Cafe Coco, Cowley Road, Oxford

Back in the day when Clinton Pugh was but a mere aspiring restaurateur, he opened Cafe Coco in Cowley Road in 1991.

I was a student then and it was the most exotic place any of us had ever been, complete with fantastic cocktails, a horseshoe bar, a clown in a real bath, a bald and naked statue of a woman singing, great food, a lively atmosphere — and the place was absolutely heaving from noon ‘til night.

It was expensive from a student’s point of view, but if you ate baked beans for a week you could pop down for a long lunch which flowed through into the night, or wait for happy hour.

Those were the days when Clinton still had his empire; The Lemon Tree, The Grand Cafe and the wonderfully successful Kazbar. Times were good and the population of Oxford couldn’t believe their luck. Everything he touched turned to gold.

When did his luck change? Hard to say, perhaps when The Lemon Tree in Woodstock Road closed, amid much wailing and beating of chests. Tablecloth restaurants were a thing of the past, apparently. Instead, The Oxford Organic Burger Company opened in Cowley Road followed by Coco’s Royal Oxford near the station.

Northern Rock crashed three months later and the organic burger joint was hastily transformed into Cafe Tarifa, which is still doing a roaring trade. Coco’s Royal Oxford was then sold on as a Korean restaurant, a terrible loss for all of us train-dependent diners who could nip in and out, eat in splendour, down Bloody Marys as if they were going out of fashion, enjoy the burlesque and scoff the heart-warming pizzas Coco’s is famous for.

Carparkgate followed hot on its heels, the St Clement’s car park being shut to build student flats, meaning that people like me who drove in to eat at Coco’s in Cowley Road had nowhere left to park and gave up (the car park is reopening at a reported 80 per cent of its capacity in August). Soon Coco’s was closed during the week and looked as if it was on its last legs.

Then like a Jack-in-the-box, it reopened, seven days a week, complete with new kitchen, new menu, new staff and the place is absolutely rammed again, the tables and chairs outside in Dawson Street, bridging the gap between Coco’s and Kazbar next door, spilling out with its beautiful and eclectic clientele.

The menu has changed, rightfully so, because the only complaint I’d heard about Coco’s was that it was rather limited. Clinton Pugh has obviously been listening because he’s extended the kitchens and introduced steaks, burgers and salads to his traditional menu of breakfasts, brunches and pizzas.

You would never have known there had been trouble at mill when we arrived gleefully on Saturday night, all the tables being full, the bar heaving and everyone laughing and chatting, having a great time. Because it’s that sort of place, somewhere to kick back and relax, get away from it all and have a laugh. You can lose entire weekends there. We lost just the one evening, as it turned out, an evening of cocktails and laughter, catching up, putting the world to rights, more cocktails, a taxi, a hangover, you know how it goes... the food matching the place and the atmosphere, one almost indecipherable from the other.

Having eaten our own body weight in Coco’s pizzas over the years, we focused on the new additions to the menu, namely the burger, 6oz of prime steak mince from David John (of the Covered Market) cooked medium rare, served in a wonderful seeded roll with all the old faithfuls — tomato, lettuce, pickled dill, skinny chips, and coleslaw or superfood salad, which for £9.95 was fantastic value. You can add all sorts of weird and wonderful things to your burger, from bacon and Oxford Blue to chorizo or tzatziki, but we stayed with the classic and were very impressed.

For example, I always think the bun is a maker or breaker — too dry and it ruins the whole dish, too doughy and it cloys — but just like Goldilocks’ porridge, this was just right. The meat was lovely and juicy and the components all worked beautifully together. Well researched.

There was a pulled pork burger on the menu as well, the pork sourced from Rectory Farm in Stanton St John, but the rest of us had our eyes fixed firmly on the steak: the 8oz of Scotch rump arriving plump and juicy with thyme butter, skinny chips, a rocket and cherry tomato salad with optional peppercorn sauce or bearnaise sauce for £14.75. And it was spot on, the chips just the right side of salty and crispy, the salad adding a piquant addition to the plate while the steaks spread beams of delight all around.

We also ordered the Greek pizza (£8.85) for old time’s sake, and were bemused when it was served with a big splat of tzatziki in the middle, worried it would be soggy. But instead the Greek dip worked brilliantly, adding an appropriately strong sauce to what is already a winning formula.

And as the party atmosphere continued around us and we ate and drank and carried on carousing, it all blurred into one. Until the pudding arrived that is, because that will stand out in my mind for a long time to come. We tried one of the specials — a baked pineapple dish with orange rind, Grand Marnier and black pepper, and ooh, it was a succulent, kicking vibrant man of a dish. The pecan pie with vanilla pod ice cream was another bonus and the vanilla ice cream, with espresso poured over it, pretty moreish as well, and all priced at £4.75. But what impressed me most about Coco’s is the diners aren’t sitting in hushed surroundings gazing at the architectural food on their plates.

The food is superb but designed to complement the sum of its parts. In short, if you want to have fun, you know where to come. Clinton is back in business.

Cafe Coco
23 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1HP
01865 200232
cafecoco.co.uk

Opening times: Monday to Thursday 10am-midnight; Friday and Saturday 10am-12.30am; Sunday 10am-6pm
Parking: Don’t even mention it
Key personnel: Owner Clinton Pugh, general manager Owen McCole and deputy manager Richard Kyprios
Make sure you try the... breakfasts: choose from a Bloody Mary, Bucks Fizz, glass of fizz, coffee or tea, fresh orange juice and toast served with the Full English (bacon, tomato, sausage, free-range egg, ciabatta, mush-rooms, garlic sautéed potatoes & black pudding or the Arnold Bennett omelette (£15). Or the new healthy Superfood porridge
In ten words: Welcome back, Coco’s. Where have you been all my life?