I often crave the salty, sweet, umami flavours from Chinese cuisine.
Thankfully one of the best places in Oxford to get your Szechuan fix is a short walk away from me on Cowley Road. Café Orient can be easily missed from the outside and it is nothing particularly special inside either, but as soon as you taste their food, you will be wondering when you can return. With a wide range of dishes to choose from, including a healthy share of veggie and vegan options, it will keep you coming back until you have tasted them all. Despite living near Cowley Road for over 4 years now, my first visit to Café Orient was a few months ago, and I am kicking myself for not going sooner.
I went for a friend’s birthday party, where we booked out the private dining room at the far end of the restaurant that featured a lazy susan – arguably every meal is made better with a lazy susan. Though plain in décor, it offers a great space for private functions and dinners where you can order lots of dishes and spin them round to you at your heart’s desire.
I am a sucker for soft and tender aubergine, if anything along those lines are on a menu, I have to order it. So, it is no surprise that one of my favourite dishes in on a Chinese menu is a sticky glazed, slow cooked aubergine and the Café Orient one does not disappoint.
It comes served in this pot style dish and the portion size is generous. It melts in the mouth with this tangy, rich sauce lathered all over it. Slightly on the sweet side, I would recommend ordering some rice and greens or a more salty dish to balance it out. Thankfully, some of the side-dishes are my favourite.
The morning glory – a Chinese green covered in garlic, can’t go wrong. And the spicy, garlicy fried green beans are a must-order.
If those weren’t enough, the restaurant offers hand-pulled noodle dishes that have firmly stayed in our order rotation.
The Szechuan hand-pulled noodles with fried veg is the umami, peppery kick you need. Chewy noodles that are so satisfying to eat, with the perfect blend of flavours. I usually veer towards a saucier noodle, and though these are not saucy as such, they will be everything you didn’t know you wanted but can’t live without.
Service is quick so this is the perfect place for either a meal you can enjoy at leisure (and if you order the amount I do, you will be staying a while) or a quick dinner after work or before other plans in your evening. You might want to book, because when I have tried to walk in, they were full and I walked home in despair.
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