The Alpha Bar

Very affordable meal, can be eaten on tables in covered market or taken away. Always has vegan options available (although often no hot food vegan option).

I believe they only had veg options. The plant based one (menu) was a curry that you could eat with potatoes or rice and with salad with some sauce topping. The food was good but we ate it outside. The covered marked is not vegan friendly at all and they have very few seated places available as well. You have to ask for the ingredients - they seemed a bit confused about the sauces' ingredients. At first they said the yoghurt one was vegan but when I tried to be sure they didn't really know anymore... Still, their pesto was really good. And they had vegan cakes! I believe the menu was around £5, so I think it was a good deal for a good meal.

Very tasty and cheap vegan food. I like the way they served the food and additionally the wooden cutlery. Healthy, quick and delicious! There should more space to seat and eat.

Located in the Covered Market, the Alpha Bar offers the cheapest vegan lunch in central Oxford. The hot vegan meal of the day (usually some type of curry or chilli) to take away is £4.30. The salad bar is good too with lots of vegan salads (e.g., lentils, chick peas, quinoa, butter beans, cous cous, coleslaw, tomato, greens), as well as hummus, falafel, and baked tofu.

As other reviewers have rightly noted, the major downside of the location in the Covered Market the plethora of butchers, fish mongers, and cheese shops. The same food at Alpha Bar, however, can be found at Will's Deli on Woodstock. Additionally, the vegan hot meal can be found at Vaults and Gardens on Catte Street (although it's more expensive and there are less vegan options).

Save on packaging and bring your own take-away container!

Oxford doesn't have too many vegetarian options, so it is great to have a vegetarian friendly place in the market like Alpha Bar.

It's mainly a salad bar, primarily vegan, but does offer a vegetarian and meat choice of the day (curries, ratatouilles, chilis etc.).

The salad bar has good selection. I'm not a big fan of the butter beans, but everything else is great. Just make sure to eat the falafel with the hummus, otherwise it can be a bit dry. The lentils, quinoa, and beet/carrot salads are all delicious.

It's over the counter service, with limited seating (and no table service), but the staff are very friendly and also very helpful answering vegan/vegetarian questions about the food.

I should also add that it's reasonably priced. Runs around 7 pounds for a big salad.

With respect to its location (commented on by other reviewers here), while it is close to a butcher shop, you can always access Alpha Bar from the back of the market without walking by the butcher if it really concerns you that much.

Several years ago this was amazing with a father and son carefully offering vegan and veggie choices. The tofu and seaweed was superb. Now it's really no different to any of the other sandwich bars in Oxford.

A real shame