TFP 2025 – Restaurants, Cafes, Pubs

These are some personal recommendations, on the basis of convenience and of quality (and usually both!). The restaurants I have personally enjoyed are indicated with an asterisk. There are almost no nearby restaurants that I would specifically recommend avoiding; so the unasterisked restaurants in the list are merely those I don’t know. As well as TripAdvisor etc, you can find reviews on Daily Info.

I should confess that I have become pretty out of touch since the pandemic: some of these restaurants may have changed hands, and there will be new ones I don’t know about.

Restaurants

Near the venue

These are all a short walk from the Wolfson Building.

Summertown

There’s a parade of shops in Summertown with a number of restaurants. This is about half an hour’s walk north of the Wolfson Building, or 12 minutes by any of the many buses up Banbury Rd.

Elsewhere in Oxford

A personal selection:

There are many interesting restaurants along bohemian Cowley Road in East Oxford, if you fancy seeing real Oxford life. And in the centre of town, Westgate Oxford is a new mall with many eateries as well as shops.

Pubs

In addition, many of the pubs below also serve food; particularly recommended are:

And if you want an early dinner, some of the cafes below stay open until the early evening.

Cafes

Here are some suggestions for cafes around the venue and colleges, both for breakfasts (in case you’re staying somewhere without breakfast) and for lunches (in case you want to avoid the crowds at the venue). Many of the restaurants are of course also open for lunch.

Pubs

The Lamb & Flag and the Royal Oak, the two pubs nearest the department, are very good. But neither is very big, so if you all go to the same one it will be a very tight squeeze. I suggest instead that you spread yourselves out among the following hostelries.

Near the venue

I propose to visit the Rose and Crown between the excursion and banquet.

In the city centre

A personal selection.

On the rivers

These two pubs are a lovely walk away (at least if the weather is good), across Port Meadow. The Perch is in Binsey, near the south end of the meadow, and The Trout in Godstow at the north end, both close to the River Thames.

They both also serve good food.