Gee's, Oxford

Sunday 26 January

We've noticed Gee's on our way into work every day: a fancified little glassed-in conservatory, too quaint for words.  We've heard the food is good too, so we decided to try it out for our 23rd anniversary.

We were greeted like old friends, and ushered in to a nice, squishy corner banquette, which got us into a good mood right away.

We started with a celebratory bottle of prosecco di Treviso to go with our intriguing starters: a pink-and-green ham hock and pheasant terrine, served with relish and slabs of toasted sourdough; and a half dozen queen scallops, each little gem drenched in butter and nestled in its shell.

Then, having secured a carafe of Sangiovese di Puglia, we went on to the meat course: a charcoal-grilled prime rib of venison with creamed spinach, and a half guinea fowl roasted in the wood oven (though still quite rare in the dark meat) with lemon and sage.

Since it was a celebration, we ended up with a slice of blood orange tart, shown off in a novel way, on a painted tile.  Though our nice server assured us that it had been browned with a blowtorch, we even thought we detected a slight whiff of woodsmoke in the Seville orange cream.
We're glad we live just down the road from Gee's, as it's open for all meals, every day; we'll probably go back for another one soon.