Friday 28 September 2012

Green's Café

Scanning the seating area of Green's Café on a weekday afternoon, you'd be forgiven for thinking you'd just walked in to one of Oxford University's many libraries by mistake. During term-time, this café is a silent hive of scholarly activity. Mainly populated by people with laptops, if you're looking for a place to catch-up on the weekend's drunken antics over a cup of coffee, this probably isn't your place. However, if you're looking for a nice cup of coffee, good cake or a decent lunch, then Green's might just be the café for you.

Situated along St Giles, Green's is handy for Somerville College, St Anne's College and Regent's Park. All very nice, laid back colleges, this doesn't do too badly in the pretentiousness stakes, despite being heavily populated by artsy students. If the deathly hush of Green's puts you off then fear not, it's sister café opposite the Westgate centre is in a much livelier part of town. Spanning three floors, if Green's resembles a library then the Art Café is the Sixth Form common room, offering the same great cakes, panini, lunches and snacks  in an altogether buzzier environment.

The coffee at Green's is great, although rather on the pricey side. Strong but not too strong, the café offers all the usual suspects such as cappucinos (cappucini?), lattes and mochas and you can opt for soya or skimmed if that's your thing. Green's also do lovely Teapigs tea sold by the cup which, again, although expensive is worth the extra pence. Offering pots of tea rather than just cups would help the café to notch closer to perfection, but then the lingering students would probably never leave!

Green's all day breakfasts have long been a Sunday-morning institution, promising to provide all the fat and organic meaty goodness you need to kick that hangover into tough and crack on with your fifth week essay. The vegetarian breakfast is also a winner. In the past few years, the café has upped its game as far as breakfasting is concerned and now offers fashionable favourites such as porridge and American-style pancakes with syrup in addition to classic Green's fodder including muesli and bagels. The porridge, while good, is made with ordinary scotch porridge oats and can be a little on the liquid-side for my liking, but the pancakes are excellent and come with a generous pot of maple syrup for drizzling.

Moving towards lunchtime, Green's has a good selection of panini and baguettes which are made freshly in-house. Sizeable chunks of fresh, carby bread, these generously filled panini are not for the faint hearted, offering far more to get your teeth into than the usual coffee chain fayre. If you eat in, your lunch will be served with an attractive but small salad and a dollop of tasty coleslaw to give the impression that you're getting your five-a-day. Top fillings at Green's include the smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel, a goat's cheese, olive and pesto baguette and the bacon, brie and cranberry panini, though there is a huge selection to choose from. What's more, in the unlikely event that there are sandwiches left over after 4.30pm, Green's sell them off at £1.50 - ideal if you're looking for a cheap tea on the go. If you want a more substantial lunch, the café offers a selection of hearty pastas and baked potatoes throughout the day in addition to delicious, fresh-tasting salads and homely favourites like lasagne and chicken curry.

Having covered breakfast and lunch, I now get onto the important matter of cake. Green's do a good and dependable selection of cakes, brownies, slices and cookies with both regular and gluten-free options. The brownies are good and quite rich, but lack the indulgent buttery, fudgy texture of those found in newer arrivals on the Oxford Café scene such as Zappi's and the Turl Street Kitchen (reviews to follow). The Carrot Cake is excellent: moist and spicy with a nice, sweet layer of cream-cheese frosting, while the Apple Cake is as dense and moist as it looks, but is a little bland on the palate. Green's chocolate chip cookies are something of a wild-card in that they never seem to be made to the same recipe, some days you'll see large flat shortbread-style cookies with a few chunks of chocolate, other days, Green's will offer chunky, crumbly cookies which are an inch-thick and look more like chocolate-chip rock cakes. They're sweet enough but somewhat dry, causing me to engage in the risky and socially questionable practice of dipping. The thing is, at £1.50 a cookie, I'd sooner dip a Cadbury's Twirl in my tea and spend the change in Primark...

All in all, Green's café is a lovely place to be. Ideal for holing yourself up on a rainy day and getting through some articles, or getting down to writing that essay you've been putting off, you'll be spoilt for choice in terms of snacks and drinks. As with many places in Oxford, the emphasis on organic and gluten-free produce means you can indulge in some (almost) guilt-free snacking, but watch those purse strings as it's very easy to keep nipping back down to the counter...


