• The Magic Cafe

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  • White Vegetarian
Lacto
Ovo
Organic
British

Vegetarian cafe in East Oxford painted bright red. Hosts live music and art display. For vegans menu has 1 starter and 1 main dish as of Jun 2016. Confirmed open, Jan 2018. Open Mon-Sat 09:00-18:00. Closed Sun.


Venue map for The Magic Cafe
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17 Reviews

First Review by tinkerbell

mcld

Points +949

Vegetarian
11 Feb 2024

Relaxed hippy vibe

I liked this place. Big and spacious, interesting art over the walls. I only had tea and cake, so I can't comment on the meals, but I hung around a while. It's a relaxed and friendly place, served me a huge wedge of vchoc cake and plenty of tea.

PrincessPudding

Points +249

Vegan
18 May 2023

Nice revamp!

Updating my previous review from 2018 following the renovation of Magic Cafe. The food quality has really improved - fresh and varied produce with many vegan options.

Updated from previous review on 2022-02-19

Pros: Nice community vibe, Family friendly, Spacious

Cons:

Mandy86

Points +342

Vegetarian
09 May 2023

Amazing daily tray bakes

Different tray bakes daily, really tasty. Hard to pick one! Good value meal where you add 3 salads to your main. Loyalty stamp card scheme here too. I miss no longer working nearby to here.

Pros: Tray bakes!

Laurieshriver

Points +18

Vegan
22 Oct 2018

Great Vibe

The lunch vegan options were amazing! They could offer better vegan desserts (mine was dry, but tasted good) and should offer either vegan soft serve ice cream or shakes, then I would give all five stars.

Gastroplodder

Points +76

Vegan
08 Apr 2017

Simple, tasty, nutritious, cheap

I love the Magic Cafe! They have a pretty basic menu always (well whenever I've been there) with a vegan main meal and often a vegan soup. They have soya milk for coffee/hot choclate. Cheap enough to have a filling meal and a hot drink with change from a tenner!

All other menu choices are vegetarian.

Pros: Friendly, Cheap, Reliably good vegan meal

Cons: Can get busy so may have to share table, Sometimes there are lots of kids (not that I mind)

tendaystogo

Points +269

Vegan
04 Mar 2017

Yummy!

Nice, hearty sweet potato and chickpea curry with cous cous, and delicious sweet potato fries (I think that's what they were!). My mum had a vegetarian pie which she said was delicious, and she also had some yummy salads. I had the date cake, which was powdery and light and yummy! I had a coffee which was good too.
There was only one vegan option on offer when I went, but luckily it tasted really good. Also the other vegan cakes had sold out :(
There were many children but that was fun entertainment! People were sat on chairs, or working on tables with laptops. A nice community vibe.

Pros: Child friendly, nice atmosphere, good vegan and vegetarian food

Cons: none

erinpryme

Points +34

Vegan
12 Oct 2016

Beautiful Food !!

This restaurant serves amazing vegan and vegetarian food. It has a very simply lay out - but don't judge the food based on that ! We really enjoyed the atmosphere - the service was excellent. It's not a very flashy restaurant but I can't deny the quality of the food and the price !! Definitely worth a visit !!

frackles

Points +57

Mostly Veg
15 Sep 2016

Was cool 10 years ago, not so much now

This place has great food but they haven't updated the furniture or feel and are now behind the times. It is a shame, this place used to be very hip but now it is just a bit tired and dated – even though the food is still fantastic. Needs to rethink itself in the market and think how it can be the subculture cafe it once was!

Pros: Good food, Friendly staff

Cons: Tired and no longer cool, Gets swarmed by babies often

Anacbordalo

Points +134

Vegan
20 Aug 2016

Could be worse

I found it very lovely for the vibe. Oxford doesn't have a lot of places free from corpses, so that was definitely a good thing. It did upset me that they only had one plant based option. The menu had the main dish plus three salads. Had to go through the salads' ingredients as one of them was finishing and was being replaced with one with cheese. Had I not noticed it, I'm pretty sure they would have given me the vegan plate with the animal secretion salad. It always bugs me when veg places insist on food that revolves around animal secretions. But from what I have seen so far, that's quite normal in Oxford. So far, it's still the best I found there.

