Spiced Roots in Oxford

Great little restaurant, the food was excellent Highly recommend if you fancy trying something from the Caribbean Good sized portions and all at a reasonable price Service was great, staff all very friendly

Absolutely great carribean food had a lovely evening.

I have been there twice. Really enjoyed the food and environment! Would love to go again

My favorite restaurant in Oxford! Great food, atmosphere, service and rum selection! Not to miss when you re in Oxford!👌🏾❤️‍🔥

Amazing food, cannot recommend highly enough

We were a group of 7 and absolutely every single dish that we ordered was delicious!!! Hands down one of the best meals I’ve had. The goat curry, chicken, prawns, fish, everything was amazing! The service was lovely as well. Thank you!! ❤️

Had the Oxtail and Mac'n'Cheese and they SLAPPED. This place by far has some of the softest meat I've tasted in my life (no diddy), and huge portion sizes. The rum cake was also proper authentic, you could taste the wray and nephew they put in that. One of my favourite dinner spots on Cowley Road, would deffo recommend!

Insanely good food! Many things I had not tried before, all good. Good veg options too. Just wish they had the guiness mix drink as a 0.0% option :)

Sep 24 Update. Had a fantastic meal last night. Really friendly knowledgeable wait staff and excellent food especially the trini doubles and the jerk chicken. Still recommend. Truly excellent food, really friendly efficient service and great cocktails. Can't wait to go back.

Some of the nicest Caribbean food I’ve had and a great atmosphere. Good vegan options and lots of fun cocktails to choose from the rum bar.

Great foid lovely staff will be back soon

Amazing dinner and service last night. Our waitress Jessica was friendly and helpful and took perfect care of us. The food was sooo good! You could tell that everything was made with care. The mac and cheese was one of the best I’ve ever had. Highly recommend!!!

Great Caribbean food at a good price with good sized portions. Jerk chicken and curry goat are very good. Fried plantain was perfectly done. Mac and cheese was some of the best I've had. Particularly good at the price. Little cramped seating but otherwise excellent.

Absolutely delicious food here in our take away, good portions and super tasty. Highly recommend and will definitely go back

Sadly my first experience here was not as good as I'd hoped. I had the veggie Rundown (stew) and a roti. Both were nice, although I really wanted some chilli and couldn't taste any so it was a bit underwhelming. I'm not confident the food I ate was what was shown on the menu either, but at least it tasted fresh and homemade. Portion size very good and I was really full. I had two rum cocktails but they were both quite unpleasant. One was overpowered by Bitters and undrinkable. The two servers were both very nice and friendly, but very young and weren't able to talk to me about anything and just played on their phones. Really disappointed as I haven't had a lot of Caribbean food and I expected to be blown away given all the positive reviews.

Really delicious caribbean food, especially liked the sautéed jamaican ackee, sooo yummie!

Nice food, good portions, fair prices and no demand/presumption of a tip which appears to be becoming the norm in the UK 🤨 I’ll definitely visit again.

Lovely place for a wonderful food. Everything tasted great and kudos to the chef with the lovely presentation

This small informal Caribbean restaurant was a treat to find . the service was friendly . I loved the limited menu with a good variety of dishes . Each course was well presented and tasty . The buzz of conversation with some Caribbean music in the background made for a great ambience . only one comment - the wine prices were very high . we didn't have any as a result ! However the food was appropriately price for the quantity / quality .

If you like hot spicy food, this is the place. Excellent!

I've been going to Oxford for 3 years now and in that time to be frank struggled to find a decent go to restaurant. I can now say with delight i've found my destination. I present SPICED ROOTS a little caribbean culinary gem. The fresh perfectly cooked food is absolutely delicious and gives off that home cooked by mummy vibe and is beautifully presented. The chilli and garlic prawns had my eyes closed Mark Weins style (if you know you know) so juicy with an incredible depth of flavour, the Trini doubles not only were seasoned to perfection they left you wanting more and the Jerk chicken spring rolls were an absolute triumph. For mains we had the ackee and callaloo Jerk Tempah (vegetarian) and the Jerk chicken. Both came with rice & peas, plaintain and salad. Not only were the portions huge the flavours of both dishes were just mind blowingly delicious. Then we embarked on dessert and had the beautiful spiced rum cake and a selection of 3 home made ice creams namely Coconut, Guinness and the old Caribbean favourite Rum and Raisin, all recommended by the owner. It's at this point I feel compelled to speak about the rum & raisin ice cream. I've eaten this ice cream on numerous occasions at numerous locations in Jamaica over my many years and I tell you no word of a lie this was hands down the best rum and raisin ice cream I've ever tasted, it literally left us speechless. So to summarise, this place has great food, great music, great service and a wonderfully charming owner who's totally invested in serving great, incredibly tasty, authentic Caribbean food clearly prepared with love. What more could you ask for. Fair to say it was meant to be. Uncle Jay.