Monday 17 September 2012

The Organic Deli Café, Friar's Passage

The Organic Deli Café is one of Oxford's hidden gems. Part of me is loath to write about it as I would prefer it to stay that way. However, having been an on-off regular ever since this café first opened, I thought that it should be one of the very first to receive The Oxford Café Spy treatment. 

The first thing that drew me to the café was the fact that it was quiet and offered free wifi. Tucked away in Friar's Passage, between Magdalen Street and Gloucester Green, this is a little haven away from the bustle of the bus stops and the mêlée of the the market. The friendly staff and quiet atmosphere were two factors which compelled me to come back here again and again. No pretentiousness, just good coffee, sizeable slices of delicious homemade cakes and a smile. What more could you ask for?

The Organic Deli is a family run business and you can tell that the owners have put a lot of energy into the place. Catering for all sorts of dietary requirements, including a fabulous selection of gluten free breads and cakes, they seem really keen to satisfy their customers' needs. They also serve massive pots of Teapigs tea, which makes it an ideal spot to while away the time with a good book or a tutorial essay depending on your status. Talking of status, students and holders of Oxford Key bus passes enjoy a 10% discount at The Organic Deli Café which earns the place another big tick. Coffee here is also good, though I'm a sucker for a nice cup of tea, especially if it comes in a quirky teapot as it does here. One bizarre thing about the tea here is that the milk is often served warm. Usually, I'd deem this to be an abomination, but I love the place so much that I'll let it slip!

Breakfasts at The Organic Deli Café are varied and are served throughout the day. While the granola is average and would have benefited from either being less voluminous or accompanied by more yoghurt (in fairness, this is more an intrinsic fault of granola for being so damn crunchy than that of the café), the Eggs Royale comes highly recommended. Served on two delicious slices of what tasted like homemade soda bread, it had a decent portion of fresh smoked salmon and two poached eggs. The eggs could, perhaps, have done with being rather runnier, but getting the perfect poached egg is not one of life's certainties. Also, I gather there are some odd people in this world who would rather have a slightly well-done egg than run the risk of contracting salmonella in the quest for the ultimate unctuous yolk. Sadly, despite being odd in many other respects and having obsessive-compulsive tendencies as far as food hygiene is concerned, I am not one such breakfaster. 

On the subject of hygiene, the toilet facilities are a little strange and make you feel as if you have stepped into somebody's bathroom. The addition of soap and paper towels would allow for extra points, facilities-wise. Other practical anomalies include the fact that, despite friendly, attentive staff, occasionally a drink or item of cutlery fails to reach the diner, but all you have to do is ask. And don't mention the milk.

Where the Organic Deli Café really scores is on selection. Whether you're looking for a sandwich or a salad, a light bite or a proper meal, you'll find what you're looking for here. There is a good range of Amy's Organic Soups available which, while not made in-house, allow the café to offer a far greater selection of lunchtime soups than rival establishments. Anyway, whoever Amy is, she knows her soups, and her tasty offerings are served with toast and some cheese, a lovely touch and a welcome change from the usual dry bread roll. For those who want a bit of meat, homemade dishes such as lasagne are cooked fresh everyday and are surprisingly affordable.

Finally, of course, I should not forget to mention the deciding factor in the assessment of Oxford's finest cafés: the cake. And what cake. Freshly made and often gluten free, going to the counter to pay for my delicious lunch always makes me wish I'd left a bit more room for some pudding. While I concede, theoretically speaking, there is always room for cake, from a practical point of view it is not prudent to give in to these appetites too frequently if a lady wishes to remain financially solvent or has a pressing afternoon engagement. Not to mention the fact that there is, it must be conceded, a fine line between cake-loving and utter gluttony which should not be crossed with excessive regularity if said lady wish to keep her figure and her arteries in tact. That said, the Chubby Hubby is wonderful: a layer of chocolate sandwiched between an amazing shortbread creation with the a chunky, sandy texture approaching that of a flapjack - you know, the kind of thing that would inspire those of us with Proustian tendencies to get textually overexcited. They do a carrot cake which is Venetian and appears to be moist, but isn't one for purists. The lemon and polenta cake looks very good, too. I'll let you know...

