I got lost on the way to The Anchor. Actually, I didn't get lost, but I managed to convince myself of that to the extent that I had to call my partner and ask him to give me directions. I was running late anyway, and it was raining, and so eventually ended up falling through The Anchor's doorway stressed, tired, and feeling a bit stupid.
Their stylish and calming grey decor swiftly knocked that attitude out of me. This is a symphony in grey: on the walls, on the chairs, on the bar, everywhere. It's light and airy and utterly relaxing; the tables are placed quite closely together so in the evening it might be buzzier, but on a drizzly midweek January lunchtime, it was like being inside the head of a very good Buddhist. The service matched the decor: welcoming, relaxed, and present and prompt, without being at all overbearing or overly chummy.
As soon as we sat down, warm, freshly baked bread appeared on the table - none of your mass-produced baked-last-week stuff here, but a platter of three different types of loaf. An entire jug of excellent extra virgin olive oil was provided to dunk the bread into, and when us two greedy guts managed to hoover up the entire plate within a few minutes, more bread was offered automatically, with no charge placed on the menu.
The menu is small but uniformly tempting, so we spent longer than average choosing what to eat. The waitress was lovely despite our sloth, utterly unfussed every time we shooed her away from our table. In the end, I chose the smoked salmon rillettes to start. These were not, in fact, rillettes, but a very good salmon pate. That's no bad thing: this one was packed with plenty of dill and came with a good dollop of bright pickled cucumber on the side. Slightly oddly, given their earlier bread triumphs, this was served with somewhat dull wholemeal toast, but perhaps it was a good thing that I didn't consume any more carbs at this point of the meal. My companion chose the squash and coconut soup. I normally avoid soup on restaurant menus on the grounds that it's the kitchen's least inventive dish, but she assured me that it was an interesting soup, warmingly spiced but not enough to raise the heartrate. It also came in a massive portion: a bowl of this with some bread would probably constitute a lunch in itself for many people.
There's a good, reasonably priced wine list, with a wide range of them by the glass. After a perfunctory debate about whether we should have wine, given we were both due back in the office within an hour, I swiftly ordered a glass of their pinot noir. The waitress was able to make a specific recommendation for a glass to go with my companion's main course: impressive in a fine dining environment, but exceptional in a gastropub.
Having spotted on Twitter in advance that they had installed a high-temperature Josper grill in the kitchen, I had to order steak for my main course: the rib-eye was not only my favourite of the cuts on offer but also the smallest at 6 oz, so that was my choice. The Josper is doing its job: the meat and fat were caramelly crisp round the edges, but the steak was still insanely juicy and rare inside. It came with excellent frites (incidentally, if the Anchor can keep skinny chips hot, why are they cold in so many other restaurants?) and a homemade, yolk-yellow, bearnaise. A gesture of watercress attempted to steer the plate towards a balanced meal, but it wasn't necessary: this was artery clogging luxury at its best.
The other main we ordered was the chargrilled lamb with bulghar wheat, aubergine, pine nuts, and a yoghurt dressing. The waitress had promised - almost warned - that the meat would be pink, but it was almost cooked through; luckily it was tasty and moist despite that. The flavour of mint had permeated the entire hunk; the menu didn't specify but we suspected this had been sitting in a marinade for an appropriately long time. The aubergine was so melting it was almost liquid. When it arrived, the dish looked like a small portion, but the combination of elements was actually very filling: neither of us were able to even consider attempting a pudding.
The Anchor's first incarnation (at least, the first during my Oxford tenure) closed down around Easter 2013, and, like many others, I mourned its passing as one of the great foodie places in Oxford. I wasn't initially reassured when I heard that the people behind the Duke of Cambridge cocktail bar, possibly my least favourite cocktail bar in Oxford, had taken it over. I only got interested when they tweeted a picture of the Josper Grill they were installing in the kitchen, and, as I found, I was right to get excited by that, but this was far far better than I had expected. With easily the best service I've had in Oxford in a long time, I'm desperate to get back for more of their soothing care.
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