The octopus salad was delicious…and the lovely bar tender let me taste an expensive rum on-the-house - a really great place!

Delectable, delightful and delicious.... I'm not sure what was better, the impeccable customer service, or the Jerk chicken 🐔 🐔.

Great food and really good value too. The doubles tasted as I remember them in Port of Spain and the rest of the food was full of flavour. And the portion sizes were very generous. A relaxed vibe.

What an amazing dining experience! Hands down the best restaurant in Oxford. Delicious food (the Jerk chicken and Oxtail are amazing and highly recommend the Trini doubles, jerk chicken spring rolls, and prawn appetizers), great cocktails and mocktails, and really attentive service made this an unforgettable dinner.

All your favourite dishes are here and great cocktails too. It's yum 😋

Great food and quick service too.

We ate here for the first time on my birthday and we could not have been more pleased. The food was delicious and the waiters were very welcoming. We'll definitely be back!

6 of us went for an early supper and were delighted with everything about this restaurant. Very popular and many folk were turned away on the night having not booked. Handled allergies really well and food arrived swiftly, in plentiful portions. Amazing rum collection so advise getting the bus!

We went for dinner at Spiced Roots. The service was very slow; we had to wait 50 minutes to receive our first (main) course. We requested the spicy sauce to be served on the side of the chicken, but they forgot and put it on top of the chicken instead. We waited another 30 minutes to get the desserts, which they also forgot about. The service was dreadful, and the food was mediocre at best.

I’ve been wanting to dine here for a few years and it was as delicious as I expected and worth the journey from London! The food was absolutely delicious, authentic flavours and great portion sizes. (We ordered a lot between 2). I had the passionfruit swizzler cocktail which was devine 😋 Visited on a Thursday night which was cozy and mellow but still relatively busy. I will definitely visit again, most likely on a Friday or Saturday next time, with a larger group. Compliments to the chef 👌🏽

Very friendly service. We had to wait a little bit for our main dishes after the starters. The lambchop was overcooked, and the octopus was chewy. However, smoked aubergine and king prawn curry was very delicious. I will definitely go back there for these two.

Food was delicious, we had the lamb chops and the prawns. The lamb was the best though!

Lovely authentic Caribbean restaurant, great food and music. Tables a little tight but that’s due to size of venue. Will definitely visit again.

Really good food in this small restaurant with a nice atmosphere. Authentic feeling and well spiced food.

This restaurant is amazing!!! I have been twice and the food, drinks and service is 10/10. Every dish I have eaten so far has been faultless, I look forward to making my way through the menu and I can’t wait to return. I highly recommend this restaurant and Thank you for making my birthday meal one to remember.

The food here is incredible! Order the doubles and the salt fish croquettes! You won’t regret it!

Ace. Spiced Roots revived our spirits, especially my 89-year old father in law's, during the lull between Christmas and New Year. Three satisfied customers here.

On a Saturday night and with a reservation, we wanted to redeem a voucher of around 80 GBP that had been purchased through the restaurant. The service personnel at the restaurant did not know how to process vouchers and therefore had to contact the owner of the restaurant who wasn't willing to help because "he was at his son's football match", but we had been promised that he will contact us with a solution. After an entire week, three emails and another call where we again had been promised that someone would get back to us, nothing happened. That is completely unacceptable and was entirely due to poor service and organisation by the owner. Moreover, I would not recommend to order anything for take away from the restaurant, the portions are significantly smaller than if you dine in and there was not even any sauce with the mains.

First visit here and the food was incredible, we shared a couple of starters and had a main each, all of which were lovely. The smoked aubergine & tomato choka starter and the kingfish steak main were my highlights and would recommend these to anyone. Cocktails were great and the service was very quick. Look forward to coming back in the near future.

Couldn’t give this place enough stars. The food is delicious, the Vegan options are amazing, great service, music and atmosphere. We were a big table… the service was fantastic. Thank you.

The most amazing Caribbean food ever. We had the salt fish croquettes, trini double, oxtail stew, goat curry, and the jerk chicken. The flavours were strong and spicy, which we loved.The oxtail stew was the stand out dish, the gravy littered with bits of meat and butter beans was so delicious when mixed with the rice and peas. The jerk chicken was amazing, it was very smokey and still juicy at the same time. All the mains came with plantains and side salad. I am actually surprised this place is so quiet because the food certainly is not ! Would've taken pictures but the food was so good we ate it all too quickly! Highly recommended.

We went there for my birthday which was exciting but unfortunately it wasn't as good as I'd hoped. I think management might have been missing, as the staff were all really young. (We asked if something was vegan and the staff member asked us what vegan meant, and rather than checking with the kitchen, she shrugged) I unfortunately did not receive any tempeh with the tempeh meal. We received our sides a long time after the mains. Everything was served lukewarm unfortunately. It's such a shame because I was really looking forward to it!

