The Oxen Grill - Vale of White Horse

We were seduced by the £25 Sunday roast offering for two. Why did we bother, the soup was lukewarm although tasty. The salad starter was very poor. There were 2 roasts, beef gammon. My wife had gammon which was good but my beef had to be the cheapest cut which was over cooked. The vegetables were warm and fairly well presented. The cauliflower cheese was hot and tasty. Unfortunately the roast potatoes were not crisp and overly fragrant with rosemary, not ideal for a roast in my opinion. The yorkshires tiny and hard. The deserts were an over dry bread and butter pudding with a runny custard or cheese selection. Tea coffee were included but here the machine only delivered half a cup of latte! Definitely not worth it, it is worth paying a bit more for a proper Sunday roast.

We went to the Oxen bar and grill for a Sunday carvery arriv8ng just before 14:00. The food is served between 12:00 and 15:00 so although we were not there at the start of service we had not just arrived at the end of it. The restaurant had only one or two other diners in it, which should have been a warning. The food was such poor standard and was also all cold to the point of being inedible. (cold yorkshires, (cold roast potatos which despite being described as crispy on the menu were soggy (the herbs on them were the crispiest bit!! , (cold soggy roast carrots and parsnips swimming in oil and dry meat. Following a complaint the staff did offer to bring fresh food out, but by this point we were put off and left without eating.

Quality food, nice atmosphere. Unbeatable service and attention with Guadalupe, she helped us a lot with the translation of the letter. we will be back

A cozy restaurant, we ate a pizza that was very good and is homemade. Guadalupe took great care of us and made us feel at home. I definitely recommend it, especially for the food and the friendliness of the staff, especially Guadalupe.

I’m surprised by some of the positive reviews, here, especially from someone who visited the carvery for Sunday Roast; maybe something has fundamentally changed, recently. We visited as I heard their radio advert – “two people for £25…Succulent Beef and Chicken, crispy roast potatoes, and golden Yorkshire puddings”. Firstly, it was a very confusing arrangement and we were not the only diners to get confused. This was partly because the self-service starter was for soup, and for salad. I don’t think that anyone really understood that the salad was the starter. We had to ask for someone to come and carve the meat, which was Beef and Gammon. I think that the meats could have been OK, if they were warm (there was no form of heat to keep the meat warm) as was the case for the gravy that was in a small jug. I had both Beef and Gammon and the Carver struggled to carve the beef and then, when carving the Gammon, only managed to provide me with the fat. Things then went down-hill when we discovered the ‘roast’ potatoes and Yorkshire puddings which had clearly come from the Freezer. When I visited the vegetables, there were a couple of pieces of dried Broccoli and mixed peas and sweetcorn, which I believe had some from a tin or were from the freezer. The Yorkshire puddings were arguably golden but the roast potatoes were definitely not crispy and were what you would expect from cheap, frozen, potatoes. With the exception of the meat, the food appeared to have come from a Findus, frozen, ready-meal from one. I think that our server did her best in adverse circumstances. When we complained, she initially said that nobody else had complained. We heard several disgruntled Customers, ourselves – confusing buffet, no server, booked for Sunday roast online but arrived too late, anther confused booking, and a comment about going for a Chinese. Having spoken with the Chef (not sure why not the Manager), our server returned to explain that they were having issues and that there was a new Chef, that we did not have to pay, and that we could have any complimentary meal from the menu; we chose to leave. Our server was very apologetic. I think that the issue here is one of Management. Whatever the issues were, nothing excuses frozen and/or food and the advertising on radio is ludicrous. I hope that Marriott and/or the Oxen Bar Grill find this useful.