The Coconut Tree Oxford — Restaurant in Oxford

Booked here for my mum's birthday. Our booking was for 5:30pm and upon arrival were initially given a table right in the middle of the restaurant which we didn't want. As the restaurant was mostly empty we requested a table with some more privacy in the a corner which the waiting staff oblidged for us.

After getting settled at our table, the waiter explained the menu to us going through how much to order and the spice levels and that dishes could be tweaked to our tastes upon request. We ordered our drinks (my parents went for the 2 for 1 mocktails and I copped out with a lime and soda). Nothing to complain on as far as drinks are concerned. Tap water we had to ask for (5* service is tap water without asking and glasses being filled for us IMO).

When it came to ordering food we ordered a wide variety of dishes; a plain hopper, an egg hopper, chickpeas, cashew curry, chicken kottu, chicken curry, rice, parotti, aubergine pickle and the mixed chutney. All the dishes arrived pretty quick, probably due to lack of diners. Remember, as this is a 'small plates' / 'tapas' style eatery, there are no courses, the dishes arrive when ready do be aware of that if you decide to come here.

Going back to the food, all of it was amazing, the hoppers had a wonderful fermented flavour and paired extremely well with the condiments. The chickpeas had a spicy kick, the chicken kottu and curry were incredibly hearty and went down well with the rice and parotti. My only criticism is that the cashew curry could've had a bit more oomph and the peas could've been cooked a bit more. In our opinion it lacked flavour and was underwhelming. Other than that everything else was delicious.

Overall, I am giving this place a 4* as the food and service wasn't absolutely perfect. However, this is still a place you should visit if you want something different to the usua South Asian fare on offer. Also to not that for the amount we ate and how satisfied we were after the meal, it was extremely good value for just over £22 per person including serfvice charge. But remember we did have soft drinks so that probably contributred to the cheapness of the meal. So yeah, I'd generally recommend this place and anothing thing to mention was that there was a really good sleection of vegan and veggie options which was particularly good for my mum who is veggie. Annoyingly though, they didn't have anything appropriate as far as desserts are concerned that they could put a candle in to act as a small cake for my mum. They offered to put a candle in their panna cotta but they warned me it had...

Overall, the service was quick and attentive, and the food was good.

We started with the banana sharing cocktail, which came in a fake coconut glass. It didn't taste very alcoholic, and wasn't very big for 2 people. The banana was a nice novelty, but it was already quite brown and it's a shame to throw it away.

The food was served quickly and the staff were very friendly, attentive and answered any questions we had.

The highlight was easily the mango curry, which was amazing, and the cheesy colombo. The curry was beautifully sweet and tangy and bitter and quite spicy. We'd definitely have it again.

The cuttlefish was nice, but undersauced and didn't have enough onions for the amount of fish. The polenta fried mushrooms were tasty but a bit mushy.

The hopper wasn't as good as the ones from Hopper's in London, but the dips were generally good. We wouldn't recommend it.

The parippu dal was tasty, especially with the roti (which are paratha style).

We had the veggie kottu, which was OK. An option with something like jackfruit would have been nice. Again, the Hopper's version was definitely better.

The aubergine brinjal was disappointing, it didn't taste like anything. The 5 C's salad was appreciated as it was the only fresh dish, but it wasn't very flavourful and was basically all carrot. It would be lifted by much more cucumber and a bright herb.

All the dishes were lukewarm, except for the mango curry and parippu, which were piping hot. The menu said that dishes would be served as they're ready, but everything came together. We also think the tables for 2 should be bigger, especially if the recommendation is to have 3 dishes per person.

The Sicilian white wine was very drinkable, and the mezcal was nicely smokey and had an interesting spicy pineapple garnish. The cocktails were expensive, the mezcal was £10 and wasn't worth that money.

All the food was 50% off as part of a winter deal. For £62 (Including drinks), we were very happy given the amount of food and the quality of some of the dishes. But the standard (full) price of ~£95 would have felt...

Prawn curry was watery and disgusting like they use dish water to make it and then serve it in the dish water, sticky rice was stuck together because it was overcooked and obviously sat there for ages until it stuck together and they still serve it as sticky rice because it obviously stuck together from where the rice spores/bacteria became a clump together mimicking sticky rice like gone off damp rice. It’ absolutely stunk. I had a couple spoons of it my stomach is rumbling now I know I shouldn’t have, but I was so hungry. I just tried to tell myself that it should be okay but the smell of the rice I knew that it was off., may well lead to the runs/diarrhoea, the rotti sure it was leftovers from someone else’s plate and then served to me.. calamari just loads of butter/breadcrumbs, it look more like balsa wood it was so dry you could’ve mistaken it for dry overcook chicken dippers, what a really bad experience I’ve just had I didn’t see the reviews before I ordered unfortunately because I was just angry and I took a chance and funny enough. I’m a qualified chef but what did they just serve me? I wouldn’t serve that too. pack of dogs fighting over scraps they would run off or most probably Chase me off instead. To top it off the food was freezing cold like they just took it off of someone else’s plate what’s been sat there for a couple of days?and served it and I was the unlucky person who got that tonight. What a really bad experience. I should’ve just stuck to what I know. I was originally gonna look at gourmet burgers. I think that’s what it’s called, and then I changed the order and went with this restaurant if you can call it a restaurant, I don’t know why it’s called a restaurant. It’s disgusting really really disgusting. I advise anybody not to eat there and I’m not just saying this. I’m telling you this food was served from the leftovers of other diners meal a couple days old at...