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Georgina's — Restaurant, City Centre, Oxford

Georgina's

Greek and Mediterranean café tucked upstairs in the Covered Market, with vintage cinema posters covering the walls and ceiling.

visibility Open to all auto_awesome Atmosphere savings Good value

Georgina's sits on the first floor of the Covered Market, reached by an internal staircase up from Avenue 3 — one of the few upstairs rooms in a market that is otherwise resolutely ground-floor, and easy to miss if you are walking the aisles head-down. The room above is the draw: walls and ceiling plastered in vintage cinema posters, a quirky bohemian fit-out that has been the café's signature for at least two decades.

The food today is Greek and Mediterranean rather than the all-day British café register the room used to be known for. The current menu leans on dishes like vegan imam bayildi (grilled aubergine with tomatoes, vegetables and hummus), a hot mezze plate built around gigantes beans, aubergine in tomato sauce, salad, hummus, olives and pitta, and a run of syrupy Greek desserts. Vegan and vegetarian labelling is clear, and the kitchen runs through to mid-afternoon rather than into the evening.

It works best as a daytime stop: a flat white and a slice of cake mid-morning before the lunch queues build downstairs, or a mezze plate upstairs with the cinema posters as your view. The upstairs setting means it is quieter than the aisle benches around the market's other cafés — the practical reason to climb the stairs.