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Worryingly brown decor, but the drinks are tasty and the front opens directly onto the pavement for summer. Outside catering also offered. |
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55 Little Clarendon Street Useful links: Oxford Restaurants Oxford Hotels Oxford Pubs & Bars Oxford Gig venues Oxford Concert venues Ads by Daily Info:
  
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Tasty drinks, friendly staff and good music. I love the drinking environment. My friends and I really enjoyed our time on last Thursday. I definitely will visit again this weekend. **Highly recommended**
Kate, 01/09/08 I was in Angels last Saturday night. The Angels is under a new management and you can see that! Cocktails were really nice and we had a lovely time there. We could nicely talk, have a few drinks and simply enjoy the night out. The staff were very friendly and made for us even drinks which are not on the menu and a great non-alcoholic cocktail for my friend. I didn't see one negative thing there, we just love it and will definitely pop there more often. Tasha, 10/07/08 I visited with a friend on a Saturday night recently. I have only visited once previously, though much earlier in the evening several months before, so thought i'd like to see what it's like later in the evening. I have to say I was quite impressed by what I found. The other reviews here seem to be fairly negative and I appreciate there is a lot of more established (and in most cases fantastically good) competition around this area, but I think Angels is holding its own just about. My friend and I found the staff really freindly and quite knowledgable about their wares, with recommendations from the annoyingly laid-out but never-ending menu whilst displaying a level of wit that many other bar-tenders could learn from. Prices are fairly average (£5-6.50 for most cocktails) though there is an early eveing happy hour. The decor is a mish-mash of retro designs and not to everyone's taste but the mood is laid back and buzzy without being too loud. There is also downstairs seating area which we didn't see and the toilets were fine. Overall, pretty good but still living in the considerable shadow of Raoul's, Freud's, The Duke, etc. Joe B, 28/05/07 Angels. Hmmm, I think that’s a little generous. As you walk down the culturally rich Little Clarendon Street, Angels does little to determinedly steal your attention (and indeed your custom) and is easily passed by. Should you dare to enter this bravely decorated bar (apologize to your eyes later) you will doubtless be impressed by the array of spirits on display. Even though the staff seldom reach (for) the top shelf, it’s nice to know it’s there. This level of quality has sadly not trickled down into the speed-rail, cheap Tequila in a £5.50 Margarita is an unexpected disappointment. Once examined thoroughly (a near-Herculean task given its layout and the bar’s overly-dim lighting) the menu proves quite striking albeit narrowly defined: an explicit vintage theme prevails. Nice paper though. So, onto the drinks, pretty hit and miss to be honest and sadly lacking continuity (this seems to be a recurring theme for the bar as a whole). The staff appear to have been briefed on the importance of customer service but rarely take the initiative to act on it (when asked how my Brandy Alexander was, I replied ‘like cinnamon milk’. Was I offered a replacement? No.) Time to wrap this one up. If you are really, really lucky you could have a good experience in Angels. Anyone remembering the venue as the Beat Café will be sadly disappointed as Angles really lacks the necessary charm and atmosphere. Nearly all the elements of a good bar are in place but Angles lacks the coordination to put them all together in a successful format, kind of like the drinks. Frank, 12/11/06 I found the service rather unfriendly and the drinks slow to arrive, even though the bar wasn't very busy. Worse still was the not-so-happy, happy hour. The drinks menus displayed on the tables were not included in happy hour and there was a much shorter happy hour menu discreetly out of view. I made the mistake of assuming that, as there was no mention of a separate menu, drinks in the main menu would be included in happy hour. No mention was made of a happy hour menu upon ordering. To compound the problem, we weren't asked to pay until leaving, and weren't aware of how expensive our drinks would be until it was too late. Fortunately the bar was quick to offer happy hour prices for our selection when we complained. I wouldn’t recommend this place. Suzy, 23/10/06 The decor of the bar is amazing. The new menu is quite impressive, with a wide range of cocktails at a reasonable price. The staff know their drinks very well and are happy to help you to choose any drinks on the menu or make you your own cocktail. They have a superb selection of high class spirits which you can purchase by the glass or in a bottle. All around, an excellent bar to spend a good night out in. Christine, 31/08/06 This bar looks so promising but the staff ruin the place with a bad attitude and lack of knowledge. The drinks list is really good but the drinks you order bear little resemblence to the discription in the menu, which is a stinger at £5.50 for a standard cocktail! Duncan Phillips, 11/07/06
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