Quod – QED
Quod Bar & Grill, the food outlet of the newly opened Old Bank hotel in Oxford, is set to be the blueprint for a nationwide group of restaurants. Executive chef Alberto Brunelli will oversee the expansion of the chain, while head chef Graham Corbett runs the kitchens of the Oxford Quod on a daily basis.
Two Quods are already scheduled for opening in 2000, including one in Birmingham.
The Italian-inspired menu at Quod is the brainchild of Jeremy Mogford, owner of the Old Bank hotel and founder of the Browns restaurant group, which he sold to Bass in 1997 for £35m. "Italian food is a favourite of Jeremy's and he realised there is nowhere in Oxford serving modern Italian cuisine," says Corbett, who was previously head chef at Mogford's modern English restaurant, Gee's, also in Oxford.
Serving food from 7am through to 11pm, the restaurant opens with its breakfast menu, which is replaced mid-morning by an à la carte menu, available throughout the rest of the day, and a two-course express lunch menu for £9. A children's menu offering a pizza, chicken or spaghetti dish plus ice-cream costs £3.95.
Starters include several salads (such as a salad of celery, slow-roasted tomatoes marinated in olive oil, garlic, onions and herbs, and bottarga on a slice of toasted Sardinian carasau bread, £4.35); cured meats such as speck, bresaola, Parma ham and salami Napoletano (£4.65 each or £5.95 for a selection); and soups (such as ribollita alla Toscano - red cabbage soup with beans and fresh vegetables, £3.95/£5.95).
Most popular
Among the selection of pasta, risotto and pizza dishes, it is the risottos that are proving the most popular. In order to keep up with demand, Corbett is partly pre-cooking the risottos - such as risotto with porcini (£6.75) - and then finishing them off to order.
Five of the seven main-course dishes are grilled, the others are braised (lamb shank with castelluccio lentils and soft polenta, £8.95) and baked (cod Pugliese with black olives, tomatoes and capers, £9.65). The Scotch rib-eye steak, chargrilled and served with home-made chips and sage butter (£8.35), is the biggest selling main course so far. "All the meat dishes are going particularly well," says Corbett, who heads a 20-strong brigade.
All of the puddings - including Quod tiramisù (£4.55) and panettone pudding with caramel sauce and candied fruit (£4.55) - are home-made.
Having opened at the end of November, the 160-seat restaurant is already serving 60-70 covers at lunch and is one to one-and-a-half times full for dinner. In the summer Quod will open on to a south-facing, wooden-decked terrace with seating for another 60 covers. Average spend is about £18-£20 per head.
Quod Bar & Grill, Old Bank Hotel, 92-94 High Street, Oxford OX1 4BN. Tel: 01865 202505
