Review: The Punter, Osney Island

I have lived in Oxford for nearly four years. I have never been punting.

And one more thing to get out of the way before I talk about the food: I think "The Punter" is a terrible pun of a name for a pub; even if it weren't for the fact (as I am informed by older, puntier, Oxford hands than I) that you can't actually punt on the stretch of the Thames that it looks out over. I am generally entirely in favour of the gastroisation of run-down little dives of pubs, but I fail to see the need to give them silly new names. This isn't an overly pretentious joint, so why the pretentious name?

Now. Food. Actually, no - one more thing first - the actual reason I chose to venture out to Osney Island in the first place. It was the first seriously warm and sunny day of the year, and I'd furiously been trying to think of somewhere to take the boy for lunch where we could sit outside. The best we'd come up with was the Turf Tavern, where, much as I love it, the menu definitely tends towards the cliche and the microwave, presumably thanks to their Greene King overlords. A stray tweet happened to alert me to a new foodie pub, and I managed to establish that it had a little patio overlooking the Thames. Sorted.

Osney Island is nearer than a north Oxford girl would expect, and we were settled in their peaceful little suntrap, staring rapt at the Thames, with a glass of Chardonnay and a pint of Aspall's cider, within a 10 minute walk of the city centre. The menu is short but would normally be plenty long enough for me; being a temporary veggie, though, my choices were somewhat limited. In the end, we decided to share a couple of starters and a main course between us, and all credit to a barman and a kitchen that are totally unfazed when you not only ask for this, but for them all to be served at the same time. So, within 15 minutes, we had on our table a purple sprouting broccoli, fig, and blue cheese salad, a massive portion of bruschetta with peppers and mozzarella, and a mixed veggie mezze platter.

The fig/blue cheese combo was familiar, but the pairing with broccoli was new to me, and it was a brilliant idea, helped along by PSB cooked to the perfection of toothsomeness. The bruschetta was equally an old idea, tarted up to new levels. They could have got away with less basil; less well roasted peppers; cheaper mozzarella; this is clearly the sort of place that cares more about making good food than saving money, though.

I think I might have felt a little disappointed with the size of the mezze platter (supposedly the main course) if I had ordered it alone, but all the components were superb. Ok, so it doesn't take much skill to buy the best feta you can land your hands on and stick it on a plate, but it does take skill to make baba ghanoush. This example was easily the best I've had: voluptuously silky, sweet, and gorgeously spiced. Even the boy liked it, and he claims not to like aubergines. There were also sun-dried tomatoes; olives; bread; hummus; tsatsiki; a butternut squash, goat's cheese, and pine nut pate; and a cumin-spiked carrot salad. I did feel that it could have done with one less dippy thing and one more solid though - a couple of falafel or stuffed vine leaves wouldn't have gone amiss.

I'll be back in future, partly to sample the rest of the menu and use their heaven of a patio again, but also to take advantage of their £5 lunchtime main courses - if the quality of our meal was anything to go by, this must be a massive steal of a deal.

Finally, huge thanks to Jessica Mann, the drinks writer for the Oxford Mail, for recommending the place to me in the first place. Here's to the series on outdoors eateries!


The Punter