It's not until you get quite close to the Pink Giraffe on St. Clement's that you realise just how - well - pink it is! Although garish outside, inside it's very cosy, and the fairy lights at the window made it a great venue for a friend's birthday bash. She'd invited twenty-four people, and we were to be accommodated in the upstairs room, unfortunately on two tables of twelve, which divided us somewhat, and oddly, there was one other table for four in the room, so its occupants were forced to sing along to 'Happy Birthday' and try not to look out of place.

Getting twelve people to choose from an a la carte menu can take forever, especially when it's a long and varied menu like the one at the Pink Giraffe. Fortunately, they operate a much simpler Eat As Much As You Like system for parties of any size. For £15 a head, you get to choose a selection of starters, two 'First Courses' and a selection of 'Main Courses' from a pared-down menu. You can then order more if you want it (although you probably won't - they are very generous). This is a great idea, especially as at least half the menu is suitable for vegetarians and a selection is vegan, so everyone is kept happy. We were not kept happy, however, when it took twenty minutes for our drinks order to arrive and a further ten for the missing items from it to appear. Luckily for their tips box and our sanity, the staff were a little quicker to take our food order. After all the gushing about how great it is to have such a varied menu, non of us are actually vegetarian, so the choice was a little easier, and with yours truly the nut-allergic vetoing Satay, we made our choice. For starters, we had spring rolls, prawn crackers, sesame toasts, deep-fried mushrooms and chicken wings. All were delicious. After that (and following another long wait for drinks), the 'First Courses' arrived. The crispy duck with pancakes was superb, although they were a little stingy on the plum sauce. In contrast, the deep fried crab claws were artificial looking and tasteless - they were variously compared to crabsticks and supermarket value-brand scampi.

Chinese food is always quite filling so we took a short break before our Main Courses. Large bowls of rice were brought out, and our selection of dishes placed on hotplates to keep warm. Beef in Black Bean Sauce is my absolute favourite, and here it was tender, slightly spicy and just right. That disappeared rather swiftly! We also had chicken and mixed vegetables, sweet and sour prawns (yummy) and chicken with pineapple and the dreaded cashew nuts, which I avoided but was apparently excellent. We were all stuffed after that, and while I'm sure a dessert menu exists, we certainly didn't want to see it.

With a couple of drinks each and a service charge which was rather hefty given the tardiness, the bill came to £280 for twelve of us. The food is great, but if you want a drink, you'll need to be persistent.

Becky Simms

Reviewed Jan '98

New to the Oxford restaurant scene at the time of reviewing, this oriental seafood & vegetarian restaurant is a refreshing change from the standard Asian cuisine. Capitalizing on a special, promotional offer of two set meals for the price of one, my comrade and I had the seafood set meal for three (a bit much for just the two of us, but well worth the effort) and a couple bottles of saki. This included a vegetarian sweetcorn soup as appetizer and four main dishes (roasted vegetables in creamy coconut sauce, fresh salmon, crispy popcorn shrimp in lemon sauce, and a mixed seafood, sweet and sour stir fry) with rice.

Both the seafood and the vegetables were amazingly fresh and well prepared. All of the sauces were absolutely fantastic, and I must say it was perhaps the finest prepared seafood I've had in quite some time. Dessert (mostly ice cream and various fruits) and after-dinner drinks were available and looked great, but we had a film to catch.

The bill came to about 32 pounds for the two of us, a bit high but definitely excellent value for money. The staff were very friendly and helpful.

Cliff Ohl