Raoul’s is three or four steps ahead of any other bar in Oxford. And once they’ve caught up Raoul’s is already haring round the next bend.

The Venue
When Raoul’s opened it was all beiges, blacks and browns and very trendy at the time. Now everyone is doing that, Raoul’s has moved on. Refurbished last January the new design is colourful, bold and the essence of cool.

The bar is on three levels and all are fairly intimate. The small front bar features the wooden bar itself on the left with a painted grey and yellows design and a yellow back bar. The white walls feature crowd scenes at some 70’s US music festival and there are oblong portholes of light and diagonal dark pink, grey, yellow and orange rainbow stripes along the wall. The cocktail tables have small glass yellow lights built into the middle via fibre optics. Surrounding the tables are some very cute, squat, yellow, mini armless armchairs.

There’s also a tiny plasma screen by the bar scrolling through drinks promotions. On the lower levels are glass cabinets filled with odds and ends like bottles of rum and cocktail shakers. There’s a DJ booth on the middle level (funky house seems to be the order of the day) and all the lighting is on dimmers so it gets turned down to create more of an atmosphere at night.

Raoul's has won so many awards it would impossible to list them all but they're along the lines of best bartender, best bar team, best place to drink in the South East and best cocktail. Best get yourself there.

The People
You’ll find young (and some older) professionals here, including the more affluent students (of which there are a fair number), arty types, cool cats and celebs like Elijah Woods (well, he did pop in here during the filming of the Oxford Murders). It's extremely popular thanks to that clutch of awards so it can get rammed during the weekend. Get there early so you can nab a sofa ready for a night of cocktail drinking.

The Food and Drink
There are around 100 cocktails on the list and they’re all mixed expertly with tip-top ingredients. They all cost around £5.50 and one of the signature inventions is Miss Beehiving (42 Below Manuka honey vodka, Frangleico and fresh cream shaken and strained into the glass). Add another 50p and get bubbly cocktails like Gentleman’s Aromatic Fruit Cup Fizz, which is elderflower cordial mixed with aromatic bitters and citrus fruit topped with Prosecco.

In bottles there’s Budweiser, Grolsch, Budvar, Viru (Estonia) and that lovely and smooth lager-ale hybrid Anchor Steam (San Francisco). A Chilean 2007 Moon Valley Sauvignon Blanc is £13 a bottle and the most expensive wine, a Spanish Chivite Gran Feudo Crianza, is still good value at £14.80. There are bites if you want to soak up all that alcohol, like toasted flatbread and houmous for £4.50 or vegetarian spring rolls with a sweet chilli dipping sauce for £4.50. Or have done with it and just get a bowl of chips to share with mayonnaise and ketchup for £2.80.

The Last Word
With incredibly friendly staff, including Jamie the manager, there’s no sense of being alienated by Raoul’s stylishness.. Which is why drinkers come back time and again to what is perhaps the coolest bar in Oxford.

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