Trip to Oxford-Pho

So… Following on from my wonderful lunch in Oxford last weekend; our day disappeared so quickly that we ended up eating out for dinner as well. Not the original plan but sign of the far and away improved eating out flexibility I was once so incapable of!

We looked around for other places to eat in Oxford but such was the bracing cold and the soreness of my leg that proximity became a much greater priority than desirability. So we ended up eating up at the roof terrace of the Westgate again, about 4 restaurants down from where we’d had lunch. Looking through the list of roof terrace restaurants while queueing up to buy bedding in John Lewis (oh what an exciting life we lead!), the best option seemed to be Pho, a Vietnamese themed restaurant that, to the best of my knowledge, I’d not been to before.

Vietnamese food, as with much Asian food, is fairly good for being dairy-free although we weren’t sure how good it would be for soya. We couldn’t see much in the way of information on the website but decided to chance it – we could always leave and find somewhere else if there wasn’t anything to choose (again something I would have never considered doing a few years ago).

To my surprise all of the roof terrace restaurants looked busy. It was, for most non-parents, an early Saturday dinner time which in many places I would expect to busy. But not on the top of a shopping mall. It turns out I was wrong. We were sat at a table straight away but in hindisight we were lucky with a queue forming at the door not long after we’d sat down. We asked for the allergen menu as we were sat and I was a little surprised to be told they didn’t have one but the waiter said he would act as our allergen menu. Great to be told that someone will be taking responsibility for us but a little disappointing to have choose blind and then adjust if not suitable. (It’s hard enough choosing a coordinated decision for two adults and a child at the best of times but near impossible when you have to have a contingency plan – or two – for every option). Also we realised once we’d sat down that the chairs were going to be a little low for a toddler but he doesn’t tend to like sitting in high-chairs any more so we just used said John Lewis bedding to ‘boost’ him up a little bit.

After perusing the menu for long enough to read every item twice, we choose what looked sensible thinking that Piglet would probably want his own main course but that we could all share starters. A different waitress came to take our order (not a problem but hoping that the allergen menu role had been passed on as well). We stated our preferences, explaining our allergies as usual. Pleasantly, it seemed that all of our choices would be suitable although she said she would check.

A few minutes later, she came back and said that the starter I’d chosen contained soya in one of the components. I could have it without but it would be a bit odd without it. I chose something else and left it at that. Then, a few minutes later they came back to tell us that the component that was in my starter was also in my wife’s starter and also that her main course contained soya. A little frustrated (by the communication rather than the ingredients) we changed the main course to an obvious alternative: it was the spicy part of the soup that contained soya so there was a non-spicy version of the same meal that just made sense to switch to. When it came to choosing another starter – we were struggling to quickly suggest another option without knowing suitability. This new waitress asked if we’d like to see the allergen menu to find out what was suitable (?!?) – why it took to this point for the allergen menu to even come out is beyond me!

Eventually having chosen starters and main courses that were suitable we settled down onto our seats (or duvet covers). The starters were very tasty although all Piglet wanted out of either of our options was the shredded chicken from my chicken salad. Specifically, ALL of the shredded chicken on my plate – leaving me with, well…, salad. In terms of main courses, we’d ordered a noodle dish and a rice dish to see which he would prefer (with me happy to eat either that he didn’t want). The noodles were particularly spicy so we decided to give him the rice instead.

A combination of new food, a busy restaurant with lots of distractions and a slightly late meal leading to a sleepy Piglet meant that he only really picked at some of the rice. Ironically, on finishing my meal – I decided to try some of his and found out it was delicious. As in really delicious! Trouble is – on seeing that I thought it was good, Piglet decided that he might give it another try and so we had to wait for him to finish stage 2 (me salivating over his dinner as he eats it in front of me).

All in all, it was a slightly mixed experience of an evening meal. Stating that we have allergies on first entry it seems bonkers that were denied the allergen menu. I can only assume the first person we spoke to didn’t know it existed. Then, for it to take so many stages of coming to tell us that our choices contained soya and change our options was concerning. That said, the ultimate test has to be whether they did manage the allergens and I am confident that we were not given anything we shouldn’t have been. It just could have been handled better. In terms of the food my choices were nice: the chicken salad was very tasty but would have been nicer if someone didn’t take 50% of the item’s name. However, Piglet’s chargrilled pork rice dish was one of the nicest things I’ve had in a restaurant. So that’s a big positive. I’m not sure that I’d rush back with the family though.