St Aldates Tavern

A narrow-fronted pub tucked inconspicuously away next to the Post Office, St Aldates Tavern had barely caught my eye during my ten years in Oxford. Passing by, I'd occasionally observe a few patrons chatting outside over a cigarette and a pint, but I was never once tempted to step through its doors. Not even during that phase when it served Thai food (somewhat incongrously, given its British boozer exterior). It just never looked like anything special. These days are gone, however. Now under new management, St Aldates Tavern is no longer an average spot for a city-centre pint: it's been given a makeover and a decent menu. Nowadays, it's an ideal venue for an after-work bite to eat, a catch-up with friends over a glass of wine, or erm... a city-centre pint.

Don't get me wrong, St Aldates Tavern hasn't gone all gastro. There are no high-backed leather chairs, faux-distressed tables and arty wallcoverings here. The interior is tasteful and minimal: it's definitely still a pub, but its wooden tables, neutral colour scheme and tasteful fixtures and fittings hint at a slightly higher end market than its previous incarnation. Walking in on a Friday evening, it was almost standing-room only: luckily, we managed to grab a little table at the back, behind the bar. Winding our way through the pub, C and I noticed tables of hungry customers tucking into sharing boards and platefuls of hearty-looking food. Never having seen the menu (unfortunately their website wasn't yet up and running), I was pleased to notice that the dishes being demolished looked more appetising than standard pub grub.

It certainly promised to be appetising, with the announcement at the head of the menu that all food is homemade from fresh ingredients every day – and on the premises, no less. The all-day menu (food is served from 12–9.30pm) is unpretentious but appealing: classics such as sausage and mash (£7) and beer-battered fish and chips (£7.50) sit along side a few 'St Aldates Specials' (such as crevettes with braised fennel and aioli, £8.50, and rump steak with hand-cut chips, £9.50). There are also a couple of dishes to share; ideal accompaniments for a post-work glass of wine: there's a baked camembert with freshly-baked bread (£8.50) and a charcuterie board featuring smoked duck breast, chicken liver parfait and ham hock terrine (£14). Prices are surprisingly reasonable given the pub's central location: but does the low price mean comparable quality, or petite portion sizes?

Oh hi, camembert

No, as it turned out. C and I devoured our whole baked camembert (I blame the appetite we'd worked up over a glass of red) pretty damn quickly: it was just too tasty. The centre was perfectly melted throughout, and the warm fresh bread ideal for scooping up the cheesy goodness. C pronounced it the best baked camembert she'd ever eaten, and I'd have to agree. Now I know that sticking a cheese in the oven doesn't sound like the most challenging of feats, but getting the right consistency is something of an art form. And it's one that the chef at St Aldates Tavern has clearly mastered. Add to that the touch of honey crowning the camembert, and welcome to cheese bliss.

Witness the fitness

My main course of roast pepper and butterbean stew (£7.50, one of 3 vegetarian options) had a hard act to follow, but it put in a sterling performance. In addition to peppers, the stew also featured a selection of other veg, including courgettes plus plenty of herbs, making it tastier than anticipated. I admit I hesitated before ordering, as I find that vegetable stews can often be disappointingly watery in consistency, but the St Aldates version was robust and tasty.

Vegetable and butterbean stew

C opted for the 8oz beef burger served with hand-cut chips (£8.50), which came topped with red onion and cheese. It was cooked medium (just right, apparently), with a well-seasoned, herby flavour. The bun was toasted, the salad topping worked well: all in all, an excellent burger, apparently. Both our mains were on a par with a gastropub offering, at a more modest price.

Beef burger

If your appetite is more restrained than ours, St Aldates Tavern also serves bar snacks (from £3). Although about half of the customers were dining, it's very much a pub: there are 8 beers on tap, priced from £3.70 a pint. There's also a decent wine list, with small glasses from £2.20 – but be warned, large glasses don't come in so cheap, with the house white £4.85 for 250ml and the most expensive wines over the £8 mark. Bottles are better value, so all the more excuse to settle in for the evening and order some dinner while you're at it.

With a strong menu of well-cooked – and well-priced – food, a wide choice of drinks at an average city centre rate, a comfortable setting and friendly service, St Aldates Tavern is worth a visit. After ten years, it's now well and truly on my radar.

Verdict: 8.5

St Aldates Tavern is at 108 St Aldates, OX1 1BU. Tel: 01865 241185.

Apologies for the silence: fortnightly reviews to be resumed!

Dosa Park

It's 7pm, you've got £5 in your pocket and an empty stomach. Looks like a sandwich is the most likely option, unless you want to go down the greasy burger/chips route. Or you could take that fiver to a kebab shop. Not just any kebab shop: Dosa Park. Because as I discovered, not all kebab joints are created equal. In fact, some aren't really kebab shops at all.

