The Garden, Oxford

The Gardeners Arms,
Plantation Road,
Oxford OX2 6JE Map

www.thegarden-oxford.co.uk

The Garden at the Gardeners Arms is tucked away in part of Oxford that is called Jericho. It is well worth digging out as The Garden is a vegetarian pub/restaurant and as well as good food, it also has some fine beers.

Essentially it is a pub that serves vegetarian and vegan food. The menu is quite extensive, offering such dishes as Spicy Moroccan mince, beans and aubergine, Vegetable Balti Madras as well as burgers and wraps.

I'd gone there with a mate that lives nearby and we shared a tapas plate as a starter. This consisted of sun-dried tomatoes, olives, aubergine, pickles, roasted pepper, chillies, roasted tomatoes, hummus and a pitta. It was all very tasty and, with an extra pitta, made a perfect sharing plate for two.

For a main course I decided to try one of the burgers and ordered it with all the toppings (except tomato), emmental cheese, mustard and burger relish. The burger was one of the soya-type burgers and was quite firm and "meaty" and the salad toppings were fresh and crisp. The only disappointment was that it was served with standard shop bought "fries". If it had been served with homemade hand-cut chips it would've been perfect.

The chips aside, it's well worth the detour to find the Garden. As a pub it was friendly and the ales were good and for a veggie or vegan the selection and quality of food was excellent.