L' Oasis Bar & Restaurant Newspaper & Magazine Reviews

Fay Maschler - Evening Standard

Time Out Bars, Pubs & Clubs Guide 2008

Ashleigh Rainbird - East End Life

squaremeal.c0.uk

Peckish Polly - East End Life

Laura Kendall - The Wharf

Kay Harrison - The Wharf

Time Out Bars, Pubs & Clubs Guide 2008

L’Oasis is a well-established favourite, thronged by the classier kind of student and a mishmash of locals. The ground floor is a narrow room with stripped floors and solid teak tables, enhanced by a listed green-panelled ceiling. Adnams Bitter and Timothy Taylor Landlord cater to the beer drinker (we applaud the promise of a new range of real ales), but Addlestones cider, a well-priced wine list and an army of spirits (including a mighty array of whiskies) lined up under the purpose-made mirror would keep anyone happy. Those ascending to the dining room are serenaded by a Betty Boop figure at the forefront of a jazz band; not to everyone’s taste, but there’ll be no complaints about the food – baked ham with colcannon and swede mash, or sardines with excellently judged parsley and caper salad. Mains ring in at just over a tenner.

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L'Oasis gastropub holds Lyndon Hayes art show

By Tom Derbyshire on March 13, 2008 4:17 PM | Tagged with:L'Oasis, Lyndon Hayes, Stepney

L’Oasis bar and restaurant is serving up another visual feast.

Paintings by Lyndon Hayes are currently on display at the Stepney gastropub, an artist whose work is regularly commissioned by The Guardian, Time Out, The Telegraph and Penguin books.

Lyndon attended a preview on Monday (March 10), where a case of wine with an exclusive label he designed and signed (pictured right) was auctioned off for charity.

His paintings will be on display until May 1, so if you haven’t discovered this gem of a pub in Mile End Road, now is the perfect time to nip in.

L’Oasis is in Mile End Road, Stepney Green (020 7702 7051)

The label on the limited edition wine bottle was created especially by our sponsors Harrison Vintners

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Pubs named in Michelin Guide by ASHLEIGH RAINBIRD

Tower Hamlets' best pubs have impressed Michelin judges, making it into the latest "Eating Out in Pubs" guide.

The comprehensive list comprises more than 500 of the UK's top pubs, with this year's new entries including three from the borough.

The Morgan Arms in Bow joins the 2008 list, along with L'Oasis in Stepney and Gordon Ramsay's The Narrow in Limehouse.

L'Oasis put its success down to continued support from local and loyal customers, who have helped build the gastropub's reputation.

Tower Hamlets now boasts four spots in the guide, as The Gun in Canary Wharf held on to its place for another year.

Cafe Spice Namaste, in Prescott Street, Whitechapel, is accredited for its "good food at quality prices" in Michelin's Bib Gourmand guide for. this year.

Time Out Magazine named its top restaurants in London last week, with Mudchute Kitchen on the Isle of Dogs coming in as runner-up for Best Family Restaurant.

The Empress of India in Mile End was also a runner-up in the Best British Restaurant category, as was The Narrow for Best Gastropub.

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Charles Saumarez Smith has been director of the National Gallery for four years. The gallery's retrospective of Velazquez, opening next month, brings together almost half of the surviving works by the artist.

"I want my weekend to be soothingly predictable and highly ritualised. I started running 12 years ago to keep I fit, mentally and physically, and Saturday mornings always begin with a three-mile run from Limehouse to Tower Bridge accompanied by friends, including Hazhir Teimourian, the Kurdish journalist, who updates me about Iraq. We all have coffee over the newspapers at his house and discuss the week's events...

... In the evening, if we're not eating boiled eggs at home, we go to L'Oasis, a local gastropub, for burgers and chips. My weekday life is preoccupied by the art world and, after a week in central London, I relish the ordinariness and anonymity of life in the East End before returning to Trafalgar Square."

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Photograph by Jonathan Root

An unpretentious pub in Stepney is a haven of good-value dining for travelers and locals alike

THE PUB that was once The Three Crowns and is now L' Oasis lives up to its new name in the heart of Stepney opposite the Ocean housing estate—apparently the biggest in Europe. The spacious, deep premises feature a listed green-painted ornamental high ceiling and rows of stout teak tables down both sides of the room.

