Reviewed
01/04

As I used to live on Osler Road, Café Noir was at one time my 'local' and visited on numerous occasions, from family meals and friends' birthdays to quiet lunches and suppers. I was therefore interested to re-visit the restaurant in late January '04, and delighted to see that it hadn't changed (although neither had the menu). We were shown to the pleasant table in the window which we had booked (advisable for Friday and Saturday nights, as it does tend to get busy). The restaurant is split into two parts, with the upstairs being dark wood, arty photos and a feeling of French sophistication. The downstairs (which feels like a different restaurant) is quite a contrast in décor - pastel in colour, with not quite the same ambience. I would recommend the upstairs every time. The menu has some excellent dishes, although is not overly extensive, the mains consisting of three pasta dishes, three savoury pancake dishes, and the remainder largely comprising brochettes, stroganoffs and steaks. As is typical of French restaurants it does not cater too well for vegetarians, although there are a few options available. We all went for starters, and myself and one other had the goats cheese and tomato salsa which was delicious. One chose the mussels which were also admirable, and the fourth chose the smoked salmon and prawns which would have been better had they included the smoked salmon (we were only informed that they had run out of this when the starter arrived at the table consisting only of prawns, which was the only disappointing part of the service). Our main courses consisted of one steak with peppercorn sauce, a chicken brochette with rice and salad, a pasta dish with a chicken and mushroom sauce, and my choice of the special - salmon with a white wine, asparagus and shallot sauce. All meals were divine and got good endorsements from all in our group. Mine would have been improved had they used fresh asparagus rather than tinned, but the standard of the rest of the meal made up for this. The meals were beautifully, and sometimes artistically, presented but not at the expense of the portion sizes, as all were ample. All of this was washed down with a couple of bottles of the Chenin Blanc which was lovely. We were too full for pudding but if past experience is anything to go by I can vouch that these will not disappoint. The prices are not out of the ordinary for Oxford, with starters being around £5 - £6 and mains ranging from £8 - £14. Our bill for four consisting of two courses each and two bottles of wine came to just under £100 which I think reasonable for the standard of food. All in all I would certainly recommend Café Noir for a meal out, both for lunch (their hot sandwiches served until 6pm are good value) and dinner, although frequent diners may find the menu a little limiting after a while.

Nicki Sneath