No.1 Ship Street

We went for a 3 course lunch menu: watercress soup, risotto and Eton mess. The soup was definitely the highlight of the afternoon with balanced favours. One thing to note is that all three meals were way too heavy to eat together. The portions were very generous and probably slightly too big for a 3 course menu. The service was super quick. Would still recommend!

When ordering, the waiter was probably too stressed from the day and didn’t show much patience to us who want to understand more of the menu. Not friendly to tourist who don’t know much of the ingredients used in fine dining. After we’ve ordered, the restaurant was too busy for its small number of servers. There was an extremely long lag between the starter and the main course, during which they didn’t provide us with more bread even after our request. The men’s toilet was skinny and dingy. The rabbit dish from the main was absolutely delicious and beautifully arranged. It’s a wheel of rabbit meat in the outer ring and a center circle of soft potato mixture. The exterior rabbit skin was crispy and delicious. The chard and mushroom perfectly cut the oiliness from the rabbit and the potatoes. Masterfully balanced. The same can’t be said of the two- and three-course. The appetizers are brilliant but the main courses are a farse. Eating the pork snitzel is like chewing rubber and the pork was topped with a measly 5 green beans to cut the oiliness. The other main course is a salad with three nubs of mozzarella, little no substance for a tired and hungry traveler.

Have to change to a more detailed review further down due to a disappointing experience. Previously rated 5/5 with the following: Great British food, pricy but worth it. Nice atmosphere. Seems to have a good wine selection too. Good place to book for a celebratory meal when you're willing to splash out a bit to have something nice. Updated review Aug 2023: Cocktails, corn n oil and pineapple daquirri were really good. Service for drinks and to take food orders was a little slow upstairs but friendly. Once ordered food came in good time. Scallops starter was excellent. Burrata was served with picked tomatos. Interesting idea but isn't better than with just fresh tomatoes, the pickled tomatoes were too soft next to the burrata. Mains weren't good overall. Triple cooked chips where delicious especially with the truffle mayo. However the actual main courses came out differently to what was expected from the menu in a negative way. Lamb shoulder was actually pulled lamb shoulder stuffed into a ramekin and cooked further which lead to it being really very dry. Cockles, courgette and sauce with it were nice enough. Potato cake with it was very nice but main part of the dish was no good. Chicken confit as a main, came with an unexpected broth which completely washed away any sign of confit that the chicken may have had, and despite being in broth and confited the chicken itself was also dry. The menu should better reflect what you'll actually be receiving and unfortunately these unexpected changes seemingly made the dishes worse. Very disappointing overall experience as a result especially for the price, and having better experiences previously.

After 5 years living in Oxford, we finally tried no.1 Ship Street, we went for the set lunch menu on a weekday, and we had a great experience. The food was amazing, and tasty, and the service was great. Will definitely be coming here again.

Delicious full meal. Aside from the nice starters to open with, my main stood out the most. The gnocchi was fluffy and light, paired with melt in your mouth aubergine and a tangy spicy tomato sauce. The other dishes were also perfectly flavored, despite being on the pricier side, the portion sizes really made up for it. Staff were lovely and very friendly to us, and tried to serve us as efficiently as possible even with the busy night. Highly recommended for those who want a fancier night out.