Red Lion Oxford — Restaurant in Oxford

Had lunch with a friend and the company was the best part of the experience. Best that can be said is that the food was fine and not particularly pricey. Nothing special, but fine.

The service, on the other hand, was atrocious. The staff were indifferent at best and mildly contemptuous at worst - to say nothing of incompetent. The hostess told us the dining room was full but that we could sit in the bar area, and completely ignored us. Our bartender ignored us for 10min before finally taking our drink orders. It would have been nice if he's told us it would take him another 10min to put the drinks and that we'd have to come up to get them, but we figured that out 20min later after noticing the now-warm beers sitting in the bar.

Once our friend arrived, we went up to the bar to order food. After describing our order twice, he finally told us he had to check if one of the items was available. 5min later he meandered back to tell us it was off. Then he had to get an iPad with details of their allergy policy because my friend was allergic to seafood (she'd ordered a burger). She was told to review a 10 page document, but the iPad died before she made it to page 3. He apologized and disappeared for another 10min, only to come back with an updated menu on his phone which excluded all items containing seafood. As the burger was on that menu, we continued to place our order. My friend (who has mobility issues due to cancer) paid with a card and went back to our table - only to be called back again as the barman had somehow screwed up the authorization and payment hadn't gone through. She hobbled back and our order was finally in after 25min.

Of course, that wasn't the end of it. They said they'd bring food out, but I had to go back up to remind them about one drink the barman had forgotten. That at least he apologized for and brought to the table, but the rest of our food came out after a long wait and unevenly. Two of us were served, but had no cutlery or serviettes. The waiter grudgingly brought over two knives and two forks, prompting the rest of our party to wonder if they were to eat with their hands. Upon reminding, they eventually came back with some a few serviettes which they dumped on one corner of the table before disappearing. After another 10min a different waiter came by to serve fish and chips to our one vegetarian. Fortunately, looked closer because it turned out to be the deep fried banana leaves rather than fish and chips, but the waiter obviously couldn't care less. Additional silverware showed up after yet another 10min. We needed salt, but there was none on the table (of course). Unwilling to wait another bloody 10min, I got up and searched other tables for it. The first two I found were empty and I finally snagged one off the end of the bar. The incurious staff completely ignored me as I did this. But they did come to our table 4 more time over the next hour trying to bring us orders for other tables. Each time we told them it wasn't ours, they frowned at us as if it was our fault and departed without a word.

Overall, our lunch ended up taking almost two and a half hours. Nice because we caught up with an old friend, but otherwise infuriating. Not only will we not be back, we will recommend others so not dine here. I'd complain to the management, but it's obvious they don't give a...

Might be a bit harsh as the place only had 2 staff on floor/Bar area the lady behind the bar was amazing and really friendly and the guy running food was polite if not a bit rushed off his feet sorting whole restaurant out. This place has so many different nooks and crannies it looked empty but there was quite a lot of people for one person to deal with. My main reason it scores low was the food. My gammon and eggs was actually ok but person I was with had fish cakes which came with a supposed lemon veloute which was the most underwhelming sauce I'd ever tried. I'm an ex chef so know a good sauce this was as far away from this as could be. No seasoning, no depth of flavour and limp in consistency. The fishcakes looked like they had been chucked in a dirty deep fat fryer and were too crunchy. And the poached egg looked as deflated as we were eating this dish.Absolutely no finesse. The red lion is trying to be a gastropub but with food like that costing nearly £16 it was a huge let down. Wetherspoons could do food almost as good and it would be half the price and a pint would cost £3 rather than £6. The place looks lovely and huge amount of space and garden. The staff were 85% good. Food was just annoyingly plain and without skill. Hire a new chef is my advice. I'm happy to come and show chef how to a make a lemon veloute which is a entry level skill sauce!! I did give it a 2nd chance walked in on a quiet Monday. Person behind the bar took an age to make a pot of tea for a customer past me twice and didn't acknowledge me which is a must in any hospitality venue. Then got charged £3.35 for a half of Camden Hells. If you want to charge ridiculously over inflated prices you also need to be the best which on two occasions you have fallen well below what I would a basic service. I won't come here again and if you're reading this I urge you to go somewhere else. Oxford has a lot better to offer than this place. It's not a gastro pub by any stretch of the...

Honestly, Don't go! Arrived an hour ahead of our booked table we thought we would have a drink before eating . Out of courtesy we told the lady who was at the desk organising the bookings that we had arrived. We noted at this stage that there were other dinners complaining but didn't take much notice.

Getting our drinks we noticed the music was so loud! This restaurant/ bar is more of a wine bar feel with dance music playing so you will need to speak up if talking to your fellow diner's

Drinks in hand we sat a vacant table when the "table bookings lady" walked over and told us we would have to move in 10 minutes. That's fine so we stood at the Bar.

No thanks for picking up chunks of glass from the staff member who smashed 4 glasses on the floor in front of us.

So eventually went back to the desk to inform the table bookings lady that it was time for our table however more customers were complaining to her about how long the food was talking to arrive. We asked the another customer how long they had waited and she told us over 1 hour for food. The customer told us to get out of here as it was a shambles! We stood there shocked and then noticed that the bookings lady had now walked off and started to set up other tables! Eventually we complained to a staff member that someone needed to serve us. The booking lady eventually came over and as she grabbed some menus and turned to show us to our table, I stopped her and asked if it was true that there was a 1 hour delay in receiving food. She replied, oh yes did I not tell you?! I said you know very well you have not told us even though for the last hour while standing at the Bar and walking past us she made no attempt to inform us of the delay. We ended up walking out and luckily The Folly restaurant were more than happy to accommodate a table at short notice and what amazing food it was ! Review on there has been added. All in all things worked out...