Head chef Bernadette Ford, who comes from the west coast of Ireland, worked with Richard Corrigan for nearly three years and it could be said to show in her cooking — although the Monday night four of us dined there turned out to be Bernadette's night off.

Proprietor John Cleary was an amiable presence front of house. It was only at the end of dinner that I discovered that his unflappable, seen-it-all ability to run the bar and dining room more or less single-handedly was honed during years working in banqueting in grand hotels.

He spotted a gap in the market, figured that the medical students at Queen Mary's College nearby would need somewhere to eat, and has filled it.

The all-day menu pre-supposes that some want burgers — here home-made and char-grilled — and chicken Caesar salad, but others might prefer home-cured herring with new potatoes and watercress salad or guinea fowl stuffed with feta, chorizo and oregano, served with a red-pepper sauce. Apparently it is the roasts on Sundays accompanied by Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes and fresh vegetables at £12.50 that really pack 'em in.

"Greengrocer spelling," said Edward about Parma ham and melon with pommigranite [sic] dressing. It was a smart combo, though. Houmus served with semi-dried tomatoes and olives and two kinds of pitta bread, white and wholemeal, had a nicely nubbly texture and was confidently seasoned.

The pickled herrings came with a version of chrain, that Jewish relish made from a mixture of pureed beetroot and horseradish. This one was light in texture but packed a satisfying East End punch.

A special of the day that lived up to that description was char-grilled calf's liver with onion-and-spinach "hash" — a treatment of spinach that would convert any spinach-loather — and cubes of crisply fried celeriac root that were unexpected and delicious.

Rib-eye steak came with a traditional garnish of chips (hand-cut), Portobello mushrooms, plum tomato and watercress salad, but with the guinea fowl the pont-neuf chips were fashioned from polenta, which was cunning.

Genevieve thought that crushing potatoes with slices of red chilli to accompany sea bream was not such a crafty idea. They trod all over the delicate flavour of the fish.

"Ephemerally cheesecakey. Beyond vanilla" was her judgment of the Baileys-and-white-chocolate cheesecake, while her brother Edward said that the pineapple upside-down cake "took him to an American place" and invoked that American kitchen bible, The Joy of Cooking, from which all desperate housewives learn to bake.

Prices on the wine list make you wonder about ordering, but then you realise the unfamiliarity is not in the bottles but in the meekness of the mark-ups.

There is also a quite startling range of more than 55 malts and bourbons displayed behind the bar. L' Oasis feeds and waters a traveler and, of course, the locals, in an unforced, unpretentious way, very well indeed.

Head chef Bernadette Ford and owner John Cleary have spotted and filled a gap in the market with L' Oasis

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London Restaurants Guide

L'Oasis

Address 237 Mile End Road, E1 4AA
Tel 020 7702 7051
Email info@loasisstepney.co.uk
Price £28.00 Wine £12.50 Champagne £25.00
Opening Hours Mon-Sat 12N-11pm Sun 12N-10.30pm

No arguing with the name: L'Oasis is indeed an oasis. This spacious gastropub, with bare floorboards, big teak tables & an ornamental Victorian high ceiling, is a relaxed haven on an unlovable stretch of Mile End Road & has been gratefully received by an amiable crowd of locals. The good-value menu features generous helpings of well-executed, unpretentious dishes. A starter of game terrine with grape marmalade was satisfyingly rich; home-cured gravad-lax smooth & moreish. A juicy home-made char-grilled burger to follow hit the spot, while smoked haddock accompanied by good creamy mash, poached egg, spinach & saffron sauce was a flavoursome dish done just right. To finish, a luscious summer pudding was fresh, intense, tangy & soaked in berry juice. Other pluses are a well-priced wine list, attractive vegetarian options, & a bar stocked with more than 50 malt whiskies.

 Grubpubs 'n' club Page 26 East End Life 19-25 June, 2006

A little World Cup respite ............... By Peckish Polly

WITH many of the borough's pubs and bars said to be fully booked for the dates when England play in the World Cup, my friend and I were desperate to find a football-free zone on the first day of the competition.

And in Mile End Road we stumbled upon something of a compromise in the form of a pub and dining room called L' Oasis.

The recently refurbished gastro pub offers something for those who love and hate the beautiful game. The spacious ground floor has wooden tables that can seat at least six diners, a welcoming bar, home cooked food, a good range of drinks, relaxing music and not a single football memento in sight.

