The Old Parsonage

I may need to ask forgiveness from local restauranteurs, but the Old Parsonage is probably the most high class restaurant in Oxford proper.  There is of course Raymond Blanc's flagship just outside, and thr Nut Tree Inn with one Michelin star.  Within the city walls, though, there is a lack in good restaurants.

Part of a group of restaurants, the Parsonage is where you take a guest if you want to have a good meal.  Less business like than Quod, and less fish bowl like than Gee's (the two ugly sisters).

We had a leisurely lunch to while away some time, so felt like visiting the Parsonage.

Half a dozen starters and mains on the set menu, and some desserts we ignored.  A had the rabbit liver and I the ham hock terrine.

We have reached a point which most couples tend to, whereby we know exactly what the both of us will order out of a selection, and the question is who had which.  A is a huge fan of liver (as am I) so I deferred to her this time.  The rabbit livers, the first time we have tried it, were delicious.  A light metallic tang which were mammalian and chewy tasted like excellent chicken livers.  The texture was more akin to calves, but softer, and size also seemed similar to poultry.  With a little touch of bacon for salt, and little broad beans (fava if you want pretension) to chase around, the starter was excellent.

The terrine was also very good, and not overly salty as they sometimes can be.  Good bounce to the meat, and plenty of it.  It wasn't excellent and no better than any good potted meat you can find elsewhere, but still an excellent start to a meal.  Cornichons weren't necessary, but a traditional accompaniment, I suppose.

The house bread was very nice.  Two options were served: a chewy sourdough and a harder (rye?) that provided plenty of opportunity for picking.

A had the kedgeree with poached egg.

The egg in question was just right, and the flavour of the dish was a pleasant balance of fish, rice, and a touch of smoke from the haddock.  The colour looked more like artificially dyed haddock than saffron, but that does sound like something the Parsonage would do.  My only (slight) complaint was that the rice was overcooked and mushy, it was a little homogenous, lacking more peas for texture, and stingy with the fish.  A told me to stop whining.  In truth, it wasn't a risotto and the texture wasn't bad.  There were some fish bones, which I thought they could have taken more care with, and a few more peas would have added texture.  None of this made us unhappy; I am just picking at bones.

I decided on a boring steak frite.  The steak frite wasn't boring; I was particularly uninspired that day.

I asked for as rare as they could manage, and to their extreme credit, the thin sirloin was wonderfully pink.  As much as you can expect for a minute steak (6oz?).  There was some trade off with a brown exterior but I would rather have a pallid, raw piece of beef than all that browning but solid grey throughout.  The chips were excellent.  Crisp, thick and extremely fluffy inside.  I had immediate food envy of the scampi and chips that went past to another table, as the freshly battered scampi looked so enticing.  My steak was fine, but pallid is still pallid and the portion was small.  Fine for most people I guess, but not for this growing (sideways) boy.

The bill came to £37 for two set menus, and a slight indulgence in a glass of champagne took it to over £50 with service.  The meal wasn't mind blowing (although the liver was excellent), but everything was just nice, which is difficult to find in Oxford, where there are several tragically flawed alternatives.  Is it worth the price?  Not for the food, albeit lovely, but yes for a very enjoyable lunch.

Pierre Victoire

Once upon a long time ago, a young M and A had their first date in a French bistro in Oxford.  Years later, we decide to spend a Sunday brunch seeing how the old place has weathered the years.  We go from strength to strength; will Pierre Victoire be the same?

In Sundays they only have a prix fixe menu, which is fine.  It is volumous and covers french classics like pate, duck confit, etc, as well as catering for locals with a range of Sunday roasts.

A ordered the are, and I the salmon cous cous.

The pate is delicious, and extremely fluffy, making the large serving a pleasure to finish.  Oddly almost no bread was served with this, and the gratuitous baguette with the table cover cost didn't make enough of a dent, and we had to ask for more.  What do most people do, eat it with a spoon?  One could, although it's not advised.

Sad baguette.  £2

The cous cous was a sorry affair.  With almost no salmon, and certainly no detectable pieces of eye advertised smoked salmon, it was extremely bland.  Insufficient herbs and peppers to break up the mushy monotony, this was diet food (read: pointless).

The wait was the worst part of the meal.  After plates were cleared away, mains simply failed to appear.  We weren't forgotten; the restaurant just moved at glacial speeds.  Having been seated with no reservation with the admonishment of "ok, but you need to be finished by 2pm", which seemed reasonable since we had come in on the last bell of noon, we were now sitting waiting at 1.15pm for our mains.

