excellent and sometimes it’s just not quite there. It is always inventive and different – for example, just yesterday we had Southern fried buttermilk rabbit with possibly the best coleslaw ever.
There might be a few raised eyebrows on this one, but those who’ve been will know. Don’t go for the decor, go for the simple, home cooked Mediterranean food, including the FREE plate of hummus and flatbreads to dunk as you peruse the menu. Ridiculously good and ridiculously amazing value.
Perfect French bistro. Consistently good food, good service, good for a date, good for catching up with friends, good for solo dining, just good. Great value set menus.
Still stylish after all these years with a modern French menu. Can be noisy when busy but still worth going, very child-friendly too.
A must visit for the ‘someone else is paying’ moments, this place oozes Oxonion style with the price tag to match. While it may not be the cheapest place to eat, with assumed service charge added to all bills, the food is excellent and luxurious, in a decadent and beautiful setting. Highly recommend their Afternoon Tea and the crème brûlée (above).
10. Zheng
Chinese/Malaysian/Szechuan/Singaporean menu with something for everyone. We love their cereal prawns, the fried green beans and the beef rendang. If you want to talk while you eat, then ask for a table upstairs but frankly you should be there for the food, not the conversation! Also excellent for takeaway.
Notable Mentions
- New coffee shop Society Cafe for excellent and ever changing coffees, cakes from Barefoot Oxford and pastries from Natural Bread Company. A perfectly calm, contemporary space for a cappuccino and a croissant.
- Talking of Barefoot they now have their own cafe in Jericho. Seriously scrumptious cakes, some that are even healthy! Limited seating so be prepared to take your cake away at weekends, it’s heaving!
- La Cucina in St Clements for traditional Italian dining.
- Next to La Cucina is SeaSalt, just opened and owned by the same people. Mainly fish based menu but a few meat dishes. Interesting tapas concept at lunchtimes.
January 2015 Edition
What better way to welcome in the new year than with a revised Top 10! Don’t be expecting major changes though, this edition is all about one particular addition… In no particular order, the best Oxford restaurants in our opinion, be they casual cafe, fine dining or burger bar.
- Sojo: Still holding on by the skin of their teeth after a recent unimpressive visit, prior consistency keeps them on the list… for now. Go in a large group and let the chef choose your food – wave after wave of delicious Chinese food – yum!
- St Giles’ Cafe: Proper home cooking, and baking, done well with lots of care and attention, in a lovely little cafe. A far cry from it’s previous ‘greasy spoon’ format, big credit for making their own ‘Oxford sausage’ too. Not just open for breakfast and lunch, check it out for an intimate supper. And as Jacqui says – “the best cuppa you’ll get in Oxford”!
- Oxford’s Grill: Don’t let that basic sign fool you, the food inside is far from basic – delicately balanced punchy flavours, free bread and houmous to start your meal, excellent service, all at incredibly reasonable prices. An excellent example of under promising and over delivering!
- Oli’s Thai: I’m utterly amazed when I speak to any locals who haven’t yet been. I want to grab them by both arms, give them a good shake and say “what the hell are you thinking?!”. Excellent food, exquisite flavours, lovely owners, relaxed but stylish vibe. The confit Penang duck is understandably a huge hit, but their simple dishes of beef soup and sweetcorn fritters are way more exciting than they sound. Booking essential because this place is VERY popular.
- Magdalen Arms: Loved by locals and nationals alike, this previous ‘spit and sawdust’ pub has led the way with food in Oxford for some time. Sister pub to the ‘original’ gastropub The Anchor & Hope, Magdalen Arms now serves up consistently excellent Med-inspired food, though the service can be a little lacking – lucky for them the food is so damned good!
- Brasserie Blanc: Monsieur Blanc still holds a special place in his heart for the city where the Brasserie group originated. And we hold a special place for this restaurant in Jericho. Can be noisy when it’s busy but the food is very good, so who needs to talk anyway?
- Al Shami: Lebanese in Jericho. Go hungry as you’ll eat a lot! Peek into the back room for stunning decor.
- Atomic Burgers: Voted by the Twittersphere as the best burgers in Oxford – both meat and veggie. Retro, fun, filling and flavoursome it’s well worth a visit so get your hands on one of their mammoth filled burgers. You could always try Becca’s tip and take a Krispy Kreme doughnut in with you to replace the top half of the burger bun!
