A North African themed cocktail bar, Cafe Baba is all mezze and mirrors.

The Venue
Morocco seems to be everywhere in Oxford — or is it a hangover from those trippy hippy student sit-in days of the 1960s? Cafe Baba is a loosely North African themed bar with metal Arabian lanterns hanging down and white tiled floor overlaid with patterned rugs.

Big mirrors are another Oxford bar standby and there are enormous gold-framed ones here, covering practically the whole of the right-hand wall in the front bar and then extending into the back rooms. Seating is on wooden benches which are covered, rather oddly, in carpet (you do get used to it). There are palm trees in the back patio area too.

The People
Friday nights it’s filled to the rafters with frisky young professionals and students jostling to get to the bar and getting tipsy on cocktails. In the week it’s a little quieter and popular for an afternoon mint tea.

The Food and Drink
Cafe Baba’s bottled beers include Sagres, Erdinger, Corona, Brahma San Miguel and Peroni. There are five whites and five bottles of red wine — as well as Cava and Champagne — and a Terre Forti Sangiovese is a good mid-range choice. For £3.80 you can get a kick from a Moroccan Mule which is vodka, ginger, lime, mint and ginger beer and the other cocktails are all around the same price.

On the food front there are mezze and tapas (i.e. Middle Easter and Spanish) which include pesto chicken (which is neither) as well as halloumi, tzatziki, lucanica on cous cous, dolma (yes, you do need a food glossary here) and olives and pitta bread. Wash it all down with some fresh mint tea.

The Last Word
You fully expect to hear Marakesh Express by Crosby, Stills and Nash as you walk in.

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