Ashmolean Rooftop Restaurant

Paloma was a very attentive server. When she fi7nd our it was a social birthday a free glass of Prosecco appeared for the birthday girl. Her dessert was personalised with Happy Birthday words.

All in all very special. Top marks to PALOMA - lovely lady!

The restaurant was good value due to our Groupon voucher. We wouldn’t return due to limited and uninspiring menu.

Lovely meal and surroundings. Booked in advance for pre-theatre but the fixed menu option that was publicised at the time of booking had been removed. So it became more costly than originally anticipated.

Such a beautiful place to have afternoon tea. Roof terrace, wonderful! Highly recommended.

No vegetarian roast available, which in a progressive city such as Oxford, is a surprise.

We would recomend it as the service by Carlos was wonderful, but the menu could definitely do with being a bit more inclusive. The food we had was delicious though and well presented.

Thank you

The service was unfortunately typical of restaurants and bars operated by Benugo: slow and unhelpful. The main course took 35 minutes or more to arrive. Granted, the restaurant was busy but there were not enough staff on hand. After indicating that I was getting impatient, the maitre d' did have the courtesy to offer free coffee and there was no service charge on the bill. That was appreciated but I won't be returning any time soon. I'm all too familiar with Benugo on London's South Bank, so I should have known better!

Once again a lovely meal in the wonderful surroundings of the Ashmolean. The service was very considerate and pleasant. Despite being quite full the restaurant was not noisy and we enjoyed our food, being particularly impressed with the desserts

My partner and I Reserved a table for lunch we had been recommended this restaurant and was very much looking forward to it I had the soup of the day which was lovely my partner had the leak and sage risotto which is meant to be served al dente unfortunately it was much more on the raw side we asked the waiter if they would be able to cook it through a little bit more unfortunately the dish was brought back out the exact same it didn’t look like it had been touched I had finished my meal at this point so he just asked for a refund a different waiter took the dish back to the kitchen when she came back to us she had said but she told the chef that as we are in Britain he needs to cook it for longer witch we both found offensive my partner has eaten risotto in many restaurants around the world we are definitely aware of how it’s meant to be served

A unique setting for an interesting eating house. Imaginative menu, well cooked and courteously served by skillful and good humoured team

The food and ambiance were lovely. I would definitely go back during the day to take advantage of the views!

Good food, attentive service, relaxed atmosphere. Overall a lovely experience.

Disappointing. Seems to have gone downhill since we last visited a few years ago. Food was bland, uninteresting and overpriced. Service was friendly but slow.

We enjoyed the ambience, the restaurant was full and busy but the staff were calm and courteous. The menu was interesting catering for varied tastes and thankfully not over long. The food was served nicely with adequate but not heaped portions, again a plus. The restaurant being on the roof of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford really complements and adds to the enjoyment of attending one of the great exhibitions held there.

Limited menu with poor choices. Poor value. Food average. Jazz pleasant

Very nice location. Attentive staff. Menu choice fair but we thought the dessert menu was limited.

Overall very good but we ordered aperitifs which arrived at the same time as our main course. So we were unable to enjoy them before eating. Also we had been charged for a side order which we did not order and our coffee order did not arrive.

I hadn.'t been here for about a year, and since then the menu had deteriorated. It is overly expensive for the food it serves. The menu is very limited, the soup we had contained too much sugar, the maiin menu far too limited and the coffee in particular expensive and poor. It is very noisy and the view unpromising. We will not go there again

We've been to the restaurant in the Ashmolean on several previous occasions. On the last occasion, the service was extremely slow, but as we had had good experiences on our visits before then, we decided it was perhaps just a bad day. But on our recent visit, not only did we experience poor service, but some of the items in our main courses were cold, and one of our party had something that had been burnt still served to him. We pointed this out, and amendments were quite rightly made to our bill. Despite this. we will not be returning in future. It's a shame, as the atmosphere and location are lovely. But at the prices they are charging, to serve food that is either cold or burnt and to have such poor service is inexcusable.

It's busy during the day but a nice, quiet spot in the evening. Menu is not vast but works well and offers some well presented and delicious food. Friendly staff.

We enjoy eating at the Ashmolean rooftop restaurant. It is casual and unfussy in a superb setting. Food is always tasty and the outstanding dish this time was a Cointreau panna cotta - perfect wobble and delicious sauce. As it was Christmas, most of the restaurant was set up for a Christmas party - fortunately it was timed for 2pm when we were just finishing our lunch (but not a rowdy group).

had a lovely lunch the food was cooked to perfection and the staff were friendly and helpful

On Sunday when we were there for lunch, the sun was much too bright for comfort. We had to move tables twice, and perhaps some blinds should be considered to reduce the glare. It was also too noisy for conversations, because of a very large group having lunch.

