Quod Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Oxford

During our vacation to London, we planned a day-trip to Oxford to visit the Bodleian Library and University. We also wanted to check the box on "Afternoon Tea" as part of our itinerary. The Quod Restaurant Bar & Grill not only helped us check that box, but also happened to be conveniently located in the middle of the main attractions we wanted to tour.

I reserved a spot through OpenTable, but the reservation wasn't wholly necessary for the time of day (3:30), as there were seats available, both inside and on the terrace. Our waitress offered us a choice of seating and then provided us with a picturesque spot by the window, where we could see a lovely view of the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin (see image gallery). The restaurant interior carried a polished and high-end aura, but we felt very welcomed in smart-casual attire. The pace of service provided plenty of chatting time during dining, with no hurry to rush us out, lending a relaxed, almost café-style tone to the experience.

We selected from both the Afternoon Tea and Luncheon menus. My traveling companion enjoyed her cassoulet of Spring Vegetables, curly kale, and haricot beans, which arrived in a fresh-from-the-kitchen cast-iron skillet.

The real show-stopper, though, was the High Tea, which we shared. The tea itself was the perennial English Breakfast with milk. The tray included five finger sandwiches, ranging from cucumber, to egg and cress, to ham and mustard. Two savory scones, large enough to share, came next, along with a buttery-sweet serving of clotted cream and tart, juicy jam. The selection of desserts topping the tray represented the best of the Quod's variety, including a shortbread cookie, macaroon, mocha-frosted cupcake, lemon bar, fudge cake, and artistic cup of blood orange tart, crème fraiche pudding with a sprinkling of fruit seeds for texture.

I highly recommend the Quod for its great location, picturesque views, and, especially, its High Tea. I look forward to dining there again, next time I'm...

Bitterly disappointed. Go to the Ivy instead. Do NOT come here for lunch.

I’ve eaten at quod multiple times before and have never been as disappointed as I was yesterday. My family and I went for lunch after my graduation ceremony and were shocked at how poor the experience was. To name but a couple of the problems:

1. The service was really poor. We were in a corner on a table for 6 and felt like the staff completely forgot about us. It took them ages to come over and take our food order. This was particularly frustrating given the restaurant was so quiet.

2. The quality of the food has gone significantly downhill. My partner had the special - the Plaice - which was unbearably salty and came with nothing but the fish itself. When we sent it back (you literally couldn’t eat it, it was THAT salty), the staff were rather unhelpful and quite rude in their demeanour. Alongside this, my avocado vinaigrette starter was bland, as were the lamb cutlets I had for my main too. The lamb was over cooked and charred. Likewise my sister ordered the cucumber and watermelon for her starter and it came without the cucumber!

Overall the experience was seriously misaligned with the very high price that we had to pay for it. There were just so many problems and we felt that the staff were inhospitable and frankly quite rude. We’ve eaten there before and had a good time. However, it appears to have gone down-hill after covid. I would absolutely not recommend this to a friend, especially when the likes of The Ivy and numerous other high-end restaurants in Oxford are charging the same prices and provide a much better experience. Unfortunately I will always remember my graduation meal as disappointing. Don’t make the same mistake. Go to the...

All show no go --- food lacks flavour.

We have been looking forward to a meal in Quod for a while now and the opportunity came last night. I read all these great reviews and think that is just not the experience we had last night.

Things started well, with a really good professional waiter, can not fault him to be fair.

I ordered the Tagliatelle with pork Lemon and sage for £16.95 my GF Wild Mushroom & Mascarpone Ravioli, sage and chestnut butter £15.50, with a shared side of Buttered Spinach £4.95

The flavour of the dished was just not there, the lemon in my dish was definitely missing in action, with the dish over all just lacking flavour. My GF found her sauce watery and bit bland, as if they had transferred to much water with the Ravioli when plating up.

Certainly not the standard you expect at this price!

We stayed for deserts I had the Salted Caramel Cheesecake, salted caramel ice cream 8.95, although the texture of the cheesecake was great where was the salted caramel in it? The cheesecake was over powered by the Salted Caramel Ice-cream which good, but suspect not made in house. Helen had Sticky Toffee Pudding, banana ice cream 7.95, once again the main event lacked flavour, the banana ice cream lovely, but that pudding just failed to delivery the rich sticky sweet taste you expect, and far from sticky if anything it was little dry.

The deserts were delivered by a very busy, "runner". It can only be described "dumped on table" in fact so hurriedly i think she had turned and was going away before the plates had even hit table.

Very disappointed as I think some else has said, you can get more flavorsome food in any number of much less expense pubs.

This is just not what i expected...