Oxy Oriental Restaurant

Amazing food. There are so many choices and I love the tappanyaki. It's good fresh food. Recommend to anyone. Very family friendly as well as party friendly.

17/04/10

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They do have crispy duck!! I must admit not the best around, but for the price and convenience it is a must. I go all the time.

69funkygibbons (Unverified), 09/12/09

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Great place! Great food. SO many choices, I'll definitely go again!!!!!

Mike (Unverified), 08/08/09

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I've been to this place twice. It's OK, but there are far better all-you-can-eat Chineses in Oxford .... personally I probably wouldn't go here again and they didn't have crispy duck!!!

K (Unverified), 04/06/09

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I have a penchant for rubbish food - whether it be greasy spoon cafés after a heavy night on the town or the dodgy kebab vans that frequent Oxford's streets, Oxy Oriental certainly falls into this category. The food is cheap, fatty, flavour-less gunk that only serves to fill a hole.

I trudged through the empty halls of the Ozone to Oxy which is hidden at the back of the ground floor (who the hell designed this place?!). The restaurant itself looked miserable with dim lighting covering a large breeze block-style eating area. The furniture is made up of the sort of Ikea-esque high-backed chairs you see a lot of these days and the tables are of the chunky easy-wipe variety. There is a rather forlorn bar on the far-side with umpteen spirits which look rather more decorative than inviting and the ceiling is clogged with (mock?) cooling ducts and piping.

The menu offers not just your standard Chinese takeaway fare, but also teriyaki, Brazilian BBQ (pardon? - I thought this was a Chinese?) and sushi. I can't fault them on this variety but being lunch-time when I found myself here it was the only Chinese nosh that was on offer. I started with some nasty chicken and sweetcorn soup which had barely any chicken in and was very thin. I next went for the hot starters which are your usual array of deep-fried objects like prawn toast, won-tons, mini spring rolls, etc. I usually love this stuff but I was disappointed with the shocking quality of what was on offer. The battered chicken was almost slimey, the prawn toast was over-cooked and the sweet and sour sauce was the worst I've ever had.

One plus point I noted at this stage was the presence of duck pancakes with the usual trimmings. The only problem was that it reminded me of kebab meat that had been crushed up. Kebab meat is ok after 10 pints but not to the sane or sober at any other time. Nice of them for trying though. Also, I think it would be better having hoi-sin sauce on bottles, not pumped from a burger van style industrial sauce dispenser.

The main hot food as is often the case seems a let down after the starters and I had a Malaysian chicken curry which tasted neither of chicken nor curry. Amazingly there was no rice available when I visited so I made do with "Singaporean vermicelli" which looked like mee fun but tasted no fun. Once I had loaded my plate up you couldn't really tell what was what and I noted the over-riding flavour was from the dodgily-flavoured sweet & sour sauce.

You pay at a desk so are not obliged to leave a tip (if you ever are anyway). It's cheaper at lunch than in the evenings when the more varied menu is offered (I paid a basic £5.90). I'm probably in the minority when I say this, but I found Oxy to be pretty awful. I was expecting rubbish food but found just rubbish.

Joe B (Unverified), 14/11/08

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It really depends on what kind of experience you are looking for when you come to this restaurant. The atmosphere is not relaxing in any way and 'aircraft hangar' would be an apt description. Lighting and decor are not subtle or imaginative and clearly it has been done in the cheapest way possile for a large area. Service should not be added automatically in this kind of environment as most of the offering is self service - the drinks are done by your waiter/ess and the plates are cleared when they feel like it and you go to a desk to pay your bill. Little food knowledge, inter-personal skills or service skills are required. The food has no finesse and is designed to fill you up as quickly as possible. Most of the starters are deep fried and the sushi is a long way from being good. You can pick your own ingredients and have them cooked - this is probably the best option as the rest of the main courses are more like canteen food and sit around in the buffet for ages. I have had many delicious chinese meals in the UK and in China, but this is not where you will have this experience. In my opinion this type of operation is one step toward feeding humans en masse in a mere functional manner with cheap ingredients.

food lover (Unverified), 30/08/07

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I must say that our family enjoys going there very much.
Quick hot food and no endless waiting around for the next dish. Just the right thing for hungry impatient children.

The food is much more authentic than a lot of other places.
We previously visited a highly recommended Chinese buffet in Summerton which was a complete let down with frozen fried food and unimaginative dishes (You could easily get most of their dishes frozen from a Chinese supermarket)


Oxy is definitely better. Ask my kids :o)

Severns (Unverified), 23/08/07

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I loved the teppanyaki, but I was disappointed the sushi didn't open at lunch!

Dereknator (Unverified), 22/08/07

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No idea what Dave is talking about (16/7/07).
I have been a couple of times now with my husband and 2 children and once with colleagues.
Food was excellent especially the Tepanyaki which was amazing to watch being cooked in front of me. The only thing negative is the restaurant seems a bit like a big canteen (although very clean).

25/07/07

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Looks stylish (big, black, lots of shiny ducting), but tastes cheap (budget ingredients, everything ultra-salty). It didn't seem that cheap to me either (comparable in price to restaurants in Summertown, but worse quality).

Dave (Unverified), 16/07/07

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Yummy....had a lovely last minuite sit down after visiting the cinema with the family. Very clean, lovely hot fresh food with plenty of choice. Will definitely eat there again, in fact made a reservation already for Father's Day ;O)

Jules Watson, Bicester (Unverified), 16/06/07

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i love it...like a dream come true. Radek heaven.

radek (Unverified), 20/04/07

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excellent value for money, but they do charge 10% for table service, so if you dont want to pay as much go to the bar yourself and pay as you go. great choice of foods

09/04/07

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