Rufus Thurston launched Oli’s Thai with his wife Ladd in 2013, and followed up with tapas bar Arbequina, which he opened with Ben Whyles and Ben Bateman three years later. Harden’s caught up with him as he prepared to unveil a second branch of Arbequina in Oxford Covered Market later this spring. HARDEN’S: Oli’s Thai […]
Oli’s Thai, the massively popular Oxford restaurant whose closure in early 2022 upset its legion of fans, reopens today – on its original site in Magdalen Road. Owners Rufus & Ladd Thurston closed the business after a nine-year run, replacing it with Elle’s Deli to improve their work/life balance – in particular, to spend evenings with […]
Dishoom is to open two new branches of its Permit Room all-day café-bars in the university cities of Oxford and Cambridge this year, following the sub-brand’s launch in Brighton last year. Cambridge opens first, on 20 June, with Oxford celebrating the new academic year in October. The brand is named after the alcohol permits issued […]
Tech billionaire Larry Ellison has stepped in to revive the Eagle and Child, the Oxford pub famous as the preferred watering-hole of J.R.R. Tolkein, creator of The Lord of the Rings. The 17th-century pub has been closed since the Covid shutdown of 2020, and was reportedly being lined up for conversion into a hotel until […]
Two longstanding Oxford eating institutions have experienced contrasting fortunes following recent changes in trading conditions: Gee’s (pictured), which has occupied a Grade II listed Victorian greenhouse in wealthy North Oxford for 40 years, is doubling its capacity following a million-pound makeover, while the Nosebag in the city centre has closed down permanently after 51 years. […]
Seafood specialist Bonnie Gull (Fitzrovia and Soho) steps outside of the capital for the first time with the launch of Salt ‘n’ Sauce at Westgate Social in Oxford’s newly opened Westgate mall. Alongside traditional fish and chips (fresh North Sea haddock coated in tempura beer batter, served with triple cooked beef dripping chunky chips) there […]
The Cinnamon Collection – which includes Vivek Singh’s “inspirational” nouvelle Indian The Cinnamon Club (set in the “classy” surrounds of Westminster Library) as well as the chef’s more casual ventures, Cinnamon Kitchen, Cinnamon Soho and Cinnamon Bazaar – has chosen Oxford for its first restaurant outside of London. Cinnamon Kitchen Oxford, opening this October in […]
It’s National Barbecue Week, so that means hunching over the rusty old Webber in your back garden with an umbrella – right? Not according to Giles Coren. He reviews Shoreditch’s Rök and Smokestak with such enthusiasm that he implores readers to visit one of these two smokehouses, rather than light the barbie in their own […]
A clutch of London’s most successful restaurant chains are heading up the M40 to open new outlets in Oxford’s Westgate shopping and leisure complex, which reopens after a £440million redevelopment later this year. Polpo (pictured), Russell Norman’s tribute to the Venetian small-plates bacaro, heads the list alongside Sticks & Sushi, Pho, Shoryu ramen, Comptoir Libanais, Pizza […]