A's moule frite was lovely.  Not an overly large portion but plenty for her and some to share.  The mussels were tender and plump, and in a simple marnier sauce.  Frites were rather ho hum.  No bread for soaking up the sauce.  Maybe baguettes are at a premium, or maybe they are habitually wasted, but I would have thought they would replenish with appropriate dishes.  Moan about bread over.

My Sunday roast was a masterpiece.  Something very lean, possibly top rump or silverside, were blasted so that there is still some perfect rareness in a few slices matched well with a good Yorkshire pud and some lively vegetables in jus.  I thought the gravy was too think but A pronounced it excellent.  I do like thick, meaty, gravy, and shouldn't fault this sauce.

For the price, the mains really made the set menu.

By 1.45pm we were worrying about our parking, never mind the deadline they had set.  No sign of desserts; should we just leave.

Finally, these arrived.

A's cherry tart used sweet cherries in season rather than the sour morello type, which meant the flavour was entirely lost in the cooking.  What a waste of good fruit.

My strawberry fool (by some French name) was fine.  After the enormous (even for me) roast meal, a bowl of cream was just a tad too much.

All in all, the price was more than fair for a three course Sunday lunch, and some of here good was excellent and enough to make up for the less interesting dishes.  One needs to pick and choose and learn the menu, which would be a worthy excercise for the best options.  The service does rather let getting experience down.  All very friendly, loud, and extremely french, we were sitting for two hours which rather stretches just how leisurely a lunch we wanted, and at points perfectly good English names and descriptions were given in French.  Yes, I understand it's an authentic french bistro with authentic french staff, but a Yorkie by any other name; a fool is still a fool.

This is the worst photo possible.  I am sorry and I am turning in my blogger card at the door.

Lunch for two with a glass of wine each was around £35-40, and portions are very generous.  Worth becoming a local just to avoid the dud dishes, and order by looking at others' plates, not the menu.

Bill's, revisited

The previous visit was so nice, we decided to take my in-laws there during a visit to Oxford.

After the hot oil bath last time, we were sensible and did not order anything from the deep fried menu, even though it had been such a success.

Better photos of the menu

The interior.  Quiet on a Friday lunchtime, but only because Bill's is surprisingly cavernous. There are a dozen tables seated, but the place seems empty.

Bar

Seating

Salmon special

Very sizeable serving, and nicely presented.  The slathering of mayonnaise seems excessive, but a very well received dish.

Chicken Caesar

The chicken looked like it might be dry, but was actually nicely tender.  Marinated in something, it came out well.

Avocado, bacon and spinach salad

Also very well received.  Simple,but tasty.

All in all, salads that would make a man happy, whilst not the usual burger for lunch.  Good value, and very tasty.  Not your garden variety salad.

Lunch for three: £35 including soft drinks.

Paddyfields, Hyth Bridge Street, Oxford

A stalwart of Chinese food in Oxford, Paddyfields is a fairly authentic restaurant next to the only Chinese supermarket in Oxford.  This isn't exactly true, but Jing Jing on Cowley Road has a entirely different selection of produce.

The haunt of tour busses full of Chinese visitors who cannot face local cuisine that challenges their sensitive palates, it also caters for students (all you can eat menus can't be bad) and locals who fill the restaurant on weekends.

We were one of those latter, this Sunday past, as we wanted to indulge in yum cha/dim sum, and Liaison was too much trouble to get to.

Service was perfunctory as always, which is fine if you know that's just the norm; you don't tend to go to Chinese restaurants for service. It is almost a badge of honour to serve excellent food with short, sharp, sometimes violent, service.

Paddyfields is good, and sometimes very good, but most of the time it is mediocre.  Quite aside from the service, the food is some of the most hit-and-miss we have come across.

This particular Sunday was one of the better, but far from best, days.

Har gow, that staple, were enormous, crunchy full of prawns, and this time just slightly over.  Sometimes the wrapper falls apart quicker than England in a World Cup, and this time it was just acceptable, but the filling was bland from the frozen filling and bordering on mealy from being left on the steamer for just too long.  It's a shame that the items can't be steamed for just the right duration; it makes all the difference, even if the filling is frozen rather than fresh.

Cheung fen were fine, with quite thick wrappers, and the same frozen prawns filling the dumplings.  Always better than no cheung fen, but not as good as decent cheung fen.

The siu mai were excellent, and we had double portions.  It was one of the best dishes we had this time, with bouncy and sweet chopped pork enveloped by wonton wrappers.

Fen zhao (chicken fet) were fine, but nothing to write home about.  Warm, not hot, and tasty but not excellent.  Ho hum.

I am sure you are now sick of hearing the washy washy review of what we were served.  Why did we stay if it were so mediocre, and why do we return?  

