The Grand Cafe

Never darken the door. Where do I begin? The service? So slow that the tea was bitter and cold before the food (including, in one case, the scones that were part of an overpriced «tea») arrived. So dismissive that one diner was told his coffee cup could be rinsed out if he wanted to drink a cup of tea (3 others had ordered tea and there was plenty) but «we can’t» give you a clean cup. The food? The aforementioned scones? Thick and doughy — more than half left behind. The clotted «cream»? (methinks UHT alternative sadly populating UK shelves). The toast? The blackened mess presented as something people (and not pigs) apparently pay for in a restaurant was not toast. The bagel with smoked salmon? Has anyone in Oxford ever been to New York? Montréal? Anywhere outside of a place where animal fat is gratuitously slathered onto otherwise edible items in the name of gourmanderie this item would be considered animal cruelty — I would not be surprised if cows had been sacrificed in the production of this food course). The disgusting combination and amount of butter and cream cheese on an otherwise innocent bagel left us speechless. I have one word for you Grand Café — schmear!

Unfriendly and arrogant waitstaff… My friends and I were very excited to have breakfast at the «oldest coffeehouse in England» but were unpleasantly surprised by the rude waitstaff. When greeted by our waitress, she bluntly asked if we were on separate checks or the same. We asked to be separate and then she said that it is easier if we all paid together. I understand, but why does it need to be asked in that way. Then they were out of honey for the porridge with honey and strawberries and we were given no substitute. What finally set us off was when we asked for our bill, the waitress ignored us. We had to call her over about 5 times. She rolled her eyes and came to greet us. It was unbelievable. The food was decent but very overpriced. Don’t waste your time here.

First time I went and I loved it!!! I loved the tea, the scones, the ambience. Thank you for a wonderful service!!!

Grand Café is the perfect place to enjoy the English tea with scones, jam and clotted cream. My friend had the tea and scones, while I chose a frivolous glass of pro secco and vanilla ice cream with honey and strawberries. With real vanilla in the ice cream, of course. I also had a taste of the scones. I had never tried clotted cream before. On its own it does not have much taste, it is kind of neurtral and reminds me of mascarpone. But paired with the jam and freshly baked scones it is a real treat, well worth trying.
The service was excellent. A perfect place to sit and enjoy life and talk. No loud music.
It is difficult to find anything negative about the place. The only thing I can think of is that the pecan pie was sold out… but that is understandable late in the day. I would like to go back and try some other options from the menu. The sandwiches looked tempting.

Great ambiance, nice place to bring visitors to Oxford. The scones are great and the afternoon tea is a fun experience for international visitors. It’s a great place to go for a bit of ‘wow’ factor without being over-​the-​top.
The tea selection is rather limited for being a tea shop, and it does seem a bit touristy, but all in all it’s a nice treat. Prices are on the high end but not unreasonable for Oxford.

If you do visit the Grand Café, beware the cream tea…
For our anniversary my lovely boyfriend treated us to a trip to Oxford… as the weekend was drawing to a close, I decided as my treat to him we should go and get a really fancy afternoon tea!
The Grand Café had amazing reviews and as it was also the site of England’s first coffee house, its heritage would lead you to believe this would be amazing…
The Grand High Tea was £17.95 which included «finger sandwiches, 2 scones and 2 hand made chocolates, a glass of champagne and a tea or coffee».
We only waited for a moment to be seated and ordered the Grand High tea. The waitress then explained that the grand high tea only came with one champagne and one tea so we would have to order another. I agreed this was fine and asked whether it would be more beneficial to order two with this being the case… she replied «no there is plenty on there for 2 people»…
The High tea came… it was the most thoroughly disappointing experience I have ever had. There was the equivalent of one sandwich (2 small slices of bread) between 2 people. 2 scones, with a very small serving of cream and jam and then the single champagne and tea (we ordered extra champagne and tea to top this up) and 2 chocolates rolling around on the top.
As my name is Alice, I have felt its been my destiny to experience as many tea parties as possible and after having experienced some amazing cream teas in my life with little finger sandwich refills and top ups of tea etc this show was really poor. It was extortionately priced for what was served. I don’t mind paying more when it means higher quality and was very prepared to buy 2 of the cream teas but I was so shocked I refrained from getting another.
The chocolates were handmade, however tasted cheap and like soap. The scones we acceptable… and the sandwiches were un-​rateable.
This was meant to be a grand and lavish high tea, it was more like a grand and lavish fail…

I’ve never been here for high tea, so this review is only for the cocktail happy hour. First of all, this happy hour is on weekends and goes all the way until 11 PM! The cocktails are priced pretty cheaply (£4−5) during happy hour and they are made with a special charm that only this place and these bartenders can deliver! I always go for the white Russian!

