I have always had a certain fondness for that funny old Victorian building where, until 1947, a famous brand of Oxford marmalade was made. Instead of bewiskered chaps producing the nation's favourite preserve inside you'll find the Jam Factory, a restaurant which occupies a part of this former industrial premises.

It looks as though it might once have been a warehouse (storing oranges perhaps) -and, just as those Victorian warehouses in Manchester now make fine flats, a factory of the same era makes an interesting Oxford restaurant, which has recently been relaunched under new owners.

The food was fairly intertesting too, when myself and colleagues on the business desk went there recently to chew the cud and, ostensibly at least, discuss Oxford's business prospects for the coming year.

Instead we found ourselves discussing exactly who should eat what, right down to the last mini-sausage, when the the starters arrived in interesting form - all on one plate from which we were expected to help ourselves.

This might save on washing-up, we decided, but portion control should happen in its proper place - in the kitchen.

Not that the food on the communal plate was at all bad (I would give it more than five out of ten), just a curious mixture - salami next to sausage next to pate, for instance.

But the main course made up for any real or perceived shortcomings with the starters. My Scottish salmon with a crab bisque was cooked more or less to perfection if good, plain unfussy style is what you are after - hardly haute cuisine, but unpretentiously good.

We had opted for the two-course Christmas option at £16.95, including a glass of wine (though we could have gone for three courses plus a glass at £24.95) which we agreed was ideal for anyone with limited time and in need of somewhere central to meet up with friends or business acquaintances.

The vegetables, which included sugar snaps, carrots, green beans, leeks and peppers were well presented.

Gone for good, apparently, at least in places trying to produce no-nonsense food like this, are the joke days of British cooking when vegetables were so over cooked as to resemble damp rags.

Here, if anything, they were underdone - which was okay by me and also ensured that the place was free of that all-pervading, old fashioned smell: cabbage on the hob.

Business editor Andrew Smith, always to be relied upon to choose red meat if it is on the menu, went for the 28-day dry aged rump steak with gratin dauphinoise.

His verdict: "Eight out of ten. Very tender and cooked medium to well done just as I had requested. I would certainly go there again."

Writer Maggie Hartford, who is sort of half way to being a vegeterian, chose the whole roasted pepper stuffed with rosemary and butternut squash risotto.

Her verdict: "Five out of ten. Good fresh products, very acceptable but not stunning. I would go there again if I were in that part of town (which I often am) but I wouldn't go out of my way to take a guest there."

At the risk of damning the restaurant with faint praise, I would agree with her. The place almost has something special about it, namely its interesting building and atmosphere, its sense of white spaciousness, its gallery of paintings for sale on the walls, etc.

But it lacks that sense of bustle that only a really gifted restaurateur can bring to a place.

It was too laid-back for my taste. For instance there was no one to greet us and make us feel at home on the day we visited.

And although the staff (all of whom, incidentally, were male) seemed pleasant enough, they were casual both in dress and in manner.

My feeling was that the Jam Factory should specialise in one line of food - fish perhaps, or health foods - and do it really well rather than trying to be all things to all people.

But I am no restaurateur myself, just someone slightly disappointed that a good site is not fulfilling its potential.

One last criticism of the restaurant - there being no cauldrons of boiling marmalade about to warm the place up, we found it on the chilly side.

Heating arrangements just too old fashioned, I thought, looking wistfully across the road at students in shirt sleeves scurrying about behind plate-glass at the Said School.

I will return in the summer.

Set menu: £16.95 Three extra glasses of house wine: £8.85 Three coffees: £5.20 TOTAL: £64.90 Contact: 01865 244613 Website: www.thejamfactoryoxford.com