KATHERINE MACALISTER finds a trio of reliable venues to ease her cinematic disappointment.

The best thing about Sex and the City 2? The end. The worst thing? Spending 2.5 hours watching something so utterly banal and shallow that Emily Pankhurst would not only be turning in her grave but screaming with rage.

No amount of shoes could make this justifiable, although there were a few lines so teeth-crunchingly bad they will remain forever burned into my brain, such as Charlotte, who, while on holiday in the Middle East in a five-star hotel, leaving her two kids with her husband and nanny, admitted: “I don’t know how women do it who don’t have help. Let’s have a toast to them.” Umm, that would be 99.95 per cent of the population then.

However, the entire outing was made worthwhile by Jess at Branca in Jericho, who made us a raspberry cosmopolitan before the film started which sent us into the kind of raptures that Samantha would have been proud of. We watched in awe as he lit the orange slice before dropping it into our refreshing concoction that tasted of grapefruit and raspberry in equal measures, the alcohol kick creeping down your body slowly to your toes. Heaven in a glass.

The Phoenix Cinema, currently showing the film, are also serving cosmos, but as their bar was closed for a private function, it was a choice of drinking them in the lobby or heading elsewhere, so Branca it was.

And it struck me while swooning in my post-cocktail glow, that some staple favourite venues are worth their weight in Jimmy Choos.

And Branca looked particularly inviting that night and I would have much preferred to grab a table, drink a bucket of raspberry cosmos and set the world to rights than watch four ridiculous women degrading themselves in Abu Dhabi. But then hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Said arsenal came in handy later in the week when, heatwave well under way and six children to entertain, my car almost drove itself to Rectory Farm in Stanton St John, where the outdoor Country Cafe is flourishing. Run by Graham and Penny Corbett, who were nearly washed away the previous two summers, it’s been worth the wait because now the place is rammed. The bouncy castle and adventure playground help, and with the pick-your-own to keep the kids busy, plus a fabulous farm shop, it’s got it all.

The kids’ lunchboxes come fully prepared for £4.50 each, complete with sandwiches, crisps, drink, fruit and cake, while we settled on the caesar salad (£6.20) and the vine-ripened tomato, basil and mozzarella salad (£5.50). The kids engulfed theirs in minutes before racing back for more fun, while we ate our delicious, fresh lunch leisurely in the sun.

My restaurant encyclopaedia went into overdrive when tested for a third time in a week, as a friend raced down the motorway for a natter. Sunday night is a hard one. Many places close after a hearty Sunday lunch, for a rest. But with the sun still out, I wanted somewhere with good food and a beautiful setting. And The Fishes in North Hinksey ticked all the boxes.

When we arrived it felt like it’d been a busy day, but the kitchens were still firing on all cylinders serving fresh seasonal produce, such as starters of local asparagus with a poached egg and bearnaise sauce, plus a chilli-fried soft shell crab with ginger and chilli salad (£7).

These were followed by a very dry and rather bland herb pancake with ricotta, spinach and pine-nut stuffing and tomato sauce (£6.50) and the delicious pan-fried monkfish with butternut squash and coconut curry (£17.50).

Job done. We had a wonderful night drinking wine on the terrace and then moving indoors for coffee. As for Sex and the City 2, all I know is that when Carrie said: “So what are we going to do? Sit around bars, sipping cosmos and sleeping with strangers when we’re 80?” she hadn’t met Jess.

Branca, 111 Walton Street, Oxford, 01865 556 111. branca-restaurants.com.

The Fishes, North Hinksey Village, 01865 249796 Country Cafe, Rectory Farm, Pound Lane, Stanton St John, 01865 358309.