Reviewed
11/03

The Grand Café refuses to become lost in its High Street location, preferring instead to stand proud, and command attention with its ridiculously opulent façade, boasting duck-egg blue pillars and gold ornamentation. Looking like rather a nice place to take your grandmother, it was with some reservation that I entered this odd little place for a lunch date. Inside however, the faux opulence is less of a presence and instead The Grand Café reveals itself as a bustling little place with just the right amount of 1920s inspired glamour.

Serving a wide variety of sexy looking sandwiches (with a particular emphasis on rye bread), and light lunches - the buffalo mozzarella and rocket salad is just gorgeous - this is a very good choice for a tasty little lunch. Better still, to ensure that one doesn't leave feeling too virtuous at having consumed such a dainty snack, the selection of cakes which are available are truly very good indeed. The carrot cake comes particularly highly recommended. Add a coffee, chosen from their wide selection of beans, or perhaps better still, a lovely little copper pot of tea and you're well on your way to a pretty impressive lunch. Price-wise, this place isn't cheap but is, I think, good value for money as many of the dishes (such as the delicious carpaccio of beef, for instance) depend upon fresh, good quality ingredients and these are present in abundance. Sandwiches and light dishes are in the five to seven pounds bracket and coffees are around two pounds each - factor in the gorgeous cups and latte glasses and the takeaway alternatives from Starbucks et al don't look at all appealing in comparison.

The intimate little tables make this place ideal for dates, yet it comes equally recommended as a place to take visiting parents (it claims to be Oxford's oldest café and parents always love that kind of thing, don't they?). It's also an ideal place for a glamorous pre-dinner glass of wine (if you're that sort of person)- maybe just the one though, as alcohol here is distinctly pricey. Perhaps most of all, The Grand Café is the ideal venue for Grand High Tea: a multi-tiered array of sandwiches, scones and handmade chocolates. At £12, including tea or coffee and a ridiculously luxurious seeming glass of champagne, this is what it's all about.

All things considered, The Grand Café is a charming little place in which to enjoy good food and (secretly) pretend that one is quite unspeakably elegant and ladylike.

Victoria Lorne