A Seafood Meal © Travel Signposts

Oxford restaurants, covering a diverse range of eateries,  cater to all tastes and budget types. As in many large university towns, cuisines from all over the world are represented here, something that I discovered with delight many years ago.

For those looking for the traditional pub meal experience, there are also plenty of options here as most Oxford pubs serve food as well.

For your Oxford food experience, here are some Oxford restaurants, bistros and pubs to explore:

• Ashmolean Dining Room – Ashmolean’s roof-top restaurant offers European dishes with an extensive choice of wines from around the world.
• Jamie’s Italian on George is Jamie (easy peasy) Oliver’s Italian restaurant.
• Le Petit Blanc – Celebrity chef Raymond Blanc serves exquite French dishes at this popular venue.
• Brown’s on Woodstock Road – a favourite of students.
• Quod Brasserie (on the High) – a good place to see and be seen… and eat of course.
• Gees and its sister The Old Parsonage get their fish flown in from Jersey twice weekly. The food at Gee’s is best described as “classic with a strong British influence”. At The Old Parsonage the philosophy is to serve the best food using the very best produce. It is renowned for its seafood, game and meat dishes.
• Oxford Castle complex has a variety of eateries, including the famous Carluccio’s.
• Fire and Stone - a pizzeria in the centre of Oxford.
• Pizza Express – their rooms in the Golden Cross display Elizabethan wall paintings.
• Locals and those in the know head for the international range of eateries on the Cowley Road, including the First Floor Restaurant with its eclectic mix of dishes from India, China and Thailand and other Asian countries. They also offer some Continental dishes.
• Most Oxford pubs offer a selection of pub meals.  See here for a list some favourite Oxford pubs.>

For morning and afternoon tea or a light snack there are just as many places to stop at such as:

• The Rose (on the High)
• Patisserie Valerie (on the High)
• Georgina’s (Covered Market)
• The Nosebag (St Michael Street)
• Fosters (Town Hall)
• Modern Art Oxford cafe – good for lunch
• The Vault (St. March Church) – offers tempting lunches and other goodies
• 1071 near the castle is good for sandwich, coffee and cake

Bon Appétit!

The Eagle and Child, Oxford..

Oxford has a plethora of pubs which serve pub meals and drinks in a variety of settings and styles.  Some of the pubs in Oxford are historic, some are famous because of their clientele, some are in great river-side settings, whereas others are just casual and relaxed venues that the students and townspeople have adopted as their favourite drinking hole for socializing.

For an Oxford pub crawl, here are some suggested Oxford Pubs to try:

Historic Oxford Pubs

• The Eagle & Child in St Giles – Some locals refer to this pub as the “Bird and Baby”. This famous Oxford pub was a favourite of C.S. Lewis and JRR Tolkien and was the regular meeting place of the literary group, the Inklings.
• Lamb and Flag – (the symbol of St John).  This pub is owned by St John’s College.  It is believed that Thomas Hardy wrote much of his novel “Jude the Obscure” in this pub.  The Lamb and Flag was also frequently featured in ‘Inspector Morse’.
• White Horse on Broad Street – Oxford’s smallest pub, much frequented by ‘Inspector Morse’.
• KA (King’s Arms) on the corner of Holywell Street – This pub offers a good range of beers and pub food and is popular with students.
• Bear in Alfred Street – The Bear is in one of Oxford’s oldest buildings and is famous for its tie collection. These ties, which have been donated and signed by it donors, adorn showcases around the pub walls.
• Turf Tavern – Built up against the 12th century city wall, this was where past Aussie PM Bob Hawke’s record for drinking a yard of ale still stands.
• Rose & Crown on North Parade – Vegetarians will be pleased to know that this pub in Oxford offers a good vegetarian selection.
• The Mitre - Oxford’s oldest inn, once owned and managed by the real Alice in Wonderland’s former governess.

The Mitre, Oxford © Travel Signposts

Riverside Pubs

• Head of The River on St Aldate’s (Folly Bridge) – This Oxford pub is frequented by the well-heeled younger set.
• Trout at Wolvercote is very popular.
• The Isis near Iffley – has rowing relics and an old English nine-pin bowling alley.
• The Perch at Binsey village has a lovely garden.
• Victoria Arms in Marston, the destination of many a punt trip.

