Rick's Café, Cowley Road

Rick's Café is apparently named after the bar in Casablanca where profiteers and refugees desperate to reach America meet under the doleful eye of Humphrey Bogart, but with its cartoonish signage and wooden floors the Cowley Road version looks like any other modish coffee shop. Still, what it lacks in authentic gin joint qualities it makes up for with a few specialities of its own.

[Out of Oxford] St Andrews round-up

When I visited St Andrews recently, I didn't plan to do any blogging. I was there to relax, after all. But this Scottish town, despite its small size, turned out to offer a great range of good food so I decided to do a summary of what I ate where and illustrate it with a few photos that show Scotland basking in the sun of the third warmest March on record.

Cibo!, South Parade

There are several establishments in Oxford where you can get good pizza - Mario's, Il Principe...and even Zizzi's (the Photographer swears by their Diavola) - but delicious pasta is harder to find. However, Cibo! in Summertown has a large selection of authentic-looking dishes that make use of their own pasta, so when I went there it seemed like a good idea to eschew my favourite Trentino for something a bit different. I didn't regret my decision, but I'm afraid that this place will join the ranks of Oxford restaurants that I've liked, but failed to love.