Surveying the buzzing scene that was The Rickety Press last Thursday night — tables full, crowds of happy people of all ages clustered at the bar — it suddenly struck me how so easily this cheery local could have ceased to be.

A year ago — when The Radcliffe Arms, as it was then called, closed — it seemed likely to be following so many other Jericho pubs into oblivion. Happily, it was rescued by the Swindon brewery Arkells, who bought and carefully restored the 170-year-old building and installed as tenants young business partners Chris Manners and Leo Johnson.

The pair, both in their mid-twenties, had already achieved a big success for Arkells at The Rusty Bicycle (formerly The Eagle), in Magdalen Road, which Chris had initially been running with James Arkell, the second son of the brewery chairman. Now The Rickety Press, which opened in May, is proving a big hit, too — not least for its food.

With Chris and Leo’s old St Edward’s schoolmate Andrew Holland in the kitchen, the place has been pointed more firmly in the gastro-pub direction. But let me say at once that this has not been at the expense of those interested only in the excellent array of real ales. No one need feel excluded here. In a cutting from the 1950s, I found the place described by the Oxford Mail as “a real village pub in the middle of Oxford”. The same could be said of it today.

Rosemarie and I were joined on our visit by friends Tom and Lisa who, once dinner was completed, shared our view that we had been treated to some seriously good cooking.

The comparatively modest size of the menu, which changes from day to day, meant we were able to sample most of what was on it. In terms of starters, we tried all four — once our group had been expanded by the arrival of another pal, Chris, who had the grilled asparagus, hollandaise sauce and poached egg missing from our initial order.

Rosemarie had begun with a bowl of smooth, refreshing, tomato-based gazpacho, Tom enjoyed cannelloni packed with crab and black tiger prawns and served with shellfish bisque, and Lisa had a delicious salad of crispy hoi sin duck, watermelon and green leaves (which could also be ordered as a main course). I went for a fusion of two bar snacks, which brought me a slate bearing home-made hummus powerfully flavoured with cumin, caper berries, and green and black olives, with toasted pitta bread.

I continued (could I have done otherwise?) with a giant salmon fishcake — a dish highly recommended by our picture editor, Jessica Mann, who lives in Jericho and has sampled it more than once. Packed with fish, including smoked salmon, and with plenty of fresh dill, the plate-filling cake (see Jessica’s photograph on the right) came on a base of wilted spinach with a well-judged lemon butter sauce.

With all the ‘Rickety’ cheeseburgers sold out, Rosemarie, who would surely otherwise have had one, switched to pork and leek sausages — very good ones — with mash, onion gravy and greens. Tom and Lisa both had individual pastry-topped pies filled with chunks of sticky oxtail and mushrooms in a rich, dark gravy, with Jersey royal potatoes, purple sprouting and whole baby carrots. Both judged them excellent. At £13, incidentally, the dish represented significantly better value than my fishcake, which was the same price.

To finish, we variously tackled a rather overcooked apple tarte Tatin, scoops of home-made vanilla and butterscotch ice cream and two examples of the British cheese board — generous quantities of Cerne Abbas cheddar, Shropshire blue and pongy Oxford Isis, with biscuits, cherry tomato and fig chutney and (a very happy touch) fresh red dessert gooseberries.