Castle Combe Inn © Travel Signposts..

Our dinner at the Castle Inn tonight was part of a tour to Castle Combe to see the “prettiest village in England”.

Before dinner, we had time to wonder around the village which looks like it’s been frozen in time. Except for a few cars parked in the streets, there were no traces of modern intervention in Castle Combe – no WiFi hotspot signs, TV aerials or ugly power cables. In fact, I don’t even remember seeing any street lights here. Yes, Castle Combe is indeed a beautiful village.

At the Castle Inn, the section of the garden room that had been reserved for the group was small, tight-fitting and a bit stuffy so we chose to sit in the terraced patio. The barman was very obliging and didn’t have any problem serving us dinner outdoors where we could still enjoy views of this charming village.

Our starter was a vegetable soup, which was tasty. For the main we were served a large plate of fish and chips. Disappointingly, the fish was tasteless and covered in a large quantity of batter. The meat eaters in the group had beef and those we spoke to said that the beef was tough and inedible. I think the best course of the meal was the desert, a piping hot apple crumble. The serving was quite large and one bowl was enough for two people.

After dinner we went to the main restaurant to have our espresso and again was looked after by the nice barman, so he had a nice tip. I’m not sure where all the people came from, but the restaurant was full.

It’s a shame that the food at the Castle Inn wasn’t as delightful as the village in which it is located. The U.K. is famous for its pub food and it really shouldn’t be too hard for these guys to up the quality of their meals.

Situated at the top of Castle Combe village, the Castle Inn hotel has eleven ensuite bedrooms for anyone planning to spend time in this beautiful village.   If you want something more upmarket, just next door is the much plusher Manor House Hotel and Golf Club.

Kendal Mint Cake

Travelling through Cumbria, our tour director talks excitedly about Kendal mint cakes (as tour directors do), but I pay scant attention. Yes, I like mints and I love cakes, but the two put together doesn’t sound like an gastronomic treat to hold your breath for .

After a morning stop, Mr. Tour Director walks down the aisle of the coach with a bag of sweets. This was when I discovered that a Kendal mint cake is not really a cake at all! It is more like a mint slice.

Kendal is a market town in the South of Cumbria that is famous around the world for its Kendal Mint cake. Kendal’s famous mint cake contains no flour or eggs at all which got it into trouble in the 1950′s. A ship load of the product was dumped in the Atlantic as New York customs barred the Kendal Mint Cake on the grounds that products labelled ‘cake’ should have flour in them.  And who’s to argue with New York customs.

Origin of the Kendal Mint Cake

The Kendal mint cake , it seems, was created out of a moment’s distraction over a century ago.  According to one legend, the year was 1869 and Joseph Wiper, a Kendal confectioner was in the process of making glacier mints, when he took his eye off the cooking pan for a minute. When resuming his task, he noticed that the mixture had started to ‘grain’ and become cloudy, instead of clear. When poured out, the result was Mint Cake.

Kendal Cake as an Energy Food

I found the mint cake too sweet and it certainly will give you a sugar overload if you had one too many. But what was educational for me about the mint cake is that it enjoys an enviable reputation amongst mountaineers and hikers for its energy supplying ability and has accompanied many trans-Antarctic expeditions. In 1953, when Sir Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay made their first successful expedition to the Everest summit, they had Kendal mint cakes with them.   The Kendal Mint Cake it seems “…was easily the most popular item on our high altitude ration – our only criticism was that we did not have enough of it” wrote a member of the expedition.

There are three companies that make Kendal mint cakes in Kendal and these days they come in brown and chocolate flavours as well.  Well next time we’re climbing Everest, we know what will help us make the summit.

Bettys Tea Room © Travel Signposts

If you’re looking to enjoy some Yorkshire tea whilst in York, one of the most famous York tea rooms is Bettys Café Tea Rooms. Bettys is a family business that has been in existence for over 90 years and they serve teas and meals in the traditional English style.

There are six Bettys Café Tea Rooms in Yorkshire and two of them are in the historic centre of York.  The main Bettys York branch is right on St. Helen’s Square and Little Bettys is on medieval Stonegate, not too far from York Minster.

Bettys York branch is said to be its most sophisticated branch so far and it has an interesting story behind its creation.

