Restaurant Review: The Up In Arms

The Up In Arms pub, Marston, Oxford | Image credit Bitten Oxford — Lovely light and airy space with plenty of room for dining.

Way back in April, before we even had a summer (bye-bye sunshine 😥), I popped in to check out the soon to open ‘The Up In Arms‘, latest sibling in the Dodo Pub Co family and new occupant of the old Somerset pub in Marston.

You can check out my full preview here, so I won’t go back over all the details.

Needless to say, I’ve been back since to review it. Not once, but twice. The first visit was an impromptu one with family, filling up on hot wings and pizza, the latter a guest visit to provide a review of the breakfast.

Now, as you know from Bitten, we don’t hold any punches when it comes to telling you what’s crap. Thankfully for Dodo, The Up In Arms is not.

I left the place well alone for long enough for any niggles to settle down. There were some reports to me early on of the bar struggling to cope with service demands, but on both occasions I visited we had no issues. It wasn’t heaving on either visit though, so I can’t comment on how well they handle things under maximum pressure.

The new pub doesn’t have quite the charm of its siblings, but I think that’s mostly down to the size of the space – it’s not cosy by any means, it’s actually pretty big.

Let’s get to the food…

So hot wings, truffle cheese fries and sourdough pizza. They’re classics that the other Dodo sites do well – The Rusty being my most local. I’ve often found that when restaurant businesses grow, quality can dwindle, so I was a little concerned UIA might fail to meet the Rusty standards, but it didn’t. Big tick for quality control.

The menu is the same, so in theory, everything should taste the same. However, things can get lost in translation; I’m glad that hasn’t happened here. So far, so good.

Breakfast

Always a meal I enjoy, but the portions on this occasion well and truly beat me. Coming in fresh from holiday and a daily buffet, my eyes were way bigger than my belly and I lost the battle. Thankfully the other half was on hand to help.

Again, breakfast met the standards at The Rusty, the cheese & leek fritter still damn delicious and the eggs well poached if a little tiny bit under. Served up with proper tinned beans, proper hash browns, big juicy mushroom, decent slices of warm sourdough toast and some avocado tucked in there for good measure.

Andrew opted for the meatier version, the ‘Boss Man’; which swapped in sausages, crisp streaky bacon, and black pudding. It was hoovered up before I’d even buttered my toast. Both excellent and exactly like I had on a previous visit to The Rusty (see below) – so, again, I won’t go over it all again but suffice to say I’d happily return.

Review: Breakfast at The Rusty Bicycle

Great for couples, groups, families and more – especially with the big back garden and parking. The garden now boasts a venue space in the guise of a shipping container (see below). This has been used to host bands, a pop-up cinema and can be privately hired for events – when I last asked it was free to book!

Keep an eye on the website for updates on events: dodopubs.com/whats-occurring.