Christopher Gray and pals pay a return visit to a favourite French restaurant in Little Clarendon Street

Between the Lucullan excesses of Christmas and those of New Year there should properly be, in a well ordered world, a few days of respite.

But I am not proper and don’t do respite, so home comforts were eschewed as the old year died in favour of a reckless burst of eating out.

A fabulous New Year’s dinner at the Fishes in North Hinksey (where the duck was a particular delight) was preceded the day before by lunch at the White Hart in Wytham.

This was my first visit under the new regime of Baz B, which since this has been in place for a year is a pretty poor show. I might have written here today about the splendid meal (herb stuffed green lip mussels, followed by confit belly of English pork), except that colleague Katherine reviewed the place quite recently.

So instead I shall tell you what I was up to the day before, principally a dinner at the ever-reliable Pierre Victoire in Little Clarendon Street, which this year celebrates (as I hope it will!) 20 years in the hands of bosses Claire and Gordon Jamieson.

Once a franchise operation of a chain that began in Edinburgh and soon went spectacularly bust (in 1998), the restaurant – a success from the start – happily remains an ornament to the Oxford scene.

I have long valued it for its three-course prix fixe menu which allows you to choose pretty much everything from the carte, with the exception of the snails, steaks and cheeses.

For those off to the theatre (or with a penchant for an early dinner) there is an even-better-value two-courser (with coffee) served every day except Saturday at a cost of £11.50. You might, for instance, follow smoked mackerel or chicken liver parfait, with slow-roasted duck leg, pan-fried fillet of trout or butternut squash risotto.

Our dinner resulted from a spur of the moment decision as we enjoyed a bottle of prosecco with neighbours Drew and Paul at the newly opened Oxford Wine Café down the road on the corner of Walton Street.

Now tastefully renovated – indeed rebuilt – the building is home to what is clearly a well run business. Chatting to the personable members of staff I discovered one to be the granddaughter of the owner of a favourite Oxfordshire restaurant, the Sir Charles Napier, near Chinnor, now nearing its half-century.

Though we obviously had no booking at Pierre Victoire, they were able to fit us in despite being nearly full. The proffered table at the back was too close to the kitchen for my taste and we opted to wait for a better one.

“Come back in half an hour,” advised the manager. Thirty minutes to kill in this area of the city is hardly likely to prove irksome, there being many places in which the killing can be done.

We opted for the hugely characterful Eagle and Child in St Aldate’s, famous as the haunt or JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis and their fellow Inklings. We were lucky enough to find a table in the room in which they gathered, now featuring a wall display in their honour.

Back at Pierre Victoire, we were shown to a table close to the front window where menu selections were quickly made over glasses of a good-value French chardonnay (Macon-Villages, Domaine Fichet).

This was to be a main-course only ‘gig’ on account of seasonal bloating, though I dare say if pressed we might have managed some snails or perhaps the mussels (and two of us did share a pud).

Oxford Mail:

  • A good-looking fish dish heads to another happy customer

We also caned into the bread, principally to enjoy the delicious French butter that comes with it. A second basket was soon required.

Though minded at first to order salmon, I decided instead on the more upmarket pan-roasted halibut. The generous chunk of shiny white fish was nicely teamed with fennel confit, potato ragout and a sweet pepper coulis.

Chicken breast wrapped in cured ham was Rosemarie’s choice (the gratin dauphinois a major selling point), while Drew was in a fowl mood, too, with pink roasted duck breast on potato and onion rosti.

As I guessed he would, Paul went for steak frites featuring a juicy 28-day British rib-eye with béarnaise sauce. He then joined Drew in polishing off a classic sticky toffee pudding.

THE PARTICULARS
Pierre Victoire Bistro,
9 Little Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX1 2HP, tel 01865 316616, pierrevictoire.co.uk
Open Mon-Sat noon-2.30pm (Sun noon-4.30pm); 6-11pm (Sun 4.30-10pm)

Key personnel: Owners Claire and Gordon Jamieson, managers Natalia Lewandowska, Christel Saure and Pascal Jouan, head chef Jeremy de Bouter
Do try pan-fried pigeon breast (£6.90), duck and turkey terrine (£6.90), snails (£7.50), steak-frites (£18.90)