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Opening hours: Open for tea & coffee 8.30am - 5.30/6pm; lunch served 12 - 2.30pm; Sundays open 9am - 5.30/6pm.
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I can't recommend The Vaults enough. The food is always good and reasonably priced, the layout is friendly and pleasant and the staff are lovely. It's never failed to satisfy.
Oxfordian, 21/08/09 Vaults is my favourite restaurant. Fantastic coffees, teas, cakes, soup and food. I always get a warm, smiley welcome. Vaults uses organic, locally sourced ingredients. The food is full of flavour, colour and health benefits. At weekends I expect to queue out the door. Will the owner is a character and usually bounding around - charming and charismatic. You are eating in the heart of Oxford. I definitely recommend to all ages. Lucy, 12/03/09 The Vaults never fail to please. Even when they've run out of hot food except mung bean soup (somewhat unsurprisingly, since it was 3pm on a December Saturday), it's the best mung bean soup you've ever tasted in your life and it comes with fresh, malty raisin and walnut bread that makes you wonder why you ever eat anything else. I go here whenever I get the chance. Please don't do the same or I'll never get a table. :) Roo Stuffer, 01/12/08 The espresso drinks are surprisingly well done, and I was becoming a regular. But the other day I got a shocker - the barista took an already pulled shot sitting on the drainboard, poured it into the demitasse cup, and reheated it with the steamer. I was horrified. lije, 19/05/08 This is one of my favorite locations, situated within the heart of Oxford, with great tasting food and friendly service. It caters for numerous dietary requirements and healthy appetites. Courts, 01/03/08 Eating at the Vaults brings me back to barefoot summers in Glover, Vermont at the Bread and Puppet festivals. We would watch politically-charged protests acted by larger-than-life papier-mache marionettes in late July, eating homemade sourdough rye bread smeared with garlic aioli. Insurrection and resurrection via free bread and circus were the tools for positive social change. I also spent many years as a strict vegetarian, but never lost a sense of eating for pleasure. I can assert that the Vaults caters to both the health-conscious meat free connoisseur and also those who revel in the delights of slow food and fine French cooking. The student discount is HUGE (if you go at the right time) and you're paying for fantastically inspiring garden fresh food with a heart. My favourites are the spanish omelettes, brimming with seasonal goodies served in big steaming wedges with rice dujour and green salad. I also love the tofu stir-fry, with its sweet and sultry aroma of five-spice herbs just pressed. There is a wide selection of tea (and the only place I've found in Oxford serving Mate - which, for the uninitiated, is a caffeine-laden tea from Argentina, usually shared out of a gourd in coffee-houses and drunk socially like Chai is in India) and the cakes with which to accompany the steaming cups are always moist. Vegans: there will always be a soup and a cake for you, changing daily! I'm also a fiend for Oxford Sauce, which is rumoured to have been created by the founder of the Vaults, and there are about 100 bottles lined up like a Warhol painting in the cupboard and I usually add a good healthy dose to whatever I'm having. Really, the only thing missing is the out-of-tune Homeland Security Band in the background. Love. Kate, 03/02/08 This is a lovely place to have lunch. I feel healthier every time I leave after chowing down on all that lovely organic food! Student discount is always a bonus and the choices, though limited, are always inventive and tasty and the selection of cakes is always good. Another bonus has to be that it is the only place where I have ever seen and had 'Curiosity Cola', which is real, propor cola that tastes like cola bottle sweets and has a picture of a wolf on the bottle. Brilliant. Tash, 08/01/08 This is in many ways a lovely place. Especially in terms of the ambience. The gardens and the vaults are indeed there. As for the food, alas, it is not always as good and as abundant as one would desire, or expect to get given the prices. Overall, it is a nice place which could become excellent if the prices went down or the servings were more generous. 14/07/07 This is by far and away the best place to have lunch or stop for tea in Oxford. The menu is superb, a selection of high-quality freshly cooked items - which vary day to day - are all served with salad and a friendly smile from the staff. The vegetarian and vegan dishes offer the same high quality as the meat-based dishes so there is something for all tastes. The selection of coffee and tea are great and the hot chocolate is superb! And as for pudding, if you have room after your meal, it would be almost rude not to sample some of fantastic cakes and bakes they offer. Meals cost between £5-7 and two people can eat, drink and have cake for about £16. Get there early to beat the rush and get a table for lunch, which is served from 12:30. Amy, 12/04/07 By far and away the best food in Oxford. Better than anywhere I have eaten (including Le Petit Blanc in its heyday!). Great, fresh, organic food (mostly locally produced). Staff fantastic and very friendly and relaxed (what is their secret?!). You come out feeling so much happier! I could not recommend this place more highly and only wish it was open in the evening. Willow, 31/01/07 Open everyday (9.30am-5pm) for home cooked specialities, the food at the Vaults and Garden Coffee House is so fresh it almost jumps off the plate. With a generous 20% discount given to students during off-peak periods you may need to hover for a few minutes resisting a chocolate fudge cake whilst a table becomes vacant. Mains cost less than a fiver and change daily. Recent taste sensations include organic beef stew, penne with buffalo mozzarella and spinach, Spanish tortilla and omelette. The desserts seem far too wicked to be displayed on the premises of a church. However the ingredients are virtuous with fairtrade, organic and seasonal produce all used widely in the cuisine. Culinary creativity abounds with a polenta and orange torte or a pistachio and pear tart tempting diners away from classic confections such as coffee and walnut cake, pecan pie and carrot cake. The jewel of this neatly tucked away café is its patio garden, which has become a haven for the hassled Oxonian. Heated during Winter and overflowing in Summer, this is a prime location to bring a book and enjoy some of Europe's finest architecture. View the world's first round library, James Gibbs' Radcliffe Camera of 1748, over the froth of a cappuccino and gaze at Jeffrey¹s Archer's alma mater, Brasenose. The serenity of the garden with the therapeutic scents of the potted herbs fits Summer into a tea break - especially when sipping one of the café's kaleidoscope of herbal infusions. Vegans are especially well catered for with gluten-free spicy pepper soup, tofu dishes, moist fruit cake and blueberry cheesecake, all made with non-animal products. Profits go to support the adjoining St Mary the Virgin, a church where many significant events in English history have been played out since its first mention in the Domesday book. A centre for the early years of Oxford University, 13th century students would dispute and discuss in the church's porch. John Henry Newman preached his inspiring Sunday sermons from the pulpit and the broad nave is where Archbishop Cranmer was tried on a makeshift stage before being dragged to Broad Street where he was burnt at the stake. On a lighter note, if you are able to resist a second helping of scrummy chocolate cake then there is always the 127 steps of the Gothic church tower to climb (£2.50 for adults). This offers a bird's eye view of Christ Church meadows and All Souls college with Wren's sundial that alas may be showing it¹s time to go back to work. Lita Doolan, 10/03/06
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