- Pierre Victoire: Excellent French bistro food, in an intimate and classy setting, at sometimes unbelievably low prices. For great value, do check out their set menus – three-course lunch for £11.90, three-course dinner for £23.50, pre-theatre offers for £11.50 and three-course Sunday lunch for £15.90.
- NEW ADDITION – We couldn’t launch the new site without adding new kid on the East Oxford block, The Chester, to our Top 10 list. The long awaited Chester finally reopened after keeping us waiting almost AN ENTIRE YEAR. Thankfully, the food lived up to all expectation and we can’t get enough of the place. That epic steak platter alone deserves an Award, a truly deserving new entry.
First Edition (March 2014)
- The Magdalen Arms: hearty good cooking. We like it here a lot.
- Sojo: possibly the best Chinese in town. There are a few new contenders that we’re about to try so it does have competition…
- Chiang Mai: Thai food, in a stunning building but a little pricey. An occasion rather than an everyday visit.
- Door 74: home of the best chips in Oxford according to Jacqui! Small, intimate and lovely.
- Oli’s Thai: run by a husband and wife team, rapidly becoming one of THE places to eat in Oxford. Confit duck, beef Penang and papaya salad get a lot of love!
- Al-Shami: Lebanese in Jericho. Go hungry as you’ll eat a lot! Peek into the back room for stunning decor.
- The Red Lion, Gloucester Green: Run by the same team as The Trout Inn but able to concentrate more on the food than the scenery. Sunday roasts here are good.
- Brasserie Blanc: Monsieur Blanc still holds a special place in his heart for the city where the Brasserie group originated. And we hold a special place for this restaurant in Jericho. Can be noisy when it’s busy but the food is very good so who needs to talk anyway!
- St Giles Cafe: No longer a greasy spoon, this tiny cafe does excellent breakfast, lunches and fabulous cream teas. And they open for dinner a few nights a week. Wonderful.
- Atomic Burgers: Voted by the Twittersphere as the best burgers in Oxford – both meat and veggie! Retro, fun, filling and flavoursome it’s well worth a visit so get your hands on one of their mammoth filled burgers.
I have to put my vote in for Xi’an in Summertown. It’s been my favourite for years. I’ve never had a bad meal or bad service there. They’re consistent and reliable and everything there is delicious!
Neither of us have tried Xi’an yet, but we’re planning a trip soon if you fancy joining us?
Would agree with most of these but maybe missing the Rickety Press and Jacobs inn? Also agree with previous comment about Xian.
Unfortunately we’ve had really mixed experiences at both, looking forward to trying the new breakfast menu at Rickety Press though. We do have a couple of updates to make to the list soon, so watch this space!
You can grab me by the arms and shake me if you want, but after trying twice to book at Oli’s Thai and seeing the first available table stretch away into the distant horizon I don’t think I want to bother. I’m sure it’s lovely but I’m not pre-booking my life to work around their tiny capacity. Moya was a fantastic and friendly alternative
Ha! Fair enough Neil, it is a nightmare to get a table there
Dying to try Oli’s but when my husband is up for Asian, it’s too late too book. I’ll be on it though. I have to agree w/ Jacob’s Inn that it was a miss for us – just for lunch and both our meals were bland. We like Rickety Press but I find it kind of pricey for what’s offered. Solid for us overall though. That said, I know it’s a chain, but we love Cote Brasserie on George St. The service is a bit all over the map – like literally, you’ll get 3 different ppl waiting on you – but it’s a casual and nice night out and we don’t think the price is over the top compared to say Quod where we ate with friends recently and were stunned at the price vs quality of food. I’d never go back if I have a choice. Also heard X’ian was really good recently. We always notice in Dec/Jan it seems to be closed. Or maybe we’re not in the area enough. Not sure.
We’re off to try Xi’an soon and Jacqui is a massive fan of Oli’s although I have the same issue, when I fancy it, it’s too late to get a table! Cote is very good for a chain, far better than Quod and Marco’s. Try Portabello in Summertown.
And if you and your husband fancy different things at different times, you should definitely come along to one of our Bitten Street events – next one is tomorrow but it’s on every first Saturday of the month at Oxford Castle!
SoJo is on here but Zheng isn’t? Bizarre. Al Shami was pretty unimpressive when I last went there, too.
Watch this space… update coming very soon