When Frederick Belmont, the founder of Bettys, travelled on the maiden voyage of the Queen Mary in 1936 he was so impressed by the splendour of the ship that he commissioned the Queen Mary’s designers and craftsmen to transform a dilapidated furniture store in St. Helen’s Square to what is Bettys today. The Belmont Room on the first floor was inspired by one of the Queen Mary’s state rooms.

Having tea at Bettys is like being in a tea room scene in an Agatha Christie movie.  Young waitresses in black floor length skirts and white aprons wait on the tables. Your cakes and sandwiches are served on silver cake stands or, you can ask the waitress to bring the cake trolley to your table so you can select from the day’s spread.

Bettys Chocolates © Travel Signposts

Although called a tea room, Bettys serves meals at its café tea rooms and you can even order champagne.  Bettys also has its own range of handmade Bettys Chocolates. They also sell specialty coffees and teas, preserves and all kinds of sweet treats which you can buy on-line.

We wanted to have lunch at Little Bettys but were told that there was a waiting time of at least 20 minutes. The main St. Helen’s Square branch was just as busy. So, unfortunately we didn’t get to sample their famous Yorkshire Fat Rascal, a plump and fruity scone served warm with butter.  On the positive side, we probably saved ourselves from a few thousand calories.

About a million customers visit Bettys each year which says something about their success. However, if you’re on a diet, it’s not safe to stray into Bettys.

York City Map:

Jellied Eels © Travel Signposts

A recent lunch stop at the Fish House in the town of Ludlow exposed me to jellied eels, a traditional English food that was once very popular.

Ray, a fellow traveller, was very excited to see jellied eels being offered at the Fish House. He orders a portion and slurps away at the jellied eels which he obviously enjoys. According to Ray, he and his family loved this traditional English dish which he hasn’t had since leaving England.

Jellied eels, as I now understand, was a Cockney specialty which was famous in London during Victorian times. The eels thrived in the Thames and was a cheap and readily available source of nutritious food for Londoners and soon became a staple for London’s poor.  Street vendors used to sell jellied eels from wooden barrows, although it  was more usual to find them in ‘pie and mash’ shops. Eel Pie & Mash Houses were a common food establishment on the London scene and there used to be hundreds of them around.

Recipe for Jellied Eel

A typical recipe for jellied eels involves chopping the eels into rounds and boiling them in water, vinegar with nutmeg and spices to make a fish stock, before being allowed to cool. The eel is a naturally gelatinous fish so in the cooking process proteins, like collagen, are released into the liquid which solidifies on cooling to form a jelly. Gelatin may be added in order to help this process.

Neither Ray’s wife or us were keen to taste his jellied eels and it seems that this once very traditional English food is either loved or loathed by the English these day. From for the few remaining jellied eel stalls in London, it would seem that this is no longer a popular food. I think it might be the gelatinous texture or presentation that puts people off today as eel dishes are still popular outside of the UK. I see the lunchtime office crowd buying eel sushi. The French have aspic d’anguille, which is similar to jellied eels and the Italians have anguilla. In Spain, baby eels sauteed in olive oil and chili pepper is very popular and angulas is now an expensive dish.

If you’re in East End London and wanting to sample some of this traditional English food, Tubby Isaacs’s family has been selling eels on Goulston Street, near Petticoat Lane, since 1919. For the over 90 years Tubby Isaacs have been purveyors of the finest quality jellied eels so you’ll be sampling jellied eels from a world famous shop.

The Fish House, Ludlow - © Travel Signposts..

Ludlow is a medieval market town in Shropshire, close to the Welsh border.  This is our lunchtime stop and one of our first impressions is that for its small size, Ludlow has a lot of eating places.

Of course Ludlow is no ordinary market town.  It is famous for its food fairs and we’ve arrived on the eve of their annual Ludlow Marches Food and Drink Festival where 130 top quality small independent food and drink producers from the Marches, the England-Wales border country, are presenting their goods.

It was pointed out to us that Feathers Hotel is a famous pub with a famous medieval facade. Apart from being a worthy subject for photography, it was recommended as a worthwhile place for having lunch.  So after taking snaps of the exterior, into the pub I went to have a quick look around.  The reception area wasn’t particularly spectacular, a few souls were having their meal in the next room, but the place didn’t grab me as a potential for our lunch stop today, and as time is precious, I didn’t explore any further.

