100% PASTA — Restaurant in Oxford

We discovered this hidden gem of a restaurant on our last whole day here in Oxford and was so happy to find it. A bit hidden from the main street, but then again its a quiet oasis in a otherwise busy city.

First impression is very good, the staff are fast to help us find a table and giving the kids something to colour. That is always a plus so the parents can concentrate on the menu. The orders for drinks are also taken immediately - another welcome gesture for a thirsty an tired family.

Drinks arriving fast and since the menu is easy to understand, we are also ready to order food after just a few minutes. Served by Matteo, the process is fast and the kids are also taken well care of. So far its a very good experience for all of us.

After what feels like just a few minutes the first starters arrive, and its like being in a pool of piraña as the good pinsa and bruschetta is shared. The taste is overwhelming and even the kids eat the pistacchio pesto as if it´s candies on a saturday.

Luckily there is no waiting for the pasta. The tree main dishes are also shared, the carbonara unanimously voted as the winner, with the perfectly crispy guanciale as pieces worth fighting for. We have already decided to come back for lunch before flying home tomorrow to get another refill of that :-)

The little princess in the family got her own off the menu pasta just as if she were at home - fusilli pasta with only a god olive oil. The oil being so good that the older brothers had to beg the little sister for a taste.

Matteo, our waiter, worked hard to satisfy and please tree tired kids so that they also had a good time visiting the restaurant. Even the food sat well in their tummies, there is always room for some icecream at the end - the mother and father being too full for desserts. The meals are well made and give you a good sensation of being full that last - just as a good meal is supposed to do.

If there is room for a suggestion to the menu; the only thing we missed was some soft bread on the side (for me its the focaccia that comes to mind) for scooping up the last drops of pasta sauce after the pasta is gone. Licking the plates are not an option in public, but was considered since there was still some delicious taste left on the plate.

All in all a five star plus experience where everything is contributing: the pleasant and clean facility, the friendly and hard working staff and - of course - the good tasting and...

I’ve just had 3 seperate phone calls with 100% pasta trying to get in touch with the manager, the lady on the phone (Tatiana) was lovely except i feel she was trying to put me off making a complaint via email, for whoever is reading this let me tell you something before you enter this establishment, my girlfriend was hired on a 30hr contract (a whole 45 minutes away because she is a student and needed a job) she applied for waitressing and was giving nothing but bar work. being the girlfriend i was told they only trained her fully 2 days before opening and shouted at her because she got something wrong (which is human error even despite the lack of training 2 days prior) she was told she should only stay ‘a few hours extra’ which ended up as 6 more hours (an already 8hour shift as they couldn’t ‘afford’ having to hired anyone new which they did anyway) and made her work 6x 10-12hour shifts per week. my girlfriend is white british, as was 2 other girls working for 100% pasta, none of them were given their contracted hours (0 hours for 3 weeks which i have personally seen on their rotas) which is completely unacceptable for 3 people on a signed contract. as for that Roberta, was xenophobic in the sense she only gave jobs to those who weren’t english/british for no reason, which is diabolical for someone hiring multiple people. not only this, my girlfriend was a ‘third wheel’ to them consistently talking in italian and romanian and joking, laughing which made her feel severely uncomfortable, as she doesn’t know the language (this went on for hours) so with the lack of hours, the lack of care for other staff memembers i wouldn’t go here. I have personally tried the food and it tasted like it was frozen, nothing authentically italian and quite frankly embarrasssing. i wouldn’t recommend this establishment for any reason not even from judgement of food purely because of the way they treat staff who have applied as it is a ‘nationaility’ free zone. diabolical will not eat here, will not entertain it and i can guafentee i wont stop until this shop is either shut or under fair...

Does what it says on the tin. And does it with aplomb. We were served by the lovely Francesca and Andi and if the food hadn’t made our event then they certainly would have done.

They couldn’t have given us better service and couldn’t have made us feel any more welcome. Within minutes tables all around us were talking to each other as we all couldn’t stop telling each other how fantastic the service and food were.

But in case you were wondering doing what is says on the tin was all it does? We can answer that.

Occasionally in life you need a superlative by which to judge things. Some call it their magnum opus others may use words like incomparable or exquisite.

There are places we like a lot and places of yore, places we frequent and places we adore but finding this restaurant has literally changed my life’s desires.

The long and short of it is that I can’t find a word single word to describe the best pasta that I have had since I fell in love with a squid ink risotto pasta in the Michelin starred Bibendum decades ago. That’s how good it was.

Never had a taste so fresh and so raw and just when we thought we were done with the pasta they brought us the best tiramisu that we have ever had.

We’ve already planned to go back just for that tiramisu. It’s that good.

If you go there and don’t love it then you don’t like pasta period! This place leaves a hole in your heart that you can only fill by revisiting. I can’t wait to get...