Restaurant & Drinking Establishment
Coffee morning, Fridays during term, from 9am. Majorly refurbished in March 2006, the Anchor is open til 11pm daily (except Sun, 10.30pm), and children are welcome until 7.30pm. Lunch and supper are available daily, and they even do cream teas on the weekend! £7.50 lunch offer gets you a bar snack and glass of house wine/beer. South facing patio with umbrellas. | |
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2 Hayfield Road
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The food is good; indeed, sometimes it is excellent. My main criticism of the Anchor lies in its rather gloomy atmosphere: the pub's cold and sterile lighting renders the dining room a rather uninviting place to dine in.
jonesy, 17/07/10 Good food but the main menu is getting very tired, has hardly changed in 3 years at least. I'm not a fan of weekly changes, but chefs do get stale and regulars do get bored. Big Phil, 02/04/10 Pretty good place. I know they can't be perfect all the time as some others have pointed out, but a member of our party arrived late on Saturday and they still sent out a great plate of food even though the kitchen was "closed" (9:45pm). Staff couldn't have been more helpful, although some were running around to keep up. Great Confit, Bread, Mussels, Rack of Lamb and Fab Treacle Tart. Best pub food in Oxford, 2010, GFG, quite possibly. Web Head, 15/03/10 If you're looking for really good quality, we can recommend the Anchor! This is a lovely place with friendly staff and consistently excellent, locally-sourced fresh food. The menu is varied and imaginative and never disappoints. We've been going there for 3 years now on a regular basis, both lunchtimes and evenings and regularly take our French clients there - they quickly change their opinion of English food once they've had lunch at the Anchor and one recently commented that the confit de canard was 'better than in Bordeaux'! The staff are always welcoming and go out of their way to make sure that you're enjoying yourself. Being so popular, it gets pretty busy at weekends and Sunday lunch so it's worth booking. There's a great variety of tasty fish, the meat dishes are cooked to perfection and the desserts are simply wonderful - try the sticky toffee pudding. A relaxed atmosphere and excellent quality. C+J, 05/03/10 Whilst I admire the excellent quality of the food, the service can range from excellent to poor depending on which staff are on duty. This inconsistent front of house management is a big let down for this calibre of fine dining. The higher than average prices do raise expectations but then coupled with poor service lead you to feel ripped off. What an unpleasant aftertaste for anyone who values the poetry of sensitive and beautiful service as part of their dining experience. I pity anyone wishing to dine after 9pm when the kitchen closes arbitrarily early or at 9.30pm if you are lucky. The staff go into clean down mode quickly if there are only a few customers in house and the atmosphere changes rapidly for the worse. Myself and my guest were asked to leave early as they were suddenly closing early- this felt highly unprofessional and downright rude! This is no way to treat your customers. The rapid change in mood left us feeling used for our custom, not valued and welcomed. They have a great resource in this place but need to work on their rather confused identity. Please get your focus back onto outstanding customer service and drop the meaness. You will have no need to worry about balancing the accounts if you get this right. Wemoon, 24/02/10 This is quality produce cooked well. The atmosphere is relaxed and friendly. Interesting to read the previous review and I disagree! The staff work hard at providing good service but you do have to wait sometimes if they are busy. However, as everything is cooked to order and fresh it doesn't seem too much to ask to be patient at busy times and it's worth the wait on the vast majority of occasions. Good products cost money and despite the credit crunch maintaining quality still matters. For all the mediocrity in Oxford The Anchor is a beacon of style and quality as well as value for money. We keep returning and love it. We try other places and invariably wish we hadn't! Greeny, 08/06/09 Disappointing. I've heard a lot aboout this place and was hoping for good service and reasonable prices. I found neither. This is overpriced for what it is, and the food was okay, just no wow factor. It's okay for a casual meal, but the prices aren't. Not surprised it was practically empty. Come on guys, people can't afford these prices at the moment, and if they do splash out, they expect more. Up your ante please! 28/05/09 The food is nice, but the service, while cheerful, is appallingly slow, and the prices are just that extra £2-3 too high for what you get. £8 for a scallop starter should get you more than a smear of risotto and 3 scallops. In our party of ten no fewer than three people ordered extra chips on seeing how small their food was. And it was exactly an hour between arriving and getting any food at all. This experience has been duplicated, with slight variations, over about 6 Sunday lunchtimes. Decent food, but just can't shake the feeling that they're taking the piss just as much as they can get away with. Marvin, 07/05/09 Good to see such excellent and well-deserved reviews. This place used to be such a dive and the present incumbents have managed to completely transform it. The food is absolutely reliably good and the beer is among