Life is busy nowadays. So to help you navigate your way through your frantic social calendar, here is The Guide’s regular blink-and-you’ll-miss-it platter of 60-second reviews, designed to enhance and improve your playtime.
Our easy-to-digest assessment of the good, bad and downright dull this week focuses on the all-important Christmas yuletide blow-out at Oxford institution Browns. Without a thought for their own enjoyment, three women joined Jeremy Smith to test drive the restaurant’s festive menu.
* MEAL: Starters – Severn & Wye Valley Smoked Salmon with horseradish cream, Pan Fried Medley of Exotic Mushrooms on toasted cinnamon brioche Honey Roast Butternut Squash Soup
Mains – Breast of Turkey rolled with a Cumberland suasage, cranberry and apricot stuffing served with pigs in blankets, roast potatoes and a cranberry gravy, Homemade Beef Wellington – supplement £2.50, Grilled Fillets of Sea Bass
Dessert – Chocolate orange cheesecake served with creme fraiche, Festive Sticky Sponge Pudding, and Lemon tart topped with toasted pine nuts
* COST: The three-course Festive Menu costs £34.95 per person but on December 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23 and 24 the menu costs just £29.95.
* EFFECT: Instantaneous relief. Fabulous feel-good setting, bang-on service (thank you Ahara) and cracking good food. Indeed, one of the best Christmas dinners I’ve enjoyed.
* AMBIENCE: Think of a jar of runny honey with a warm light shining through it. Seriously - that good.
* OTHER DINERS: Nicer than us but no one said. Every age group, every salary, and all a little ‘glossy’ (think ‘Central Perk’ in Friends)
* ALL IMPORTANT ‘CHRISTMASSY’ BUZZ: Note perfect - not too much decoration to make you think MTV, but not so little you think Radio 3.
* CONSENSUS: Either spend Christmas Day at North Pole with Santa or cosy-up in Browns.
* A CELEBRITY WHO WOULD EAT HERE: Pierce Brosnan
* Fact File: Browns Bar & Brasserie Oxford, 5-11 Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 6HA Telephone: 01865 511 995
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