Cocktail Hour: Raouls Oxford

As you can guess from the name of this post, this is a review of a cocktail bar. One that's just up the road to be precise. Cocktails have always been a bit of a strange one for me. I love the idea however the reality doesn't always live up to the expectation. Either they are too sweet, too fruity or just plain lumbered with ingredients that I don't like! (Petulant I know but given the price of cocktails, can you blame me?) For a bit of fun however, they hit the spot nicely.

Raouls is located in the Jericho area of Oxford close to lots of places to get food. As such it is ideally placed for a pre-dinner aperitif or a final drink before heading home. The outside is pleasantly inconspicuous with an outdoor terrace and the occasional bouncer being the only clue that there's a bar.

Inside there are lots of leather-padded sofas, tables with candle-effect LED lights and several padded recesses. This, combined with the dingy lighting and the thumping house music, creates the effect of an up marked brothel waiting room (or how I would imagine one to be).

Putting aside my first impressions I went to the bar to order some drinks. My first cocktail of the night is almost always a Vesper Martini; shaken of course. This is mainly because I like it as a drink but also means that I have grounds for objective comparison between bars. As it is a fairly common drink, it is usually easy to get hold of even when I order off menu. Normally this is a simple transaction. I go up to the car and order my drink, the barman makes it, I thank him, pay him and then enjoy my drink. This time however I was rather rudely interrogated as to why I was ordering this drink. I explained that I liked it and was met by a cynically raised eye brow and a small tirade saying people only drink it because it's the Bond drink. Perhaps but since they're paying for it, it's the customer's prerogative. Being a bit awkward I didn't back down and in the end, my drink was made for me but clearly it was done under duress.

In the end, the drink wasn't bad. The flavour wasn't the best I've ever had but I've had much worse. I particularly liked the detail of serving it in a champagne goblet rather than the usual martini glass as was stipulated in Ian Fleming's novel "Casino Royale".

My next drink  was a negroni. This was much more cheerfully (and graciously) received and wasn't half bad. As you can probably deduce, I like my cocktails strong. The negroni didn't disappoint and wasn't spoiled, as some are, by garnishes of citrus fruits.

On a different tack, the menu also has an extensive range of sweet drinks; much like alcoholic milkshakes. These went down a storm with my girlfriend who generally like flavours a few spoons of sugar past sickly. They are served with a suitable degree of flamboyance including garnishing with flaming rum.

Price wise, most of the drinks are hovering in the seven pound something bracket. This is fairly average for cocktails. However there doesn't appear to be any form of promotions or happy hours which is a wee bit disappointing.

Overall, if you like sweet drinks then this is the place to go. If however your tastes lie elsewhere (or worse if you know your mind and aren't afraid to ask for it) then I suggest venturing elsewhere. The drinks are good but not excellent and let down by overly loud music and the problems with service which I encountered.

TFB