The tea is decent. The cocktails are great and fairly inexpensive after 7 PM. Nice atmosphere, fairly open and airy as well. Come late in the evening.
I would continue to come here if it were not for my recent experience with the manager (a blonde lady):
A few nights ago, several friends and I arrived just after 7:30 PM for pastries, tea, and cocktails. We were informed by the bartenders (the manager was not present) that they had stopped food service and had no pastries at this hour, and they suggested that we get them somewhere else and return for the tea and cocktails, which we did.
The next night, we arrived again around 7:30 PM, this time with pastries in tow, and ordered some tea and sat down. The café was almost empty. A few minutes later, the manager came over and asked us if the pastries were purchased elsewhere, to which we replied yes, and explained the situation we experienced last night and that we did not know that tonight they would have pastries for sale.
The manager was not understanding at all, and chided us like schoolchildren. She even said that she would «let it slide this time», as if she had thought to kick us out or something. We were all at that moment drinking our own pots of tea from her establishment which we had just purchased.
We found this extremely rude, unprofessional, and petty. I won’t be coming back here again.

I’ve been here twice for evening lubrications with a friend in the past and always enjoyed what was served. Their pricing is reasonable and the bar staff are amply friendly. The first time I went they had half price drinks all evening however the second time it appeared that they had removed that offer, still wonderful regardless. It has always been a nice smart casual crowd there to talk and relax.

Es heißt, dies sei das älteste Café in Oxford. Manche sagen sogar, dass es sich bei diesem Café um das älteste Café Englands handelt. Alle meinen aber damit: An diesem Ort hat irgendwann im 17. Jhd. ein Café eröffnet, von dem aber heute nichts mehr zu spüren ist. Nichts desto trotz ist dieses Café einen Besuch wert, wenn man es einmal so richtig englisch gediegen und gemütlich haben möchte, wenn man ferner einmal das Gefühl für eine englische Teatime bekommen möchte; in all ihrer Rührseligkeit und Überkandideltheit
Das fängt schon bei der Einrichtung an, die gemütlich wie auch etwas skurril ist, geht über die Bedienung, die schon mal drei Anläufe (oder Anrufe) braucht, bis sie einen bedient und endet bei den Speisen, die einem die britische Küche von ihrer teilweise leckeren, aber auch schonungslosen Seite zeigen.
Was ich meine, wird deutlich, wenn man sich eine Portion Scones bestellt. Man bekommt sie warm, wie es sich gehört und darf sie mit Marmelade und clotted cream bestreichen. In unseren Breiten ist die Marmelade lecker genug auf den warmen Scones. Die Briten benötigen die clotted cream, von der wir sagen würden, dass es sich dabei um Sahne handelt, die man zu lange geschlagen hat bis sie schon fast Butter wurde. Ich kann darauf verzichten, aber andere Länder, andere Sitten
Als besonderes Schmankerl kann man sich gegen einen geringen Aufpreis ein Kännchen Jamaika Blue Mountain Kaffee dazu bestellen, was sich meiner Meinung nach lohnt und einen für die zerbutterte Sahne ein wenig entschädigt.
Alles in Allem einen Besuch wert, wenn man einen Augenblick in einer gewissen britischen Gediegenheit ausspannen möchte. Warum ich nur vier Sterne vergeben kann? Die Bedienung arbeitet dort in einer Weise verlangsamt, die mich beinahe dazu gebracht hat, mir per Telefon eine Pizza zu bestellen. Man braucht also Geduld, Geduld, Geduld

Our friend recommended us to try the tea here as it’s the first coffee house in England (as stated on the inside of their tea cups). We just ordered 2 pots of earl grey tea and a dessert with a layer of raisins in the middle and powdered sugar dusted on top. Nice flavor but too hard for me.
Prices are higher than that of Patisserie Valerie a few doors down. I’m sure people mostly come here for the novelty. Service was friendly.

