KATHERINE MACALISTER gets a slice of culture and something more edible at the Ashmolean Museum.

While the Victorians were dressing their piano legs, a bunch of artists in Oxfordshire were causing no end of scandal.

Not only were they ensconced in a small thatched cottage painting each other in the nude, but they were all copping off with each other as well. You think we’re experimental? The William Morris bunch would have had our guts for garters. They were true Bohemians.

To celebrate their current exhibition at The Ashmolean, there’s a new Pre-Raphaelite menu to try on the top floor restaurant, three courses for £25, which was the perfect excuse to go for dinner.

Having opened last year to great fanfare, the Ashmolean’s top floor eaterie has received no end of national coverage and has been embraced by Oxford’s great and good. But having gazed in wonder at the paintings on display at the exhibition, we just hoped the menu would live up to expectations.

Just venturing into that wonderfully contemporary dining room is almost treat enough. And now that the hubbub has died down, midweek is nicely busy without being rammed.

A ridiculously good-looking Italian waiter, who would have had Jane Morris fanning herself in ardour, served our Pre-Rapahelite menu. We tried to concentrate hard on the words, instead of his torso.

But just like Rossetti, my eye immediately began to wander to the a la carte menu. “Could we just try the olives, marinated artichokes and piquillo peppers, ooh and maybe some of those salted cod croquettes, before we commit to the set menu?” I asked as coquettishly as possible.

“I know they’re on the main menu, but just this once,” I continued, before wondering whether this is exactly how married men and women fall by the wayside – pure greed? Is that what Rossetti thought as he began a tempestuous affair with his best friend and fellow artist William Morris’s wife?

In the end we mixed and matched in a way that even the Pre-Raphaelites would have been proud of. To start we also tried the decadent zucca fritta – courgette flowers deep fried and served whole in a tempura batter, as sensuous a treat as I’ve ever seen. And the appetisers proved the perfect accompaniment to the smooth red Italian Valpolicella wine.

So no, we never got round to the Tuscan soup, traditional Bresaola or linguine on offer as a starter. In fact, by the end of the meal we hadn’t done very well at all with the seafood stew or the osso buco veal shank. Despite our best intentions we only managed to eat the set menu’s malanzane alla parmigiana’ – a Neapolitan dish of aubergines, tomato sauce, parmesan and mozzarella with some courgette chips, which was Italian comfort food at its best.

The smoked haddock and salmon fishcake, pommes frites and green salad (£14.50) were from the main menu – but that’s what the lady wanted, and who was I to argue? I did also manage the pandoro with amedi chocolate and amaretto for dessert like a good girl – a sweet Italian yeast bread, and a large cup of Italian coffee.

But the point was that, despite our wandering eyes, as with the Pre-Raphaelites, what counted was the quality of the work produced. And regardless of which menu the food originated from, it was all quite delicious and consistently good.

So give it a go, but hurry because the Pre-Raphaelite menu ends on November 30.

* Ashmolean Museum, Beaumont Street, Oxford. Go to ashmoleandiningroom.com or ring 01865 553823