Biblos

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• What are these?

• Average price 2 courses:
   £12 (lunch)
   £12 (evening meal)
• House wine: £11 per bottle

• High point: Supersize soup
• Low point: Not a place for those with a low tolerance for students
• Food served: Mon-Sun 11am-10pm
• Bar open: Mon-Sun 11am-1am; Sun 12.30pm-1am.
• Open since: 2001
• Also offers: Wheelchair access

The List's Eating & Drinking Guide 2008 is now in the shops.

This review is from the 2007 edition.

Biblos has a sleek, minimalist interior, but, when it comes to food, it is reassuringly home-spun. Handily situated next to Old College and reliably packed with hordes of well-scrubbed students taking advantage of two-for-one drink and meal deals between lectures, this place has hit on a winning formula with apparent ease. The revealing glass frontage offers plenty of scope for sitting and watching the world go by, while the background music of jazzy dance beats is inoffensive enough. The easy-going ethos is also apparent in the menu, which eschews ambition in favour of a pleasantly ramshackle approach to dining. Soup dominates the starters, but these are no mere apologies; the amply proportioned seafood chowder is full of robust flavour and packed with prawns, mussels and squid rings. Mains include hearty pub favourites such as burgers, wraps and sausages and mash, as well as fajitas and a range of fresh pasta dishes. On the healthier side of things, it is possible to build your own salad, while a marlin steak served on a warm sesame seed oil-scented Asian salad is an admirable attempt to push the boundaries, but is perhaps not as successful as the other staples.