Ashmolean Café

We visited the cafe last week after seeing the new Egyptian gallery in order to have a drink and breastfeed our baby. We were surprised at the improvements made to the atmosphere since the museum was revamped - it is now much lighter and with plenty of space between tables for buggies and high-chairs.

Both the tea and coffee were of high quality but quite expensive. We tried a millionaire's shortbread which was also tasty. There were nice discreet alcoves in which to sit and feed a baby.

All in all a positive experience.

becky (Unverified), 22/12/11

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We ate the spinach quiche and salad and it was really quite unpleasant. The quiche seemed to have been made from some sort of processed jelly and had no flavour at all, while the base was a thin biscuity layer. The "salad" was a few spinach leaves and a lump of coleslaw. 

My daughter had fish pie and described the potato topping as good but the fish as unpleasant. I didn't think it was that bad but certainly not restaurant standard. The cakes are good and the free tap water in bottles is a good idea for families like us on a budget. Two quiches, fish pie and two cakes came to £25, so not too pricey.

Mark Smith (Unverified), 31/03/10

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The cakes are made on site (i think!) and they are TOO GOOD! I regularly have cake and coffee here and it is better quality and a little cheaper - and certainly a nicer atmosphere than all the other generic cafes. Yummy!

Cake Lover (Unverified), 26/01/08

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Both the strengths and weaknesses of this place come the from the fact that it is a cafeteria-style eatery.

We only had about 40 minutes for lunch, so it was perfect that we could get our food and sit down with it within about five minutes of arrival. However, this convenience comes at the cost of the food being just not quite hot enough. Also, because it has to be displayed en masse, limiting the choice to about 3 or 4 mains, the options have to be just a wee bit bland, so that any given person will find at least one thing they don't object to.

Having said all that, it must be admitted that it was all really quite nice. Pepper and lentil soup, with a piece of very nice bread (£3.75), was pleasant and unobjectionable. Salmon fillet (£6.95) and chicken in a bacon and mushroom sauce (£7.45) were both generous and came with good basic onion-sliced potatoes and salad.

The room is also very pleasant; lots of space, pillars and sunlight, the atmosphere not affected by the busy half-term crowd.

A final shared cup of tea and slice of coffee and walnut cake were both a measure above generic, although the cake had some eccentricities (butterscotch in the icing, ginger in the sponge).

Overall, two people can be pleasantly, healthily and generously fed for £25. Judge it as café with a captive audience and it's really rather good, just needing a little more staffing at busy times and somewhere to rest trays while waiting for the cash register. One also imagines that its cream teas would be very well received.

Unfortunately, with such a nice atmosphere and attached to such a stately building, one can't help but feel that it misses the opportunity to be a little bit more than a café. But most of its customers seemed very happy.

Ian Threadgill & Susie Cogan (Unverified), 22/10/07

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