The Folly Restaurant

You're walking across Folly Bridge on a Saturday evening, the water darkening below you, and then you step into this place—all exposed brick, contemporary lines, and floor-to-ceiling windows that frame the river like a painting you've paid to hang on your wall. The Folly doesn't shout about itself (which is very Oxford), but once you're seated with a glass of something proper, watching the light fade across Port Meadow, you realise this is exactly where locals come when they want to impress someone or just treat themselves. The kitchen takes itself seriously without being pretentious—proper technique, seasonal thinking, the kind of cooking that makes you sit up and pay attention.