OXFORD MAIL readers have been reacting to a brutal review of the city's Parsonage Grill restaurant.

There has been little praise for the Banbury Road restaurant, which was savaged by leading food critic Jay Rayner as ‘an efficient system for the extraction of profit’ in a review published on Sunday.

Mail reader Heidi Lowther commented: “Beautiful setting, but distinctly average food for the prices they’re charging.”

James Busby added bluntly: “It is beautiful yet [rubbish] and overpriced.”

Mr Rayner lamented the Banbury Road restaurant’s prices in The Observer on Sunday and wrote: “The only reason I know what I had is that I took notes and photographs.”

But reader David Ward leapt to the establishment’s defence, writing: “I loved it and can remember exactly what I had. Why do people listen to food snobs like this... make your own mind up and don’t be a sheep because a fat man says it’s average.”

The restaurant is listed as the second best venue for ‘fine dining’ in Oxford on TripAdvisor.

One Oxford Mail commenter added: “I have to agree [with Mr Rayner] - I’ve not had a meal that reflected the price they charge. The food is slightly better than average, but the prices are very high indeed.

“I feel that there is an emperor’s new clothes element to the place, because it is beautifully presented and has charming rooms.”

Another called the review ‘pretty much spot on’, while another wrote: “Totally unsurprising."

The restaurant has been offered the chance to comment.