Reviewed
08/04

Café Coco
23 Cowley Road
01865.200.232

I've passed by Café Coco on Cowley Road many times, hungry, but not in the mood for boring café fare such as soups and sandwiches. What a mistake!  Café Coco is full of surprises, the most exciting of which is that it's not just a café.  Beyond coffee and tea, it also features some unusual (and unusually good!) food, and an amazing list of drinks.

Strolling in late Thursday night, I was surprised that the place was buzzing with an equal number of diners and drinkers. The posh bar takes up the centre of the room, and I was tempted to head there for a Mai Tai – I'm from Hawaii, and they're hard to find in Oxford! Cocktails are about 5 pounds, which is a bit steep, but you get more than a drink at Coco – you're also paying for the warm, romantic and yet edgily artistic scene. Your beer, for example, will be quite cold, since it comes from a large sculpture of a mannequin sitting in a bathtub filled with ice.

Since I was with my mom, I promised the bar a visit next time. The dining tables are set up against the walls or front windows and are attractively intimate. Coco is a great place for dates: it's pretty warm when full of people, and dark. Except, of course, for the soft, golden candlelight that gently illuminates each table.

The menu boasts sophisticated pizzas, Greek-inspired starters and salads, and a few other random but fascinating meals. To start, we tried the dolmas, which are spicy brown rice rolls in pickled-tasting vine leaves, served with very smooth tzatziki. At £4.50 for four small pieces, it's a bit pricey, but the taste is worth it.  We also shared an English Breakfast Pizza, because it doesn't have cheese and my mom is lactose-intolerant. The waitress was kind enough to tell us that the "black pudding" normally included on the pizza is "nasty," and so we declined the scary, mushy mix of cow insides. Besides, the pizza, decked out with bacon, sausages, free-range egg, mushrooms and tomatoes, was perfect for two ladies to share. Most pizzas are 8 pounds, and far surpass the ennui-inducing pizzas from other, plebeian institutions. Where else could you get Prawn Saganaki pizza with king prawns and feta?! The menu is astonishingly innovative. I was tempted to try the Wasabi Roasted Salmon just because it sounded cool.

For students on a budget and a bizarre schedule, Coco's late afternoon/early dinner offer sounds great. Between 3:30 and 6:30 pm Monday – Friday, and 9:30 to 11 pm on Sunday, you can get two pizzas for the price of one!

I can't think of any real drawback to Coco Café, except for that you might feel it's a bit too cool for the likes of you. So dress smart and maybe even venture to ask someone cute along. It's definitely
worth the risk.

Lindsay Oishi – 20/8/04