Although we didn't venture upstairs, the manager told us that the equally spacious spot has a screen where football fans can gather.

We were there for the food, and the tranquil atmosphere. With a variety of vegetarian and non-vegetarian options, on offer there was plenty to choose from.

Breast of guinea fowl with a celeriac remoulade and feta stuffed pepper; penne pasta and homemade pesto sauce; sirloin steak sandwich with salad and fries; and vegetarian sausages with mash and braised red cabbage were just some of the options.

After deliberating for a while, I ordered guinea fowl and duck terrine, with green tomato chutney and toast. My friend chose homemade chargrilled burger with salad and fries.

The service was prompt and the food arrived, well presented on huge platters.

Although the venue was quite busy, we were able to chat without shouting.

My portion of tenine was generous. The poultry were distinct and the chutney deliciously complemented the meat. And the slabs of wholemeal toast made the dish very filling.

The succulent and tasty meat in the burger (again with wholemeal bread) was the highlight of my friend's dishes. This also went down well with the fresh, leafy salad, although the fries were a bit lean and limp.

The dessert menu again offered a good choice, including pineapple baked in ginger beer with chilli and double cream and pecan tart with vanilla mascarpone, but we were too full to indulge.

L'Oasis at 237 Mile End Road is open Monday to Saturday, 12 noon to 11pm, and Sunday 12 noon to 10.30pm. Call 020 7702 7051 for further information.

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The Wharf ... Serving sanctuary

By Laura Kendall

AN OASIS by name and by nature, L’Oasis is a haven of good food and great atmosphere in gritty Stepney. There's been a pub on this site since the 1930s, but none of its previous incarnations could have been as appealing as the charming gastropub run by former engineer John Cleary.

When he purchased the lease five years ago, the venue was a hotchpotch of Spanish arches and mock-Tudor, and a false ceiling hid the stunning 19th century ornamental original. He promptly closed the doors, gutted the place and re-opened as a stylish and welcoming pub boasting an eclectic menu and an enviable wine list.

Not surprisingly, L'Oasis quickly became a hit with staff from neighbouring Queen Mary College and several nearby hospitals.

Perhaps in protest at its gaudy former life, the pub's interior is now a cosy sanctuary of cream and forest green, with wooden floors and heavy teak tables and chairs.

Chef Bernadette Forde has created a menu of Mediterranean-inspired dishes and traditional British grub with a twist - guinea fowl and black pudding terrine, anyone? My fellow gourmand started with fresh mackerel, oyster mushrooms, homemade piccalilli and toast. The imaginative presentation alone made the order worthwhile; happily, it was also delicious. I decided to forgo a starter (so that I’d have room for dessert) and instead went straight for a main course of vegetarian moussaka. I was treated to a light and moreish stack of tasty vegetables and beans on a bed of salad.

It was positively delectable. My companion followed up his mackerel with one of Bernadette's trademark skewed British staples: it was bangers and mash but not as he knew it. The sausages were made with piquant lamb and the mash bordered on bubble and squeak. The whole lot was rapturously devoured.

Then it was on to pudding, and I was able to tuck into the dessert I'd spied on the specials board the moment I walked in: banana cheesecake. It was heavenly and enormous — I'm ashamed to say I couldn't finish it.

Just a short trip from the Wharf, L'Oasis is well worth a lunchtime jaunt or after-work drink. It also boasts a spacious upstairs function room.

L'Oasis, 237 Mile End Rd, Stepney. Tel 020 7702 7051.

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L'Oasis: "lives up to its name"

THE WEEK

1st July 2006

L'Oasis Pub and Dining Room 237 Mile End Rd, London E1 (020-7702 7051)

Located in the heart of the East End, opposite Europe's largest housing estate, L'Oasis "lives up to its name", says Fay Maschler in London's Evening Standard. The "spacious" premises feature a "listed, ornamental ceiling" and "stout, teak tables". The menu offers standard fare such as burgers and Caesar salad, as well as more exciting offerings including home-cured herring with new potatoes and watercress salad and guinea fowl stuffed with feta, chorizo and oregano. The special of the day - chargrilled calf's liver with onion and spinach hash and cubes of crisply fried celeriac - for once "lived up to that description". "Meek mark-ups" on the wine list, and a "startling range" of whiskies, complete the appeal of this "unforced, unpretentious" watering hole.
Sunday roast £12.50, dinner around £32 a head

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