Little Four Seasons (Oxford) in Oxford

Little Four Seasons Oxford has been around the city for almost a year and to celebrate the upcoming Chinese New Year, year of the dragon, they are launching a new menu for 2024, bringing back the dim sum platter, along with preorders for Chinese New Year cake for £14.80 and Turnip cake for £15.80 with limited availability weighing 1.1kg each! Only available by preordering at the store, payment must be made at the day of ordering and the collection is on the following day starting from 8th February 2024 or a particular date within the CNY period. A lion dance performance has been scheduled on Saturday 24th February 2024 for the local community to enjoy the viewing, Chinese New Year celebrations and welcoming the year of Dragon! 🐲

Reasonable food but massively overpriced. We had to eat out of disposable cardboard etc. shame but this isn’t London. Won’t return

Mixed experience. The first time I went there the food was fantastic. I had the BBQ duck with rice and the duck was delicious, tasty and tender. The second time I went, I had the BBQ duck again but this time it was mainly bones and not nearly as tasty. Maybe I was lucky the first time, and not the second but for £12.50 take away price, I would expect it to good every time.

Excellent Cantonese food. We had vegetable rolls with a very good dipping sauce and then succulent, wobbly beef brisket in a glorious rich chilli sauce full of red onions and chunks of bamboo shoots along with morning glory cooked with ginger and chilli. The egg fried rice was delicious and Uncle Roger would have approved of it, hai-yaa! I will definitely be going again, to work through the menu. Really good value for money and friendly staff too. A great addition to the Headington food scene.

Forget value for money, forget service, it’s self service. The beef dish was tasty but at around £20 for this dish!!!? The roast duck had very little meat and at around £18 you start to get a feeling of being ripped off and you come out with a bad taste. If I was in a posh Chinatown restaurant, probably can stomach it, but for Headington, it’s taking the Mick. The food was ok but nothing to sing about.

There has been a lot of hype about this place opening up in Headington so we thought we would give it a try. Be warned this is a slightly odd restaurant in many ways. Firstly there is very little seating on the ground floor. So if you want to eat in, they have to take a seat downstairs. Secondly there is no table service. That's right - there are no waiters or waitresses. You have to fetch and carry all your drinks, cutlery (plastic and chopsticks) and food. Then at the end of your meal, you clear it all away into food waste, recycling and non-recyclables. You would have thought that for all this self service, the food would be cheap? Wrong! It is not. As for the food, we thought the barbequed duck was not good. Lots of bone, skin and gristle and not much actual duck meat. The sweet and sour pork was really good as was the squid. Perhaps the rice portions good be a little smaller or offer the option for a slightly cheaper dish without rice. For those who like a nice hot jasmine tea or Chinese tea with their meal, forget it as they don't do hot drinks.

Being from the local area of Oxfordshire, I was so pleased to discover that the 'Little Four Seasons' was in Headington and decided to visit at the earliest convenience. Despite the steep menu prices, we nevertheless ordered our food with great anticipation as we know that similar style 'authentic' Cantonese '3 Roast meats and Rice' would necessitate for us a trip to London Chinatown oe Bang Bang Oriental in North London. What a disappointment the experience was. For a shade under £15 the roast duck and soy Chicken consisted mainly of carcase and bone and at those prices I do not expect to eat food served in a flimsy lightweight cardboard box with disposable chopsticks and plastic spoons. For me, the meal was a rip-off and of a poor standard throughout... shame.

I love Four Seasons in London and eat often when I’m in Chinatown, so was thrilled when I saw a branch was opening in Oxford. When I looked at the menu the lay out seemed very confusing and the prices expensive, especially for a local Headington takeaway. When I looked on the London menu I saw that Oxford prices are roughly £2 to £3 above Chinatown. Why? Rents are sky high in Central London compared to the edge of Oxford. Everyone I have spoken to since LFS opened have mentioned the pricing, complaining they are way too steep so we decided to give it a go and make up our own minds. I found the food pretty good, a little too much oil, the duck has too many bones, and everything was a little blander than usual but it’s much better than your average Chinese takeout. But £136 for four people it needs to be! This is not Yauatcha or Hakkasan but Headington. There are only so many rich university students who will pay this much. For the local market it’s just too pricey, families, doctors, teachers, nurses, academics, they won’t pay this and they are your bread and butter. Four Seasons has for many years thrived on its well priced Cantonese dishes, dishes that I have been eating since I was a child. It’s a shame as there is a really great opportunity here and I’m afraid unless the owners look at the menu, layout, cooking, as it’s not as good as in London and these crazy prices, then this will be a missed opportunity and that would be very sad. It’s early days, operators are pretty good at listening and making changes but the market is tough and trading at the moment is extremely volatile even for the best and at the moment Little Four Seasons needs to be better.

Little Four Season is correct. Only 7 tables in the basement and a few high chairs on ground floor. On the soft opening day there were lots of people wanting takeaway because first 30 or so customers got 50% off their order. The BBQ which I bought was like the one in London Chinatown.