Pros: Plant based food in a good portion, Plant based cake, Music and decoration

Cons: Animal secretions everywhere (ask everything!), Far from the city centre

Creationmc

Points +66

Vegan
21 Oct 2015

Magic cafe is 'magic'

Been meaning to write a review of this cafe since summer. I'm vegan (for 21 years) and had a day trip to Oxford in August so decided to try the Magic cafe. Absolutely loved it!! Really chilled out atmosphere, great background music and the food was beyond my expectations - excellent salads, real home cooked main courses and vegan cakes! I was so happy I tipped them £10. If you want alternative, individual and beautifully simplistic - then this is it in Oxford. I wish you every success Magic Cafe.

Pros: Food, Place, Decor

Cons: Maybe a bit of a walk from city centre

ives31

Points +20

Vegan
16 Aug 2015

Good but not great

My first visit to The Magic cafe.
Disappointed to find that the vegan options for the main courses were limited to one dish.
What I had was tasty and nice but the dish was luke warm.However, it was reasonable.
I liked the atmosphere with big old mismatched tables. has a kind of hippy vibe. Very relaxed.
Staff seemed polite but a little disinterested.
I'm so grateful for any cafe that serves vegan food, however limited, that I will definitely go again.
Overall 3/5

Pros: cheap, tasty food, good portion sizes

Cons: limited vegan options

Nicci

Points +20

Vegan
01 Nov 2014

Would not say 'Vegan Friendly'.

We tried to visit this cafe today but left without eating anything. Asked what was vegan was told maybe soup. The staff member was quite rude and unhelpful - she didn't know what was vegan and was unwilling to ask in the kitchen. I don't really expect this from a vegetarian cafe. I would suggest vegans avoid this cafe due to the lack of knowledge of the staff and the availability of other restaurants/cafes in the area offering good vegan food (and being knowledgeable about what they sell!)

VeganFoodEnthusiast

Points +106

Vegan
21 Oct 2014

Underwhelming Vegan Options

I've been here a couple of times in the past, though I've only eaten once, because the pickings for vegans were rather slim. I had a slice of banana and date cakeas it was the only vegan thing on the menu they still had. It was very dry and rather boring, I wouldn't recommend it. I believe the 'soup of the day' was vegan (not sure if it always is) and also a big salad dish.

This would probably make a nice lunch stop for vegetarians, but for vegans it was a little dissapointing.

Pros: Fully vegetarian, Cool bookshop next door

Cons: Food wasn't that great, Few vegan options

spacehopper

Points +15

Mostly Veg
15 Oct 2014

Well worth a visit

We came twice while in Oxford both late afternoon and had a choice of dishes, a treat for veggies to have choices especially after lunchtime, loved the aubergine bake and the side salads, curries were a little hot for us. Very friendly and relaxed with mums and kids chatting over cofee.

Pros: Good food, Good price

Cons: Can be noisy kids

Zeki Min

Points +16

Vegan
20 Apr 2014

Great Food, Good Music, Very Nice Service!

We really had a wonderful time at the Magic Cafe. It has two new owners now. Deki was great to us and served us memorable food!
The cakes were also really good.
Would have loved it even more, if it was completely vegan. But that's just me.

Pros: Service, Food, Hot Chocolate

Cons: Not Completely Vegan

pisceschic

Points +104

Vegan
28 Nov 2009

Decent

I was excited to find a shop with vegan food right next to a very cool bookstore called the Inner Bookshop. But the spiced fruit cake I had was disappointing. While the flavor was good, it was quite dry. I preferred the coconut chocolate flapjack I had at Uhuru Wholefoods. There were other vegan deserts on the menu that weren't available and a few vegan savory dishes that I didn't try. It's worth a visit.

tinkerbell

Points +73

Vegetarian
18 Jul 2007

dull food, dull place

Uninspiring food with the environment to match.
Always seems to be children running about whilst their parents ignore this behaviour. Really hard to finish food with all this going on. Left without finishing food, not that we missed out. Had chips on the way home!!

Cons: dull food, unhelpful staff




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