You've probably passed by Dosa Park on your way to and from Oxford train station and not spared it a second glance. Unless you found yourself in the aforementioned famished in possession of a fiver situation. Then you might have wandered in and realised they serve far more than just various combinations of meat + chips: they also serve South Indian food. The clue's in the name, really – a dosa is a savoury rice pancake popular in the south of India, as well as in South East Asian countries such as Malaysia and Singapore. In the UK, we're much more familiar with curries from the north of India, Bangladesh or Pakistan, so dosa can be hard to come by. Oxford now has three purveyors of this light, crispy stomach filler: Chutneys, Trichy Dosa and Dosa Park. The latter may look like any other greasy kebab shop, but its cheap cooking gives much pricier Indian restaurants a run for their money.

Trichy Dosa

 UPDATE: As of July 2012, Trichy Dosa is now Sherpa Nepalese.

Poppadoms, curry, rice, naan bread: standard Indian fare. Dosa and idly? If you live in the UK, probably not so much. Since the opening of Trichy Dosa in late 2011, these staples of South Indian food can now be found on the Cowley Road, so there's no excuse to limit your repertoire.

I first encountered a dosa in Malaysia. The large, thin savoury pancake didn't say 'Indian food' to me so much as it said 'smear me with nutella and devour me like Lent starts tomorrow'. (Well, to be honest, it didn't say anything - it was a pancake). Devour it I did though, dipped in the sauces it came with. And it was love at first bite: for the rest of my stay, a dosa a day was an essential requirement. Served solo or filled with vegetables, cheese or meat, these pancakes made of rice batter and black lentils are simple yet delicious if done well. Needless to say, I was pretty excited at the prospect of a visit to Trichy Dosa.

The restaurant itself is unremarkable; a plain Jane making no mark on the design scale. The leather-backed chairs are decent, but the lack of tablecloths cheapened their look somewhat. The neutral effect inspired by the bland decor was cancelled out by another type of decoration, though: decorations of the Christmas variety. Yes, at the beginning of February, tinsel still adorned Trichy Dosa's walls. Epiphany rules may not apply here, but for me it suggested a lack of care and lent an oddly unseasonal air.

The waiter's warm greeting appeased me a little, but once we got stuck into the menu we were lost. Rather than ordering a thali plate of mini-portions of different dishes (from £8), our group of 3 wanted to test out a range of dosa and idly (steamed 'savoury cakes', according to Wikipedia). Given the low prices of the dosa (from £3 for a plain pancake to £5 for a chef's special), we weren't sure whether they were meant to be ordered alone or as accompaniments. Most didn't seem to have fillings, so we assumed the latter. In addition to thali and dosa, there were also vegetarian and meat curries, idly, rice and breads on offer, as well as a range of starters. As South Indian food isn't common to the UK, an overview and some ordering guidelines on the menu would probably help: we overheard other groups musing similar thoughts. With some help from our waiter, we opted for 3 different dosas (onion, paneer and lamb), 2 curries (chef's special vegetable and chicken chettinadu) and some idly (jasmine, out of curiosity). Fortunately the wine list proved more familiar territory: a bottle of decent house white set us back just £10.95.

After a reasonable wait, our dishes arrived. For a moment I thought I'd stepped back in time and found myself in my school dining hall circa 2000. Served on huge white plastic trays reminiscent of school dinner trays, the presentation of the dosa isn't going to win any prizes. Although inelegant and cumbersome, the trays are fairly practical, with different compartments for dipping sauces. Eating did provide some logistical problems though - did we eat our curry with the dosa? Did we decant it from the dish onto the tray? When it comes to South Indian food, we were all clearly novices. So we did what any novice should do and got stuck in.

The paneer dosa (£3.50, unfortunately not photographed) most closely resembled the lightly crispy slices of heaven I'd polished off in Kuala Lumpur. Filled with Indian cheese, it was light and tasty. The other two dosa were made from coarser semolina batter, and were much 'flatter' and heavier. Our unanimous preference was for the paneer dosa: the onion and lamb dropped out of their respective dosa too easily, making eating them a bit of a messy experience (although our technique was no doubt partly responsible). N pointed out that it wasn't exactly 'date food'. The chicken curry (£6) was well-received by N and S; its creamy sauce well-spiced. I was less enamoured of my vegetarian option (£6), which was more sauce than vegetable content, although the addition of some paneer did help to win me round. The portions were also a little on the small side. Despite this, we still struggled to finish: the dosa were huge, and the idly (4 for £4.50) were also sizeable. These puffy, glutinous cakes are difficult to describe but I'd recommend trying them: the texture was a delight, even if the jasmine flavour wasn't really discernible.

