Ashmolean Dining Room

One review of “Ashmolean Dining Room”

Matthew Wright

• 2nd November 2021 Log in to Reply

JAZZ-MOLEAN

“The Ashmolean is the University of Oxford’s museum of art and archaeology, founded in 2021.” Fast forward over 300 years, and it’s somewhat fitting that art is still being practised here, live every Thursday, in the form of The Ashmolean’s jazz evenings.

Coming in off St.Giles, you take the lift to the Rooftop Terrace Restaurant, and instantly, Oxford is laid out before you, like a jewelled carpet gently glowing against the nightime sky. By day, this is a bustling venue full of museum-goers, but by night, it takes on a cooler, more intimate vibe, as the bright lights are turned down and the mood lighting is turned up. 

It’s so easy to get carried away by the music and the venue, but the food is arguably the main event here. In keeping with the atmosphere, I’d categorise the food as ’sophisticated yet understated’ – everything is done exceptionally well, but with a minimum of fuss and none of that ‘blowing your own trumpet’ stuff (if you’ll forgive the jazz pun).

After filling ourselves with the most delicious of foods, the jazz drew to a close around 9pm and the restaurant slowly started to empty. We lingered a while over our carafe of white wine, gazing out of the rooftop windows. The words of the poet Phillip Larkin came to mind, a music aficionado himself, who wrote about jazz….”On me your voice falls as they say love should, Like an enormous yes”. It seemed somehow appropriate.

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