Nice views of Oxford and a small but very tasty menu which could pose a challenge if you have fussy children with you. Overpriced as you would expect from a museum restaurant.

Lovely food, lovely service. Nice ambience and a friendly atmosphere.

Sadly an unexciting expérience in most respects. Food solidly mediocre in quality and high on price. Choices few and formulaic cooking obvious. Gravadlax was OK but risotto not good and without flavour other than Parmesan. Do not serve risotto at such prices if you are going to operate on formula cooking. It needs individual attention and immediacy to succeed as a dish. Advance cooking kills it. Deserts better. 1/2 litre Rioja was pleasant but also quite pricey. The Thurs night Jazz was unremarkable enough to be an irritating accompaniment. Won’t come here again even if service was fine.

We celebrated a birthday, in a low-key sort of way. Good for conversation (one member of the party is quite deaf and finds noisy spaces challenging). Good food, fresh and interesting without being overwrought. Friendly but unobtrusive service. Not cheap, but worth it for a special occasion.

£51 for2 salads, 2 glasses of house red, bread and olives felt prohibitive. Perhaps a simple hot drink would have been better. Lovely staff and nice ambiance.

There were two of us and we had a very pleasant informal lunch with a fair amount of food which was of good quality. There was a reasonable space between the tables and the service was excellent.

The bill was reasonable.

Great service and wonderful food in a splendid setting on top of the historic Ashmolean Museum. Despite most of the surrounding rooftops being jacketed by scaffolding, it felt like a special treat and a real privilege whilst in beautiful Oxford.

Pleasant meal, with good service. Parsnip soup was excellent!

I wouldn't recommend this restaurant to anybody. It should be closed. To be told that the chef had gone and to be presented with a paltry menu,no set menu,as is advertised is an insult to anyone's intelligence.
I had invited a guest as I has read a good review in the summer,but ended up bitterly disappointed after a 2 hr journey and embarrassed.
My advice is to forget it and enjoy the Museum instead.

We have been to this restaurant many times on a Groupon deal, but after our last visit would think twice about returning. The menu choice had greatly reduced, and what was on the menu they never had half of it, which is not right surely for a 7.30pm booking on a Saturday night.

Also found it very strange my only option to book a table were 6.15 or 7.45, we arrived at 7.30 and the restaurant was a third full.

As I said the Ashmoliem has always been our number one choice in central Oxford, sadly I think that may change.

Thank you

Paul & Lisa

Disappointed that menu appeared truncated compared with website version but found good dishes on the version offered. Waiter was helpful and made up for the shortfall in menu choice. The table spacing was good and the décor interesting and a neat blend of modernity with hints of exotica. In common with most Oxford restaurants prices of wines were excessive.

I tried to book for Afternoon Tea and the system returned with available at 1.30pm booking. When I aerived I was told that afternoon tea only starts at 3.00pm.
There are only 4 mains to choose from and they are very expensive for what it is offered.

Not sure what it wants to be, alternative fine dinning or museum caffe with evening bistro either way the food was ok but for the price poor, service wa poor with two orders forgotten. Perhaps if money is no object and you want some food after a museum visit then fine and I’m sure in the summer sitting on the roof is novel. Dissaointed

Whilst the venue and the setting was beautiful and the food was very nice it was not good value for money. £60.00 for 2 main course and 2 drinks. (A tiny pot of olives to start). This seemed way overpriced to me.

Disappointing compared with last visit. Tasteless soup, v ordinary chicken and slow service by charming waitress. Very, intrusively and unpleasantly noisy. Might not revisit which is sad because I had held Benugo in high esteem.

This was a deeply disappointing food experience. However, let's get one thing out of the way: the staff/ reception/ service was fine; friendly and nicely done. Two of us had roasted tomato and red pepper soup, the taste was reasonable but served only with a single slice of baguette. The main course was fish of the day (a fillet of sea bass with a sort of pesto type sauce on the top). It was all rather bland, and I have eaten better in pub restaurants. I found the bill (two soups/ two fish/ two small glasses of modest white wine) at £63 very expensive and not value for money. Whilst I agree with the fashion for limited menus (letting the kitchen focus on a smaller range of excellent food) the menu was in fact too small. I am a member of the Ashmolean, but cannot imagine myself going back to the rooftop restaurant. Like a few other high-end restaurants in the area (thinking of the Trout at Wolvercote), there is a temptation to allow a brilliant location (i.e. rooftop views over dreaming spires) to lead to a mediocre performance. At this level, and at this price, mediocracy is simply not acceptable. So, Ashmolean, as far as I am concerned: must try harder!!

Super place for me to meet a friend from London - we were having a mini reunion so wanted time to chat and were not hurried although tea was being served before we’d finished lunch!

Fabulous venue for meeting old friends for lunch ..... delicious food and great staff ...thx