Malmaison Brasserie Oxford

I made a reservation for Mother's Day through Open Table, but the restaurant informed me only a couple of days beforehand that they had overbooked due to their outdated system. I was not impressed with this situation.

The dinner was amazing, very delicious. However, the breakfast food was tasty, but there were issues with the service, ordering, and getting our food.

I chose to dine at Malmaison based on the positive reviews, and I was impressed by the unique and charming setting. The goat cheese starter was beautifully presented and delicious. However, the steak frites main course was mediocre, especially considering the price of £21. The steak was not trimmed properly, leaving a significant amount of fat. The service was disappointingly slow, and overall, the main courses were overpriced ranging from £18-£30. While the setting was lovely, I felt that the value for money was lacking. As a fan of fine dining, I am willing to pay for quality, but in this case, I was left feeling disappointed. I don't think I would return to Malmaison, as there are other restaurants in Oxford that offer better value.

First time dining at Malmaison; we had an early reservation, and the restaurant filled up over time with a good buzz but not too noisy. Great menu with some inventive ideas; I had the crab tacos the filling was great, the taco shell not really what i was expecting but tasty. The lamb was perfectly cooked rare, the potatoes parmentier creamy and luscious. The best was the pineapple carpaccio perfectly ripe thinly sliced whole pineapple rings, with a mint and chile spritz, and a scoop of coconut gelato fab! Wine list was nice and not too spendy, good options. Service was attentive and well paced. We had a super evening!

It's a very gloomy restaurant and no lively atmosphere unfortunately. It took nearly ten minutes for a member of staff to acknowledge we were waiting to be seated, and we had already booked a table. Again, there was a delay in taking our drinks and food order although there was only one other table occupied by six people. The food took over 45 minutes to come once we had ordered and was fairly unimpressive. I had the goats cheese, apple and pear platter, which had the minimum amount of goats cheese they could probably get away with! Overall a disappointing experience and I wouldn't wish to visit again sadly. It just didn't live up to expectations, a real shame.