OXTWO was one of my favourite meals of 2025, so it is about time we told you about it.
The lovechild of Summertown Wine Bar and the team behind The Back Lane Tavern and The Duke, OXTWO is a small plates wine bar with a tapas style, sharing led menu, much of it cooked over charcoal.
We have had a few Bitten readers ask whether it is worth a visit. We went at the end of last year to try it for ourselves and, honestly, we were pretty blown away.
The menu is neatly split into smaller plates and larger dishes cooked over fire, still designed for sharing but a little more substantial. There is also a cheese selection and a dessert menu so enticing you will not want to share.
Between three of us we ordered what turned out to be the perfect amount, if anything we could probably have dropped a dish. We started with Salt Pig coppa, £8 (a traditional Italian dry-cured pork cold cut made from the neck or shoulder muscle). The quality of the meat was second to none, beautifully fatty, deeply savoury and full of flavour. Alongside it, focaccia with whipped lardo and tapenade, £7, the lardo was dangerously good.
The winter squash, sage and Black Bomber velouté, £4, had us genuinely fighting over the last spoonful. Delicate, comforting and deeply flavourful, it tasted like winter in the best possible way.
Korean chicken wings with house ranch, £6, brought a welcome kick. They were not overly sauced, which meant crisp skin and balanced heat, a real win. House fries, £4.50, nearly did not make the order but thank goodness they did. Superior fries, crisp, properly seasoned, utterly moreish.
From the fire section, the Cotswold lamb shoulder with whipped feta, white bean purée and chimichurri, £14, was sublime. Melt in the mouth lamb with that unmistakable depth that only comes from cooking over flame. You could taste the charcoal which paired really well with the freshness of the feta and purée.
The Severn and Wye salmon teriyaki with miso roasted aubergine and Asian slaw, £13, was another favourite. Beautifully presented and even better to eat, sweet, savoury and smoky, with freshness from the slaw cutting through the richness.
If you are not salivating by now, we cannot help you.
Dessert sealed the deal. The dark chocolate delice with coffee mousse and rum crème fraîche, £9, was rich and indulgent without being heavy. We also tried scoops of banoffee pie and mince pie ice cream, £2 per scoop. The banoffee was a touch too sweet for me personally, but the mince pie ice cream was absolutely sublime, a boozy hit with crunchy pastry shards and plump raisins. Insanely good.
To drink, we shared a bottle of Perdido Tempranillo from Navarra, £28, an award winning Spanish red at 13.5% ABV. Smooth, generous and the perfect partner to the smoky lamb and salty small plates.
The service was excellent throughout, warm, knowledgeable and genuinely enthusiastic. The space itself is airy and spacious yet still manages to feel atmospheric.
Whether you are popping in for nibbles and a couple of glasses of wine or going all in for a celebratory spread, you will find exactly what you are looking for here.
We all left beaming, thrilled to have discovered such a gem.
On Sundays they serve roasts, followed by fondue and small plates, plus live music in the evenings. It is firmly on our hit list for this year’s roast guide, we will report back.
OXTWO is relaxed, elevated, elegant and fun dining at its best. Considering the quality of the produce and the refined, confident cooking on display, we felt it offered genuinely good value.
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