the best in Oxford - even during a hot summer when most pubs in the vicinity can't keep their beer cool. I just hope this place doesn't get so popular that you can't ge into it like some other Oxford pubs. Mother Brown, 03/02/09 We've eaten at the Anchor twice recently: once for Sunday dinner with overseas guests; once on a Saturday evening with friends. Both times, the food was exceptionally good and I wouldn't hesitate to take more overseas guests there to show how good British food can be! It's not cheap and the service is variable but this is forgivable given the quality of the food (which is what it is all about as far as I'm concerned) Malebu, 23/01/09 The Anchor is now one of my favourite places to eat and drink in Oxford and I encourage anyone who hasn't made the trek to it to do so as soon as possible. It is first and foremost a pub with excellent ales on tap (including a regular guest ale - excellent Everard's on my recent visit), a good selection of spirits and wines and at the moment, mulled wine and hot toddies. There is a small public bar area with an open fire which is perfect for the chilly winter evenings which are now upon us whilst the rest of the building is given over to a relaxed, informal and sprawling seating (dining) area which includes a small but sunny conservatory for day-time visits. The menu is a mix of European gastropub staples but served with imagination and using locally sourced quality ingredients (they seem keen to make you aware of this by providing a brochure of the Abingdon farm where much of their meat comes from, on the bar). I was there for lunch on a chilly but sunny autumnal day and after a long walk by the river/canal needed warming up so plumped for the Cassoulet (£13.50 in the "Specials" section). I wouldn't normally look to pay this much for lunch but as it promised duck confit, belly pork and Toulouse sausage I was prepared to fork out. I was not disappointed. It came attractively served in an iron skillet with the duck confit perched on top (I'm not sure this is terribly traditional but who cares?). It was well cooked and delicious with lots of meat and some excellent Toulouse sausage that was firm and salty as proper Toulouse should be. This was great comfort food and made me forget my weary limbs from the long walk I'd had. It would have been traditionally French to have some robust red wine with this (and their wine list looked brilliant) but I did the seasonal thing and had a mulled wine. I was pleased to note this wasn't just poured straight out on draft like you see in some places, but was made using a glass of proper fresh wine and then the hot water and spices were added. I just about had room for pudding and had my eye on the pumkin pie (about 4 and a half quid) which I had not had before. It's also coming up to Thanksgiving in the US so I thought I'd join in with some newly found yankee spirit. It was sensational. The pumkin pie itself was sweet but spicy with excellent pastry and was accompanied by vanilla ice-cream and a sublime butterscotch sauce in its own little jug. I haven't had a pud this good in ages and scoffed the lot in record time. Overall, the Anchor is an excellent venue both for a drink and for food and I can't recommend it enough. It may be a little hidden away from the main drag, but please find it and give them the patronage and plaudits they deserve. Joe B, 22/11/08 We have been eating at the Anchor ever since it launched its restaurant and it is always first class for food, service and atmosphere. The prices are great and kids very welcome too. Members of my local WI, Walton Manor, go every month for a supper before the meeting In St Margarets Institute and we all love it. Jane F, 30/07/08 Wholly fantastic. Everything about The Anchor is as close to perfect as is humanly possible. We returned for our second visit with a sense of mild trepidation; the first time I ate there, I declared it the best meal I’d had all year, so I had high hopes and would have been crushed had they not been delivered. Fortunately, it was just as good, if not better. The General Manager is polite, efficient and incredibly friendly. A great example of someone doing a job they enjoy, well, and with a smile on their face. The menu is competently thought out and incredibly tempting. So much so, that this time, unable to restrain my covetousness nature, I ordered two starters (seriously toying with the possibility of a third!). On a previous visit, about two months ago, I sampled their Local Asparagus with a Free Range Poached Egg, Truffle Oil and Shavings of Pecorino. It was absolutely divine; the Egg and Asparagus were cooked to perfection with the Truffle Oil providing a pleasant change to a popular summer dish. My partner ordered a Duck and Black Pudding Terrine, which he thoroughly enjoyed. On this occasion, spoilt for choice, I eventually settled on Devilled Lamb’s Kidneys and Scallops with a Pea and Bacon Risotto. The Kidneys were an absolute joy, rendering me close to tears. I wish that were a lie… Beautifully pink in the middle, they arrived nestled on toasted Ciabatta style bread, swimming in meaty gravy. The Scallops were a splendid sight; two plump Scallops nestled atop of their platonic ideal of Pea and Bacon Risotto. In the ultimate act of love, I sacrificed one of the Scallops to my partner and we were in total agreement that the dish was fantastic. Not wanting to ruin my appetite for my main, I allowed him to devour the remaining Risotto, which he did, with pleasure, having only ordered a Goat’s Cheese Salad