Like our selection of dishes, my thoughts on Trichy Dosa are mixed. I think our experience would have been enhanced by knowing what to order: if any of your friends know their South Indian food, it might be as well to consult them before visiting. Although for the purposes of a review I wanted to sample a variety of dishes, I can't help but wonder whether a thali plate would have been a safer bet for a first visit. Our food was cheap and filling, but it failed to rekindle my daily desire for dosa. Which, wallet and waistline considered, is probably a good thing. I think it's great that Oxford has a South Indian restaurant though (Dosa Park on Park End Street falls into the fast food category). For this reason, Trichy Dosa's a welcome addition to Oxford's dining scene, and if you've never tried South Indian food, I'd recommend a visit. Just be sure to seek some ordering advice.

Verdict: 6

Trichy Dosa is at 209 Cowley Road, OX4 1XF. Tel: 01865 241493. Take away also available (delivery or collection)

Bodrum

You might not remember dining at Bodrum on Cowley Road, but if you've ever had one too many drinks in East Oxford, chances are you've probably stumbled in for a kebab. Bodrum's one of the many take-away joints lining the stretch from Randolph Street to Leopold Street: but it's the only one that has a queue come 2am. It turns out even drunken revellers can be discerning - Bodrum's grub is a cut above the usual chips n' cheese offerings.

There's much more than doner meat, burgers and chips on the menu at Bodrum. Pass the take-away counter and take a seat at one of the few tables and you'll be offered a menu. Make no mistake, there are no frills here: the menu's laminated plastic and the surroundings are frippery-free, but there's waitress service and a pleasantly buzzing, low key atmosphere. The extensive menu ranges from starters such as houmous and falafel through kebabs to vegetarian dishes, casseroles, steak and pide (Turkish pizza), with burgers and curry thrown in for good measure. Understandably, steak tops the price range, but order anything else and you'll walk away with change from a tenner. Probably quite a bit of change, to be honest.

On our Friday evening visit, Turkish food lovers M and D both opted for kebabs: a chicken sheek kebab (£6.95) for M and a Bodrum kebab (chicken sheek, lamb kofte and doner meat, £7.95) for D. I was impressed at the number of vegetarian options: 4 combined plates, a vegetarian kebab and vegetarian pide, in addition to the ubiquitous houmous and falafel. I opted for one of the combined plates - houmous, falafel and borek (feta pastries), served with rice and salad (£5.95). After ordering, we were presented with a basket of fresh, warm pitta bread along with a plate of dips to pick at while we waited.

Bodrum kebab

The Magic Cafe

In many meat eaters’ minds, the word ‘vegetarian’ used to conjure up images of lettuce leaves and hunger, or bland platefuls of unsatisfying lentils and brown rice. When canvassing my male friends’ opinions on meat-free meals prior to my latest radio show, I was surprised to receive an open-minded, positive response: turns out it was me living in the past and taking a sexist stance on meaty meals, not them. Whether for economic or health reasons, more and more omnivores are choosing to forgo flesh on a regular basis, opting to base a higher number of their meals around vegetables. Even famous carnivore Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has recently experimented with eating an almost exclusively vegetarian diet with unexpectedly positive results: seasonal vegetables can be the stars of a dish rather than the supporting act.

With all this in mind, I finally visited the Magic Café for lunch. A bit of an East Oxford institution, the Magic Café serves breakfast, lunch, tea and cakes to an eclectic crowd including plenty of families no doubt enticed by its laid-back atmosphere and low prices. Surprisingly in a city like Oxford, there are only two exclusively vegetarian eating establishments to choose from, the Magic Café and the Gardeners’ Arms, both feeding residents’ meat-free needs for years. With a full menu of vegetarian and vegan breakfasts from £2.50 and daily lunch offerings from £3, the Magic Café currently only caters to hunger pangs during daylight hours, although this looks set to change with their first evening opening on 7 October.

Selection of salads

Visiting on a weekday lunchtime, offerings included a mixed vegetable vegan soup (£3), a pie of the day (Russian koulbiaka, £3.50), a selection of salads and a chickpea and apricot tagine (£5.70). S opted for a full plate of salad (£4), heaped with waldorf, Greek, cous cous and leaf varieties. Fresh, lively and filling, it was much tastier than a soggy supermarket sandwich for only a few pence more.

Koulbiaka

L’s koulbiaka met her high expectations: as a former resident of Russia, she was familiar with the traditional version of the dish, made with salmon rather than mozzarella. Also containing rice, egg, mushrooms and peas encased in pastry, it was a flavoursome and filling lunch. Served with herb-flecked cous cous, homemade houmous and pitta bread, my hearty tagine was a lovely autumnal dish: rich, packed with vegetables and with just a hint of apricot adding a subtle extra dimension of flavour. Combined with the extra accompaniments, it certainly kept me full for the rest of the day.

With its boho interior and unfussy but delicious vegetarian food, the Magic Café is definitely one of the old guard of vegetarian restaurants. No flash fixtures, no wacky creations on their menu: just a tried and tested formula which keeps customers happy (and with its plentiful portions, full). And with evening openings hopefully set to become a regular occurrence, a new chapter in their history may be just about to begin.