Verdict

Tea: 3/5 (please sort the milk thing out if you haven't already)
Cakes: 4/5
Customer Service: 4/5
Pretentiousness: 5/5 (mercifully free of yummy mummies and effete tweed-clad English undergrads)

Toilets: 2/5 (though I hear rumours that this has changed since my visit).
Carrot cake bonus: Bronze


Total: ****

Souths - 35 South Parade, Summertown

Today's choice is a newcomer to the Oxford café scene. Having opened in Spring 2012, Souths had completely passed me by until a few days ago when I happened upon the blackboard outside promising smoothies, milkshakes and wifi in addition to great coffees. I was, at the time, waiting for a friend to join me for a post-work coffee at the nearby Summertown Wine Café, causing me to doubt whether this was really the greatest location for a café. Tucked away in the chic South Parade area of Summertown, Souths is nestled amongst hip bars, restaurants and expensive boutiques which means that it's in a prime location for attracting the moneyed yummy mummies of North Oxford. I had also read that the café hoped to become a sort of "external common room" for students of nearby St Edward's school. 

On an overcast Sunday morning, I went to Souths in search of a caffeine fix and was disappointed to find the place closed. Not a great first impression: what café these days is closed on Sundays? Determined to give the place a try, I returned the next day, armed with my laptop to test out the place's suitability as a working venue. Branding itself as an internet café and with a sleek interior, I had high hopes for the place. Scanning the room I noticed a distinct lack of homemade cakes, or any cakes for that matter. In terms of food, all that was offered was a few pre-packaged muffins and two jars of large manufactured cookies. Also, somewhat bizarrely, on the empty shelf above the bland selection of chilled soft drinks were two jars of jelly sweets which, presumably were to accompany the milkshakes. 

 The coffee list was lengthy, though didn't feature my desired beverage that morning, a mocha. I tried my luck and ordered a mocha with soya milk, extra hot. Coffee-wise, this was looking promising with options including skimmed milk and the aforementioned soya. The drink was brought over to me forthwith, served with a speculoo. I picked up the cup and took a sip of my extra-hot mocha, which was disappointingly lukewarm. I'm the kind of person who likes to have my lips scalded by steam as I hover them over the cup, so will mark a place down if it can't make a decent, hot drink. My chocolatey choice might have been a rather teenage option, but warm milky drinks are for children before bed and should never be served to an adult in broad daylight, especially when she has specifically asked for her drink to be served extra hot. It's about listening to your customers. 


When the owner brought the coffee over, I politely asked whether I might have the password for the wifi, this being marketed as an internet café. He said he'd sort me out with one, and went back over to the counter. And that was the last I saw or heard of him. As I had other things to be getting on with and so, evidently, did he (namely chatting to another customer who was obviously a friend of his), I decided I wouldn't ask again, hoping that in time he would notice his mistake. So, a second black mark has to go against Souths for the owner following that infuriatingly rude trend amongst staff in 
chi-chi cafés and shops of gossiping to people they know and failing to acknowledge the needs and requests of the remainder of their clientele. 

Despite a number of areas for improvement, Souths isn't a bad place. Uncharacteristically, I didn't need a wee during my time there so I can't comment on the state of the toilets on this occasion, but I'd hasard a guess that they're as new and clean as the rest of the place. The atmosphere is pleasant enough; it's quiet and all the better for it. Aside from being rather on the cold side, my mocha was delicious. Provided there aren't too many Mummies with screaming infants, and the staff remember to give you the wifi code, this could turn out to be a pretty good place to work. With plenty of weekend papers floating around, it's well-suited to kicking back for an hour or so with a coffee. However, if you're looking for delicious cakes, pop a few doors down to the Summertown Wine Café for an indulgent slab of their latest homemade creation. 


 The Verdict


Coffee: 3/5
Cakes: 1/5
Customer Service: 2/5
Pretentiousness: 3/5
Toilets: N/A
Carrot cake bonus: Not awarded.
 

Total: **