It is market day in Ludlow and many of our fellow travellers buy food from the market to have for lunch.

On the drive into town, we had spotted the Fish House, a wet fish shop in the town centre. We went back there as the oysters did look  good and at GBP 7.50 for half a dozen, it’s reasonably priced. We order half a dozen Bigbury Bay oysters and a prawn platter which  also costs GBP 7.50 per plate and it comes with a bread roll.

The Fish House has only been open for a week, and the lovely owner of the shop offers a complimentary glass of wine with the meal. The oysters are very good – really fresh and creamy. The prawn platter is excellent, 3 giant prawns and a good number of shrimps. Both are very sweet. Ray and Marie, our fellow travellers, join us for lunch.  Ray has the jellied eel which he says is delicious – we’ll take his word for it!  It reminds him of the food he enjoyed when he was growing up in England.

Eating Jellied Eel - © Travel Signposts

We ask the owner of the Fish House where she gets all her magnificent seafood from and she said that her family owns a seafood distributorship in the West Midlands. This explains the fine range of seafood in her shop, mussels, clams, oysters, crabs, smoked haddock, monkfish, swordfish, you name it and she’s got it.

As we enjoy our food, locals are streaming into the Fish House to buy seafood and a couple of locals that we got talking to said that they are really pleased that the Fish House has opened in Ludlow.

We practically only had 10 minutes for lunch so it was a mad rush, but it was well worth it. We could have sat there for another hour eating oysters and more of the seafood.

If you like seafood and are stopping at Ludlow, make time to have some seafood at the Fish House. We’re glad that we’ve discovered this place as it’s one of the finer lunchtime food sensations on our trip.

In our rush, we unfortunately didn’t get the street address, but it won’t be hard finding the Fish House in the town centre.

Steak & Kidney Pudding

On our West Yorkshire visit, our relative Christopher suggested dinner at The Stansfield Arms, a traditional English pub in the Apperley Bridge area of Bradford.

As a local, Christopher knows this pub well enough to recommend it for people like us who don’t eat meat. These Yorkshiremen are  meat eaters and when the menu came, I was quite relieved to find that they have a section for vegetarians. What’s more, the vegetarian meal options are really quite creative.

Steak & Kidney Pudding

Amongst the five of us we had various dishes, but the one dish that made an impression on us at dinner was the beautifully prepared Steak & Kidney Pudding that Christopher had.

Even as vegetarians, we appreciated this aesthetically created traditional English dish . And, whilst we admired the perfection of the dish, Christopher tucked into it with such gusto that we knew it had to be good, his only complaint being that it was very filling.

About The Stansfield Arms

The Stansfield Arms is a historic pub which dates back to 1543. This is one of three historic Yorkshire pubs owned by twin brothers Chris and Nick Green. The other two pubs are The Black Horse at Askwith and The Chevin Inn at Menston. There’s room for 120 diners at The Stansfield Arms any time, but the pub still manages to maintain its traditional features and atmosphere. On a warm summer afternoon, its beer garden is an ideal place to enjoy that lazy Sunday lunch.

If you’re travelling in the West Yorkshire area and would like to sample really traditional English homemade food, The Stansfield Arms is one of the good pubs to call into. Their menu is interesting and some of the traditional dishes include:

• homemade chicken liver, rosemary and brandy pate
• steak and kidney pudding
• warm salad of black pudding and bacon
• slow roast lamb shank
• confit of cherry duck breast
• traditional fishermans pie

As can be seen from the few dishes above, the cooking style is creative and according to the owners they use locally-produced products.

Address:
The Stansfield Arms
Apperley Lane, Apperley Bridge
Bradford
West Yorkshire BD10 0NP
Tel: 0113 250 2659

Open Times:
Mon – Fri :   11 am – Midnight (Fri and Sat – open till 2 am)

More on Traditional English Food Specialities

Colston Basset Stilton

Stilton Cheese, the King of English Cheeses takes its name from the Cambridgeshire village of the same name.

Apart from tasting delicious, here are some interesting facts about this cheese.

