Dutch Class

As Dutch students in Oxford we often eat Italian. We do this because we don’t know of any Dutch restaurants in Oxford and also because we just love Italian food. There are a number of Italian retaurants in close to the centre of Oxford. The one we’d like to talk about in this article is Carluccio’s restaurant at Oxford Castle.

There are many cynically bad restaurants in Oxford, presumably trading to the tourist trade - people who are supposed to only dine once and never return.  Carluccio’s Caffe Restaurant is not one of these.

Carluccio’s aims to be traditionally Italian. The blue in the facade suggests it and a peek at the menu soon confirms it.  Many of the traditional Italian favourites are on the menu and most of the ones we have had were more than good enough to be Dutch Class approved.

Fortunately Carluccio’s does not take tradition so far that they’ve gone for the traditional Anglo Italian Restaurant cramped interior with sponge washed walls, checked table cloths and old wine bottles with candles in them. Instead the interior of Carluccio’s is modern, airy, light and pleasant.

Prices are pretty much in line with the Dutch Class Oxford rule of casual dining: a three course meal with a glass of wine or beer and an espresso to close costs just under £20 a head. The quality of the dining experience is better than most in Oxford though so we are happy to call this good value for money and we will eat there again soon.

To be honest we sometimes spend a little more because Carluccio’s also sells various Italian delicatessen to take home, temptingly arrayed to be seen on the way out. We like these too.

Tags: Italian, Restaurant

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 at 7:51 pm and is filed under Oxford, Restaurants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.