Oxford pubs and restaurants

It's recently (last year or two) been refurbished, previously it was one of the worst pubs in Oxford. That name sounds right IMO.

Have heard good things about the food at the new Magdalen Arms and read a glowing review in the Guardian (well, on its website, anyway), but not been myself. Keen to hear if anyone else here has eaten there.

Lamb and Flag is not as good as it used to be before it was co-owned by St John's College or whatever is the case now (I know they always owned the building but now the St John's logo is on all the menus etc, and even then it was nothing special, though it used to be a v convenient local for me

madding crowd = crowd is a mix of it people and thesps

ha, I was gonna say a mix of librarians and the music scenesters who are too old for the Star, but I guess that works out much the same (also as an IT person I guess I would not have been there if it didn't attract my own kind)

not much to say about the others as in most cases it's at least a couple of years since I went, I never ate there, and I am not a real ale drinker or really someone with a defined sense of what is or isn't a good pub

Thought the Magdalen Arms was nice but not as great as the Guardian review suggests.

The beers are nice, the food could do with a little more finesse.

In Oxfordshire rather than Oxford, I prefer the Kingham Plough.

bear inn being crazy underrated here - no right angles! Ties on the walls! It is a golden absurdity of a pub when it is not too crowded

but it is never not too crowded?

Still pondering a good pub route through Oxford, ideally ending somewhere near the Ashmolean or along the Banbury Road (to catch the bus home) . . .

starting where?

Who runs Madding Crowd now? Did I hear Noel died a few years back?

o god i have reached the age of making old-man small talk about pub landlords

Starting where? Well I'd be travelling in on the S5 which stops along the Banbury Road and then finally near the Randolph but my sense is that it can start more or less anywhere and that it is by the *end* of the evening that I need to be heading in the right direction.

(Likely to happen on a Saturday evening, if that impacts on the choices).

Couldn't see the appeal of the Madding Crowd. Liked the Rose & Crown a lot (though suspect I would generally err towards the Gardener's Arms across the road).

gardeners arms on north parade is good trad local pub. gardener's arms on plantation road (5 mins away) is kind of a hipster student place these days, but sufficiently far off the beaten track to still be great. i've always hated the rose and crown. rude self-important owner, dreadful staff, expensive even for oxford. the royal oak at the bottom of woodstock road is good outside of term time. city centre it gets a bit slim pickings imo. far from the madding crowd is my favourite. ugly building but great bar. summertown is crying out for a non-awful pub.

if you're willing to go into jericho options increase: the bookbinders is variable but cute. harcourt arms is the joint-best pub in oxford imo but is closed due to illness. john the owner fell down the stairs and broke his leg apparently : (

Eagle & Child worth a mention, for its Inkies connection, and the fact that I worked as an all-round dogsbody in the kitchen there c. 1993!

under new ownership (again) iirc

What are my chances of getting a place at the Magdalen Arms at, say, 7-7:30 on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening without booking? I was hoping not to book so we could see what the menu is like and how packed it is and head somewhere else if it doesn't appeal.

(Also, anyone have any thoughts on the service? Bit wary of reviews on tripadvisor/dailyinfo, where half of them are v positive and half of them are v negative, mainly about very long waits and unhelpful staff.)

The service was fine when we went, despite it being a busy Saturday.

The food tasted nice but was a bit ... chucked on the plate and lacked finesse. Plus lots too many salad leaves. The massive sharing pies looked good value/fun for families. Didn't seem as good as some reviews (eg. The Guardian) have suggested but nice nevertheless.

i don't think there is better food, in a pub, in oxford. that's not as big as a statement as it could be, though.

We went along but of the 5 main courses on offer one had sold out already, one was a not too interesting veg option, and the other 3 were sharing plates which nobody could agree on. So we ended up just having a drink.

Will try again some other time. Are there more options at the weekend, or is 5 about usual?

(Maybe next time I should make sure my party doesn't include one person who doesn't eat beef and one person who doesn't like lamb, which ruled out 2 of the 3 sharing dishes too.)

(We went to the Nepalese restaurant in the pub on Howard St instead and had an enjoyable meal, though more because it was an interesting change than for any objective culinary qualities, which I am pretty much not qualified to judge anyway.)

one person who doesn't eat beef and one person who doesn't like lamb

innocuous things that make me irrationally angry. srsly though who doesn't like lamb?!

i'm not a huge fan.

(+ apparently a lot of japanese people don't like it and think it smells bad?)

Has anyone checked out Edamame, the Japanese restaurant on Holywell Street? Going there week after next.

it's been there for like 15 years, right? i like it.