himself. In order to remain fair and write a balanced review, he was vaguely disappointed with his starter, claiming the Goat’s Cheese to be too mild and not ripe enough. On to the main course; Hake was offered as a special which deflected me from my original choice of Belly of Pork. This I did on the reasoning that we would certainly be back and the Belly of Pork would still be on the menu, but as a special, there may be no second chance to try the Hake. Mildly woeful, I can’t help wondering if their specials menu will ever be less tempting than their main menu, so there is a chance that I might never get to try the Belly… However, the Hake was certainly worth it. Well seasoned, accompanied by crunchy beans and fabulous roasted tomatoes it was the epitome of summer dining. Our friend ordered Bangers and Mash and didn’t really say much once his food was in front of him. That should be taken as a good sign. My partner ordered a steak, as usual, but stealing a mouthful I can say, as steak goes, it was pretty bloody good… *wince*. The accompanying chips were crisp, salty and skin-on. Need I say more? Absolutely sated, I passed on dessert, opting instead for a very good Irish coffee, as did my friend. My partner went for his usual pudding at The Anchor and literally had to fight us off when it arrived. Risking life and limb to sample it, I can tell you that I would now order desert there, however full I was; the Ginger Ice Cream is just incredible. Last time we visited I devoured their cheese board, which, along with the usual suspects, offers an ever changing special cheese. I choose a rather lovely Ewe’s milk cheese, if I recall correctly. The prices are reasonable, particularly when you consider the quality of the ingredients, the sheer talent of the kitchen and the impeccable service. Dining at The Anchor is a pleasure indeed. Dr Mukti, 24/07/08 I went for a meal at the Anchor after reading good reviews both here and in the Oxford Times. The menu was interesting and the food was excellent, particularly the treacle tart and chocolate brownie pudding. My only criticism would be that the prices are a little high - £11.95 for fish and chips for example. Vickers, 27/05/08 Easily my favourite pub for both a quiet drink or a fabulous meal. The bar staff and proprietors are extremely friendly and helpful and the food is second to none. The rare grilled bavette steak and the Cornish mussels are the best I've had. As a mum of 4 under 7, I don't relish taking my brood out to restaurants that often, but we regularly go for Sunday lunch at the Anchor. Children are very welcome, but if you're after a peaceful evening drink, this pub is also excellent. In the couple of years since it's been under new management, the place has become a meeting place for the locals and a much-treasured part of the community. jerichogirl, 09/05/08 Pretty fantastic grub really. The chaps in the kitchen did a fantastic job and the food was second to none - I recommend the risotto or steak and the chips were great. Bar area is spacious which is more than pleasant. I can't recommend the Anchor enough. Top spot! TCH, 07/09/07 The thing about this pub is that is IS a local. People often seem to know each other, the food is often to die for, (risotto when it is on - a great test of a real cook!) good wine, interesting beers and people who genuinely seem interested in whether you are having a good time. Sometimes heaving which they seem to be able to cope with, children, young people and the oldies all happily mingling about, and sometimes quiet, when you can read the newspaper, have a cup of coffee and a light lunch and go back to work feeling restored. Fireside in winter, outside eating and walks by the canal in summer. Could do with a bit more of colour and sense of place indoors - it's a bit bland in spite of the lovely old bar. diddle, 27/08/07 Great meal tonight. Much quieter than we expected, but it is August. Terrific fresh scallops, seriously good mustard sauce surrounding a nice piece of pork and wonderful, wonderful, wonderful ginger custard with treacle tart. Oh and a really nice cheese platter. The Anchor continues to impress, with really good food and an unusal, but always good wine list. Good service makes you feel comfortable. And the surroundings are hard to beat. j.t, 08/08/07 Had a lovely May Morning here with great breakfast and Eynsham and Headington Morris Men singing all around. They were doing bacon sandwiches but I had the croissant, unsalted butter and strawberry jam, and coffee. And I got one of the few available seats. Nice to find a pub which goes out of its way to fit in with local funny habits. whitelady, 01/05/07 Go EAT HERE!!! Lovely surroundings and decor, very friendly and professional service and the food is simply to die for. Be sure to go for the chocolate brownie pudding, which - despite it's somewhat hefty £5.50 price tag, is like heaven in a plate. You have to at least try it once! c.s., 28/04/07 Friendly, quiet local vibe. Good for kids, they never seem to gripe about toddlers running around. Could tend their ales better - it's often a bit fuggy - Heineken is the only safe bet from the tap. Quality of food varies - think they must alternate chefs - but usually OK to good. If you're into woodcraft, take a look at the original bar and fittings. Place is a joy compared to the shifty den of partition walls and furtive ratzo glances from attendant yoof a few years back, but still struggling for an identity. the howler, 18/07/06
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