• Colston Bassett Dairy, Cropwell Bishop, Long Clawson Dairy, Quenby Hall, Tuxford & Tebbutt Creamery and Websters are the only six dairies in the world licensed to make Blue and White Stilton cheese.  So next time you buy some Stilton, check that they’re from one of these six dairies.
• Stilton is a trademark protected name cheese and both the Blue Stilton and White Stilton are covered under the EU Protected Destination of Origin (PDO) certification.
• By law, Stilton can only be made in the three counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Nottinghamshire.
• No one person invented Stilton – it evolved over time from its original pressed cream cheese to today’s unpressed semi-hard blue veined cheese.
• It takes 78 litres of milk to make one 8 kg round of Stilton cheese to the legally binding recipe.
• Each cheese matures for 3 months after which the blue veins appear naturally as oxygen is allowed to enter through holes pierced by stainless steel needles.
• Over 1 million rounds of Stilton cheeses are made each year.
• More than 10% of Stilton output is exported to some 40 countries world-wide, which means that nearly 900,000 are consumed in the U.K. — that’s a lot of blue cheese!
• Every cheese is graded before leaving the dairy to ensure only Stilton cheese of the highest quality is marketed under the Stilton name
• White Stilton is made in a similar way to its blue cousin – except that no mould spores are added to the cheese
• White Stilton is sold at about 4 weeks of age. It is a crumbly, creamy, open textured cheese which is now extensively used as a base for blending with apricot, ginger and citrus or vine fruits to create unique dessert cheeses.
• There are 410 calories per 100 gm of Stilton – less than I thought!

About Stilton the Village
Traditional English Food Specialties

The Magpie Cafe, Whitby..

You don’t have to look too hard for places to eat in Whitby. There are many cafés and restaurants in town and just along Pier Road there are three (Magpie Café, Terry’s Restaurant and Quayside) and on Baxtergate there are another three (Mill’s Café, Royal Fisheries and Tiffin).

Whitby in North Yorkshire is a holiday resort and a fishing town well known for its fish and chips and the most famous place in town appears to be the Magpie Café. The Magpie has always been popular with the locals, but it became famous when Rick Stein gave it the thumbs up as the best place in the country to eat fish and chips.

No matter whose photo you’re looking at and what year it was taken, there’s always a queue outside The Magpie.  That’s what happens when a famous restaurateur,  who himself is a fish and chips shop owner, tells the world that you’re the best.  People start queuing as early as 11:00 a.m. and if you’re on a time restriction as we were on this occasion, you’ll miss the chance of finding out for yourself if this is indeed the best fish and chips place in England.

Magpie Café History

The Magpie Café is housed in a black and white building which has a long association with Whitby’s fishing and the shipping industries. The building was constructed in 1750 as a Merchants House. A member of the Scoresby whaling family owned the building at some stage in its history and for a while it was the place where pilots would stand and await orders for vessels to be brought into the harbour. The building became the shipping office for Harrowings and was only converted into a café around 1939.

The Café overlooks Whitby harbour and from the dining room you get views of the harbour, Whitby Abbey and St. Mary’s Church.

The Magpie is a seafood restaurant but it does have some meat dishes as well as vegetarian specials. They also take care of people who are wheat or gluten intolerant.  I was impressed to see olives,  marinated anchovy fillets and ciabatta rolls on its menu, a sign that this typically English resort café takes note of food trends outside of Whitby.

Your intention in coming to the Magpie Café may be to have the fish and chips, but when you see its 14-page menu, decision making becomes tough. There’s a range of fish types which you can have fried, grilled or poached. Then there’s mussels (which always brings an halt to my menu review), fish pies, crab salad, lobster dishes or you can create your own special grilled or poached fish platter. It’s the biggest seafood menu I’ve ever seen, not to mention the extensive hot and cold desserts available.

Those planning a visit to Whitby and wishing to dine at this legendary café should arrive early and allow plenty of time as the kitchen gets really busy at peak season.  Opening hours are 11:30 to 21:00 daily.

If you’ve dined at the Magpie Café, did you have the fish and chips and is it the best in England?  We’d love to hear your opinion.

Getting there:

The Magpie Café
14 Pier Road
Whitby, North Yorkshire, YO21 3PU
Tel: 01947 602058