Verdict: 8

For more ideas on where to eat vegetarian food in Oxfordshire, you can listen to my appearance on Jo Thoenes's show on BBC Radio Oxford on 23 September here until 30 September.


The Magic Café is at 110 Magdalen Road. To book for Dodo’s Vegetarian Restaurant at the Magic Café on Friday 7 October (vegan and vegetarian options available), call 01865 794604.

Red Star

If you're looking for cheap, easy and quick eats, noodles are where it's at. Owing to the numerous chains that have sprung up in recent years, the communal tables of the noodle bar are now a familiar part of the UK landscape. On Cowley Road, independent Red Star offers diners a taste of Asia on a very tight budget: a winning formula in an area packed with students.

With soup noodles and rice and noodle dishes starting at just £5 and more elaborate options such as bento boxes weighing in at around £8, Red Star is in no danger of breaking anyone's budget. Its comprehensive menu features classics from all over Asia such as chow mein, thai curries and yaki soba, with some less-common options appearing among the chalked-up specials. On a previous visit, the 'healthy choice' of spicy ma po tofu with steamed rice (£5) from this selection went down a treat. On my latest visit, though, it was all about the noodles.

Taking our place on the wooden bench, A and I noticed a young chap huffing and puffing over a bowl of presumably rather spicy soup. As we waited for our dishes to arrive, we watched him turn redder and redder in the face until he smacked his empty bowl down on the table in the manner of someone who's just won a long and embittered battle. Clutching his stomach, he announced his success to the waitress: he had just completed the 'chilli challenge' of eating said soup in thirty minutes. Given that he then repaired to the bathroom for almost thirty minutes, I don't think that's a gauntlet I'll be accepting anytime soon.

Around ten minutes after ordering, our safer choices of yasai yaki soba (£5) and beef ho fun (£5.50) arrived. Portions are generous, and I was particularly impressed with the high egg and vegetable content of my  noodles (beansprouts, courgette, onion, green & red peppers and sweetcorn) for the modest price. There was a definite soy taste, and a hint of ginger which could have been slightly more pronounced to add a little depth to the flavour. A declared his ho fun 'pleasantly greasy', and I had to concur: the stir-fried noodles are a little on the oily side, but not in a bad way. 'Light' isn't the word I'd use, but you definitely don't feel the need to atone for any dietary sins after eating.

Red Star's a definite winner in the price-quality ratio: a varied menu of tasty dishes and quick, efficient service make it worth a try if you're looking for a budget bite in the Cowley Road area. Oh, and chopstick-challenged types like myself will be happy to hear that forks are provided on request.

Verdict: 6

Red Star is at 187 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1UT.

Mission Burrito

Mission Burrito spiced up Oxford's lunch scene considerably when it hit St Michael's Street a few years ago. Bringing a taste of Mexico to the city centre, Mission's offer of burritos and tacos has proven so popular that they've now opened a second branch on King Edward Street.

Taking advantage of a Groupon offer, it was this new branch I visited on a Saturday lunchtime. With more space for diners than the original shop, customers hoping to eat in should perhaps head here instead. The menu is the same at both locations though, with vegetarian, chicken or carnitas (pork) burritos all costing £5.45 and steak numbers weighing in at £5.95. Tacos with the same fillings are also available, as well as burrito bowls for wheat-dodgers.

I opted for a vegetarian burrito: a flour tortilla packed with rice, black beans, sauteed onions and peppers, lettuce and my choice of 4 sauces, ranging from the mild pico de gallo to more firey options. I played it safe with the medium-spiced salsa verde, skipped the sour cream on offer and added some guacamole into the mix (70p extra). M chose a carnitas burrito with all the extras. As the Great British sunshine was putting in a rare appearance, we decided on an al fresco lunch instead of eating in. The friendly staff presented us with two very sizeable packages: Mission's burritos certainly aren't suitable for those looking for a light luncheon.

The combination of rice, beans and sauteed vegetables was a tasty one, although I couldn't help but wish there had been a few different veggies lurking in there to add more variety (perhaps this would be straying away from the path of authenticity, though). The salsa was on the mild side of medium, so if you like it spicy then be brave and try one of the hot sauces. It was definitely a satisfying lunch: the flour tortilla was stuffed with ingredients, but so expertly-assembled that it didn't prove messy to eat - perfect picnic food. M rated the carnitas option highly: she reported that the marinated pork was succulently moist with a good depth of flavour.

If you're looking for a lunchtime change from the usual panini or salad options, give Mission Burrito a go: its generous portions make its meals good value. Just make sure to bring your appetite.

Verdict: 7/10

Mission Burrito is at 8 St Michael's Street and 2 King Edward Street, Oxford.