I have been to a few branches of Jamie's Italian now and have been surprised how much the standard varies. The Kingston branch is the best I have visited, but I recently visited the Oxford restaurant. My date and I decided to go for the 'Big Italian Feast' as tasting options are the food equivalent of a montage and who doesn't love a montage? We felt that the menu was rather sneaky, as while it displayed the price next to the dish, we only just caught sight of the 'price is per person' caption in the small print.
We were given the option of having the feast all at once or broken down into starter and main so we went for the latter option. The starter was a board with olives, peppers, hams, salamis, a Parmesan and chilli jam cracker, focaccia, a ball of mozzarella and a shredded carrot and beetroot salad. For me, the spicy salami stood out. I was also pleased to be brought a jug of water without having to ask. Mozzarella is a beautiful ingredient which can hold its own so I found the herbs and oil it was served with to be superfluous.
The board was served on top of tin cans, which is a pleasingly rustic look, but rather precarious and impractical when it comes to eating.
Our main was made up of a spring greens risotto, spaghetti alla norma, chicken drumsticks and polenta parmesan chips. My favourites were the aubergine and tomato pasta and the very more-ish chips. I was concerned that we would be given 'amuse-bouche' sized portions, but the portions were fairly well-judged. The risotto was fragrant but my date would have liked it to have packed a bit more power. The roast chicken drumsticks were served with pesto and blackened vegetables-the pesto was a fine accompaniment but I could have done with more.
Unfortunately, the restaurant suffers from a lack of spacial awareness. This is one of my major gripes when eating out and which is by no means confined to Jamie’s-the tables are simply too close together. There are three issues with this 1. You can't get to your seat and even the most svelte creature can end up feeling like a beached whale and 2. Atmosphere is one thing but I don't want to hear fellow diners' entire conversations and I don't want them to hear mine. 3. In this instance, the 'Big Feast' really was big-if we had decided to have it all at once there would not have been room on our table for all of the food.
It is a bothersome trend, where restaurateurs pack in as many customers as possible to create maximum profit, but forget that customers value intimacy and being treated as honoured guests for a few hours. I think there should be a new law whereby restaurants must ensure that there is standing room for at least one person between each table (otherwise you're left with the Fight Club aeroplane scene in which Brad Pitt has to chose 'ass or crotch' before climbing over his neighbour from the window seat).
Dessert was the confidently named 'Epic Brownie' and I can confirm that this name is deserved. The brownie came with hot chocolate sauce, vanilla ice cream and (the thing that sold it to us) amaretti popcorn.
Service was efficient and personable and overall I enjoyed the food. If I visit again I will order a pasta dish and the Epic Brownie again and maybe put in a request for a more anti-social table.
7/10
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