It’s amazing to see that since the latest review almost a year ago where the issue about the service was pointed out very little has actually changed. I guess in Oxford businesses don’t have to worry too much about service as the footfall, especially bang on in the centre, is just there regardless.
Anyway, I visited this place with a friend for a coffee and while I agree about the glamorous décor and good location when we went for one of the (several) empty tables for 4 we were scolded and told that we’d be asked to move should a larger party arrive. (Please tell me where else in the rest of Europe would you be told that if you occupied an empty table in a literally empty place you might be asked to move later on…) Drinks arrived quickly, but one had to be returned as their cafetiere was broken and that’s all there is to say about my catering experience in this place. I award it 3 star just because its atmosphere is great, and perhaps they really do make great cocktails, but I can’t comment on that as I only ever visited it in the day and maybe as the other contributor said, it’s all a little beneath trained cocktail waiters to just serve you a cup of coffee.

One of the only things I like about English culture: High Tea.
So far, the Grand Café is the best place for high tea that I have experienced in Oxford. You can even get champagne! Your scones and sandwiches come in a cute tray, with strawberry decorations. Before I came here, I always thought scones were a dry, lame, and crumbly pastry. But, after a bite of Grand Café scones, I realised I hadn’t tried GOOD scones before. The texture and flavour of the (fresh) scones here are just perfect.
The décor is inviting as well; very… Casablanca…

High tea here is a casual response to the age old tradition with no compromises. Nice selection of quality loose tea leaves. The scones were fresh out of the oven and the sandwiches were on fresh bread with thoughtfully prepared fillings: smoked salmon and egg salad. There were small truffles — not a huge portion of sugar but when you’ve just had a scone with jam and clotted cream who needs dessert? The price matches the level of service and quality of food, I’d heartily endorse this as a great destination to hit on a stroll through Oxford.

Hopelessly pompous, massive appeal to tourists and students with money to burn. Until the mid-​1990s it was the Cooper’s Oxford Marmalade shop and frankly that was a better use of the space. Patisserie Valerie just down the road is better, as are Quod and High Table nearby.

Although it is stupidly expensive, there is something rather glamorous about sitting in a marble-​floored bar with an iced coffee (pleasingly prepared in a cocktail shaker and finished with double cream that makes pretty patterns on the inside of the glass).
It fills up with cocktail-​drinkers in the evening, so you’ll need to dress up a bit not to feel out of place if you’re going at night, but in the daytime it’s a pretty relaxed sort of place, and I suppose the staff are so grumpy because they’re wasting their cocktail-​making talents on grubby students. Or something.

Some good aspects, but marred by traditionally off-​hand British service.
In almost any other country, this place would have table service all day long. Instead, the only visit to our table was from a waitress who told us,
the proprietor’s mother does not like people drinking out of beer bottles.
This snobbish, enraging nonsense, combined with the slack bar service outweigh the décor (good by Oxford’s low standards), and cocktails (average quality but cheap).

Grand, Grand, Grand café.
Décor is superb, seats a little close together, but it’s deservedly popular.
Food was good, delicious cakes and coffee if a little pricey, …but it’s worth it.
Neighbouring tables had started lunch options and it all looked pretty good.
Service dropped it a star, how long does a Caesar salad take?
But We will visit again.

It is a grande café indeed. They have an amazing assortment of teas and drool– worthy pastries and cakes. I just love the décor here.

This is a nice place to have lunch — the food is really excellent. Try the pâté and the pies — delicious. I also really recommend the cakes. Wash it all down with a pot of coffee — they make it fresh here and strong!
The room is a little bit odd, with marble pillars, gold paint and big mirrors — but don’t be put off, as this place is not as pretentious as it appears. The staff are really friendly, efficient and attentive. The place is a bit pricey but it’s well worth it for the treat.
A nice place to visit if you’re a tourist — this is supposed to be the oldest coffee house in the country (but the Queen’s Lane Coffee House across the street claims the same thing). Give it a try for a special lunch — it also does a good cocktail in the evenings.

This is a pretty cool place — supposedly the first coffee house in England, or so it says on the cups. I had the cream tea, which came with some pretty nice sandwiches, chocolates, scones, etc. Altogether a very nice cream tea. The decoration is really nice. The only downside was that the food did take quite a while to come, but it was worth the wait.