Pork buns, lotus rice, and chive dumplings all follow the previous prescription, and so does this entire post.

It's worth going to this Sunday ritual,and it's worth putting up with the lack lustre food.  It's not nearly as good as what these dishes should be, and below minimum expectations, but it is still better than no dim sum.

To sum up, we were served two dishes we did not order, which were taken away with apologies, and we weren't served three dishes we did order, which were taken off the bill with apologies.  We had to ask for water for our tea, and dishes arrived sporadically.

All of this sounds like a disaster which we should not recommend, but it is one of the few options for yum cha/dim sum in Oxford, and by no means the worst, and so we return.

Take from that what you will.  Lunch for two usually £30 or so, and for four this time just over £50.  But we are greedy; you can eat well for less.  The staff are really friendly, despite inattention, and we do appreciate that.

Hung's, Chinatown, London

Looking for something filling, but devoid of any inspiration, I wandered around listlessly for a while peering into the windows of practically every establishment in Chinatown.  After almost deciding to move on, I thought I might visit one of the smaller, old fashioned, rice and noodle places.

Hung's wasn't particularly attractive, but having never been in, and seeming just like the type of place I might be looking from I thought I'd rather eat than keep wandering in the wilderness.

The menu consists largely of fried noodles, soup noodles, or rice, with a variety of fillings.  Like most places in Chinatown, with roast meats hanging in the window, I thought I would go with what is probably the speciality, and ordered huge three roast with rice, priced at £7.50.

Duck, bbq pork and char siu pork on rice

The portion was more than generous, and although very hungry, I struggled towards the end.  The roast duck was fatty, and tasty but somewhat weighed on the mind for its heart stopping properties.  The roast pork was slightly chewy, with the crusty crackling having soaked a little steam and not as crisp as it once might have been.

However, satisfying the food pyramid of starch, fat, protein, and brown gloomy sauce, the dish was welcomed if not to be specifically sought out in the future.

Complementary tea and daily stock was also served.

Complementary daily pork stock with vegetables

All in with service at £8.30, this was not a bad lunch by any stretch, but there is better to be had elsewhere.

Bill's, Oxford

After a rather long haitus, I hope to be back with a few more posts these days.

Around a month ago, the other half and I went to Bill's on St Michael's, opposite the Union.  Having read about it previously, and never noticing the space which used to be a homeless shelter, we decided a long lunch was on the cards.

The menu is a good selection, and the place is incredibly spacious, with industrial chic decor.  Very trendy, which worried us that the food would be produced on an industrial scale.  At this stage we hadn't realised that Bill's is a small chain, which had we known would have given us even more serious misgivings.

We ordered a starter and main each, and the other half had a pink lemonade while I opted for a Chenin blanc of some description.  The service was friendly and punctual, although by a youthful crowd who were informally polite rather than overly attentive. 

The starters of crab cakes with mango salsa and calamari with garlic mayo were excellent.  The chef had obviously mastered the fryer arts, with hot, fairly greaseless and very crispy morsels dispelling any worries we'd had.  However, the garlic mayo was a pure white that would have made a Disney princess feel she'd had too much sun, and the mango salsa was at fridge temperature, which wasn't pleasant with the freshly fried and piping hot crab cake.  Full marks for the quality of the fried food though.

Fresh crab cakes with mango salsa.

Calamari rings with garlic mayonnaise

Unfortunately we had tucked in before remembering the photo anthology; the presentation was far better before we pounced!

The drinks were served promptly, and we were offered top ups when appropriate.

Pink lemonade.

For mains, the other half opted for fish and chips, while I had one of the daily specials of grilled sole in burnt butter and caper sauce.

Sole with caper butter

Cod and chips

While we would like to think we had opened up the golden crust to show you the tender and steaming flesh of the respective fish, the truth is that we again had forgotten to take photos.  This blogging thing needs refreshing!

The cod was beautifully cooked; again the chef had judged the fryer well.  Chips were crisp, but not particularly memorable.  It was a chip shop portion that would have made a gastro pub proud, and certainly wasn't a tiny, pared down, restaurant sized serving.  The fish and batter were eagerly shared.

The sole was also grilled very well, with the frilly edge bones a light brown crisp, and the centre of the fillet tender and juicy.  I am particularly fond of the grilled sole, most probably because of the combination of dark burnt butter and tangy capers and lemon dressing.  This was particularly good, especially considering the price.

We didn't opt for desserts, and two drinks and a sizeable starter and main each came to just over £50, which we think is a bargain in Oxford for an excellent casual meal.  No pretences (apart from the cool decor), and friendly efficient service.  We would definitely recommend lunch and casual dinner here for groups.

Gourmet Burger Kitchen