Yeh, it's been there for a while, I've just just never got round to it. My knowledge of Japanese food is embarrassingly slight, so I'm up for some yummy education.

good place, shut sometimes when students aren't in town.

i've heard it is overrated due to the only other option in town being yo sushi; like, there's a queue outside on their sushi days, and stuff.

i am just generally pissed off with the general crapness of oxford food tho so assume everything is at least 25% better than i think it is or have heard it is

it's okay but it's not super special and a bit overpriced iirc (have not eaten there in 3 or 4 years). the sushi days are probably the best days to go, queue notwithstanding.

i've heard it is overrated due to the only other option in town being yo sushi

and Yo Sushi only opened 2-3 years ago, too. Could definitely do with another Japanese restaurant in town (ok, I mainly mean a sushi-serving one or at least somewhere I can get a katsu don, so not counting the Wagamama or Red Star noodle bars).

I like Edamame but Japanophile friend was grousing about how it wasn't all that - still definitely worth visiting at least once though

Hoping the Gardener's Arms rumours are untrue.

Any thoughts on the Harcourt under new ownership? (Have still not managed to drink in there).

Drank in the revamped pub just along from the Harcourt - name escapes me, maybe something to do with a printing press - and it seemed to be doing an okay job of keeping locals (ie. those that had drunk in the old pub) happy while attracting new people. Food menu seemed expensive unless it is very good.

bookbinders

john finally gone from the harcourt? is he ok? i know he tore a ligament or sth in his knee and was finding it very difficult.

which gardener's arms is in trouble?

I think the landlord of the Harcourt had fallen down some stairs the first time I'd tried to go to the Harcourt (maybe around the time of my posts upthread). It closed but then re-opened fairly quickly with new landlords.

Gardener's Arms: the veggie one. Heard it was closing from a friend of a friend but it may be completely untrue.

yeah i posted about the stairs fall upthread.

are they confirmed new owners? john used to go on holiday about 2 weeks out of 8 or so and this couple would run it for him while he was away. not them?

pretty sure i read that it was new owners in the oxford times.

http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/9059511.Jericho_pubs_re_open_for_business/

this article is SO MUCH arsewater, as you'd expect from its byline, but also I have had some pleasant meals and many drinks in this place (West Oxford is v short on decent pubs - Perch good but too far and too busy) and now, ugh, do I really want to give these people more money? am I being... silly?

http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/opinions/graymatter/9656241.The_Prime_Minister_surprises_us_with_a_visit_to_The_Punter/

PS if you are unfortunate in timing a visit you too could hear Mr Gray living up to any prejudices you may have formed on reading his column
PPS the food has not been as good since their previous chef/barman left anyhow

Quite often read the Oxford Times ... Gray Matters really is dreadful, isn't it?

I am not sure which of his two pitches is more enraging, "how I met someone famous in 1978 who was clearly fascinated by my wit and enlightening use of the subjunctive" or "how the rules of cycling/garden maintenance/refuse collection should apply to everyone except me because I am very important and might be in a hurry"

(or the restaurant reviews, in which he fits the former via a story about how he first met the chef while golfing with a Bee Gee, plus the latter with a paragraph about his selected mode of transport to his meal, rounded off with a thrilling observation that his wife and her mother quite liked their starters)

Any suggestions for a *Christmas Day* meal out in Oxford(shire)?

i went to the perch last weekend for the first time since the fire(?)/change of ownership. it's set up like a restaurant now. i mean it's kind of cheesy but it was better than it used to be! not sure if they're open on xmas day though.

I see the Oxford Mail is suggesting The Black Boy (Headington), Weston Manor (Weston On The Green) and Majliss (Cowley Road).

Anyone been to the Oxford Arms in Kirtlington?

I know this isn't tripadvisor but why not try: to get to Oxford from Cambridge, is it better to go back to London, or is it better to take a bus or other transport directly from Cambridge to Oxford? I hope the latter but from net perusal I'm more confused than before.

& from Oxford to Coventry : any idea whether this is better by train or bus? so confused.

I'm very out of date on this stuff, but -
the Oxford-Cambridge coach ride is a bit of a pain (quite long, is all), but I wouldn't go in and out of London to dodge it. Coaches are comfortable and regular iirc.
I think I'd take the Oxford-Coventry train if you aren't broke. It's an easy journey.

yes money isn't too much of an object here. a long coach ride is ok. it seems like there ought to be a good rail connection between the two, but privatized transport ends up having its own inscrutable logic.

there used to be a direct train I think. Be prepared to see more of Bedford and Luton than you might have desired on your coach trip!

I have only ever been to London (and that but once), so this trip to the UK promises loads of novel fascinating provincial details.

there used to be a direct train I think. Be prepared to see more of Bedford and Luton than you might have desired on your coach trip!

Approximately a billion roundabouts too iirc. There was a direct link pre-60s; supposedly one reason Bletchley Park was where it was was because it was roughly halfway between the two on that line. I think there's talk of reviving part of the line too, but that doesn't help Euler right now either.

I agree with woof, I would probably take the coach (X5?) to Cambridge and the train to Coventry. Admittedly I haven't tried either method of getting to Cambridge but I've taken the train from Oxford to Birmingham a few times, which stops at Coventry iirc, and that's been reasonably quick and convenient each time, though be warned that trains in this country are expensive and get very full around commuter times.