1 Oxford Castle,
Oxford,
OX1 1AY
(01865) 260210
The ViewOxford Review
Sleek, modern and sophisticated The Living Room has got all the bases covered — and even has a continental style terrace.
The Venue
Adjacent to Malmaison and part of the Oxford Castle development the main area of The Living Room is a long spacious bar decked out in dark woods with a bar along one wall and booths along the other, divided by a wooden screen. There are high stools lining the polished dark wood bar and there's a white baby grand piano opposite.
There are big black plant pots dotted around the place and small spotlights in the ceiling. The armchairs look sedate and there are glossy brown sofas by the window and a groundfloor patio beyond that, which you have to make a beeline for in the summer as it gets packed. But even more sought after is the great little terrace upstairs which is just below the Malmasion roof garden — it’s so continental looking, you could be in the Med. The service is excellent and courteous and ususally comes with a smile, even when they’re very busy.
The People
In general the clientele have a bit of disposable income and fall within the twenties to thirties professional category. It’s popular with couples (and that includes with children).
The Food and Drink
There’s Tetley’s, Guinness and Carlsberg on draught and in bottles you can sample their own TLR Homebrew alongside Tiger, Heineken, Sol, Miller, Gaymer’s, Estonian lager Viru and King Cobra (double fermented and pretty potent at 8 per cent). Five whites and four reds make up the wine list and they range in price from £12.50 to £22 a bottle. The cocktail list is pretty vast and they all cost around £5 to £6.
A Champagne Cherry Nova (maraschino, cherry Marnier, cranberry juice, cherry syrup and Champagne) is £7.25. They do all the classics, plus frozen ice cream cocktails. Talking of which their best smoothies is a No. 2 made with blueberries, strawberries, mango sorbet and raspberry and cranberry juice. It’s perfectly chilled with the mango predominating.
On the food front there’s a great range from sandwiches and salads to main courses and desserts. A chicken Caesar salad is £9.25 and the house salad of pan-seared smoked salmon, tat soi, mizuna, red chard, baby gem, leek, sango, asparagus shoots and new potatoes (£10.95) is light, uplifting and perfectly dressed — more of a high class restaurant dish really. A dusting of black pepper and it’s the perfect summer treat. Try the lemon tart with crushed raspberries to finish (£4.95). They do lots of alcoholic coffees too like Latte Disaronnno (£3.95).
The Last Word
Yes it's a chain, but so much thought and effort goes into The Living Room it’s very very hard not to be rather impressed. And anyway, that little terrace is dead cool.
Living Room has been reviewed by 3 users