Having seen Gee’s restaurant, a notable local landmark, cloaked in scaffolding during its recent renovation, the good people of North Oxford were naturally keen to inspect what changes lay beneath once the five weeks of work concluded. This explains the near-stampede of customers since the restaurant reopened just over two weeks ago.

They can hardly fail to have been impressed by what they saw. The timber, glass, ornamental ironwork and gaily tiled floor appear as fresh and elegant as they must have looked when the architect H W Moore completed this handsome conservatory building, once a plant and agricultural shop, in 1898.

The new look is the happy result of some half a million pounds spent on it by owner Jeremy Mogford, who bought the building in 1984, thereby saving it for future generations. His delight in what has been achieved by architect James Wyman and designer Lou Davies was quite evident during the guided tour he gave before Rosemarie, her mother Olive and I enjoyed a first dinner there last Wednesday. It is especially pleasing to him to see acknowledgment of the building’s former use in the herbs and topiary arrangements now being sold there. Three large olive trees and two lemon trees play a central role in the decor, with a ‘wall’ of rosemary dividing the two eating areas, as can be seen in the picture above.

Our table is in the section at the rear, to which we move after drinks at the bar — mine a Martin Miller’s gin and tonic, my companions glasses of prosecco. Comfortably ensconced on the large leather cushion next to the conservatory glass, Olive and I are able to observe, through the bar, the buzz in the kitchen beyond where sous chef Richard Allen and his team are busy at their tasks.

New equipment to assist them in these includes a wood oven used for speciality roasts, a charcoal grill and a state-of-the-art Athanor ‘cooking suite’, as this French company styles its product. In her white wooden bucket seat opposite us Rosemarie is experiencing a tussle for space with a man at the next table until matters are eased by the removal of a chair next to her.

Food soon arrives, beginning with a super selection of what the menu calls ‘small bites’. I love that Gallic favourite, rarely offered on this side of the Channel, of juicy radishes to spread with butter and dip in sea salt. Cod’s roe on toast puts us in mind of taramasalata. Tempura cauliflower is its usual heavenly self. Green olives stuffed with bits of red pepper and fried in breadcrumbs are a novelty never previously encountered. Roll on next time.

For my starter proper I wisely choose deep-fried soft-shelled crab, which comes with a dollop of light-textured aioli and a (very necessary) finger bowl. Rosemarie goes for the baked queen scallops, which can be ordered in multiples of three, for £5 a go. Served in their shells, they are fresh and delicious but a tad gritty. Olive enjoys burrata (an Italian cheese made from mozzarella and cream) teamed with warm lentils and basil oil.

My main course of roast baby chicken with fennel is one of the dishes making use of the new wood oven. While the taste is excellent, this spatchcocked poussin is not recommended for those disinclined to struggle for a mouthful or two of meat. By contrast, the fennel is over-supplied, in pieces both large and coarse. The side-order leaf salad owes its advertised bitterness principally to dandelion and chicory leaves and also features watercress and frisée. The dressing is too salty, to my taste.

From the charcoal grill is delivered, for Rosemarie, plaice with braised chicory and sauce vierge (lemon and butter). So good is the fish that she wishes, as I did with my chicken, that the flesh-to-vegetable ratio had been reversed. There are no complaints of any kind, though, from Olive whose trio of beautifully cooked lamb chops — from Jeremy’s flock at Roffard Farm, near Stadhampton, prove as big a hit as the pudding that follows. She declares her chocolate and hazlenut pot among the best puds of her life. Rosemarie, too, thinks her baked custard tart with rhubarb damned good too. I get some of the rhubarb, plus the dregs of our bottle of house white wine (Grenache Blanc, Le Chene, Pays d’Oc).

Light and fresh and very moreish, it has so much in common with Gee’s in its 2013 style.

 

Gee’s
61 Banbury Road,
Oxford, OX2 6PE
01865 553540
gees-restaurant.co.uk

 

Opening times: Lunch Monday to Friday noon-2pm, dinner 5.45- 10pm. Saturday noon-10.30pm. Sunday 10-11.45am for brunch and noon-4pm for lunch.
Parking: Free in adjacent Bevington Road and Canterbury Road plus three-hour meters opposite in Norham Road.
Key personnel: Owner Jeremy Mogford, head chef Jonas Lodge, sous chef Richard Allen, senior restaurant manager Jennifer Brown
Make sure you try the... Fried stuffed olives (£2), deep-fried soft shelled crab (£8.50), roast baby chicken with fennel (£14), lamb chops (£4.50 each), gnocchi, tomatoes, goat’s cheese and sage (£11.75), chocolate and hazelnut pot (£6)
In ten words:
New look for an old friend with great fresh tastes.