As it is my birthday at the end of this month, and my good friend Phil is going to be out of the country AGAIN, he said he would take me to Jamie's Italian restaurant, which opened up a couple of months ago. It was under a reasonable amount of duress - he was sniffy about it ("he's not going to be there you know; it'll be bog standard Italian food; I'm not queuing up for hours with a load of tourists"), but since I wanted to go, he said he'd treat me as a birthday present.
So, in order to minimise our potential queuing time (you can't book unless you are a table of 10 or more), we went at the ridiculously early time of 6pm and were told we'd have a 15-20 minute wait. Fair enough - we sat at the bar with a beer and were seated at a table within 10 minutes. Phil was busy rating the decor, the staff, the menus, you name it - "so far so good, but let's see what the food's like".
Our starters came came "the best olives in the world, with tapenade and music bread" (how exciting!) and a basket of bread from "my bakery" (ie Jamie's). Good start. And then the mains - prawn linguini for my carnivorous dining companion, and sweetie shaped pasta stuffed with pumpkin in a rosemary sauce for me. Despite being slightly concerned about the size of my portion in comparison to his ("I've got loads, are you sure that's enough for you?"), he grudgingly had to admit that his dish was really rather good. Oh, the pain on his face was plain for all to see!!! Of course, he did want to enjoy it, but part of him wanted it not be that good. But he told the truth and shamed the devil and admitted that it was really rather good.
Me? Well, I thought it was great! Very good food, attentive yet unobsequious staff, relaxed atmosphere, eclectic music, nice view into the kitchen, and very reasonably priced. And a dining companion who ate his words as well as his linguini.
Tune in next time for the next installment of "Fiona and Phil do Oxford restaturants".
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