Delicious food and a friendly efficient service.

Have to admit I was worried about how hot the food would be, but was thrilled to have fragrant spiced food.

This restaurant is a hidden gem in Oxford. We went their by chance ( recommended to us by the kind bartender at a local pub) The food was outstanding, drink were amazing and the best was the wonderful host she was the best. Kind, attentive and always smiling. We didn’t have a reservation she accommodated us on a busy Friday night. The prawn and roti and goat curry were die for. No suprised they won so many awards 🏆 Thank you 🙏🏽 for an amazing food and for the great hospitality.

Thoroughly impressed with my entire experience. Delicious authentic Caribbean food bursting with flavour. The dishes were well balanced with the accompaniments correlating beautifully. The staff was Friendly, polite and attentive . The presentation was amazing!!

Fantastic food. It's really spicy, so you must like it. The kingfish was just too spicy (8 green chillies) but I guess it's subjective. The lamb chops were divine. I am a fun of tasty sauces. I had a great time. Service is very amateur, though. We had to keep calling for the server attention and got a few orders wrong. When the plates arrived, the starters one were still on the table so it was a bit of a mishap. Overall nice atmosphere.

I cant wait to return to this restaurant in Oxford- it serves up the best carribean food and rum. The jerk chicken was sensational. I will be back!

Food and flavours are amazing, mains are reasonably priced for what they are and starters and sides are very reasonable! Cocktails are also great - recommend the Trinidad sour - all in all a really chilled vibe and great place for dinner with mates or a date.

Beautiful Jerk chicken, and a variety of funky cocktails. Thank you very much, and keep up the great service!

The food here is absolutely delicious. I had the smoked baigan starter and ital roti main, both incredible, and I tried my friends' dishes too. My side of plantain was forgotten but I forgot about it too while eating because I was so engrossed with the food so I didn't mind. There's a really great vibe here, I'll definitely be back.

We called in without booking on a Saturday evening and were lucky that the restaurant was able to fit us in. I’m so glad they were. The food and service was excellent and to top it off it was cool on the hottest day of the year! We ate doubles and spring rolls followed by curry goat and lamb chops. The meat was beautifully spiced and cooked, with lots of flavour. I’d recommend the rum punch too. I would definitely return here and hope I do.

Excellent, authentic food, with a little kick. Outstanding value. Super customer service. Try the rum cake. No, really, it's amazing. Deserves every star.

Thoroughly enjoyable food and good service.

Amazing food, served with a quiet smile. Every dish we had was delicious. Thank you!

Excellent food with just as good service and drinks

Food was lovely and tasted home cooked. A great introduction for me into Carribbean cooking. However the experience was totally let down by the young wait staff. Please train these members of staff in how to act friendly towards customers. They were so blunt, never smiled or care checked us etc which made a bit of an awkward atmosphere every time they came over. It's a shame because we probably would've got another round of drinks or a dessert if the young waiting staff hadn't have treated us so rudely.

The curried goat was truly awful. If you cannot get a caribbean chef then take it off the menu.

The food is ok but the service is strange, feel like we are more of an annoyance for the waiters/cook there. They seem to be in a hurry to kick us out while the place is empty and an hour away from closing.....they try to collect our plates while we are still eating and offer us the bill while some of us are only half way through our main.

Lovely place really friendly staff the place was lovely and clean the food was like a piece of art on a plate and tasted wonderful 😊

Fantastic authentisch food! Personal was really friendly! Everything was perfect! See you again! ,,

On arrival, 8pm as booked, we were told the table wouldn't be ready for 10 minutes so would we like to grab a drink elsewhere and we would be phoned when it was ready. The call didn't come until gone 9pm, just as our rumbling stomachs couldn't wait much longer. Once seated, service continued to be slow. We ordered drinks, starters, mains and sides with no hesitation and yet another 30 minute delay awaited us. Now parched and ravenous, we were tortured by the tempting smell of our neighbouring table's dinner. By the way they tucked in with no hesitation, it appeared they had faced their own waiting game. So we settled in for a long evening. As the barman produced rum swizzle after rum swizzle, still no dark and stormys materialised for our table. Rum, rum everywhere but never a drop to drink. Desperation had just about set in when, now 9:40pm, the starters appeared. Delicious as expected, beautifully succulent king prawns and the best – if only – jerk spring rolls I've ever tasted. The mains followed swiftly – perhaps in part because the kitchen was due to close soon – and were similarly delicious. And yet, the delight of curry goat melting in one's mouth was undermined entirely by the wait. The restaurant emptied until we were one of two tables left; the waitress reluctantly handed over the dessert menu, looking anxiously at the time. It was a clear consensus: 'no dessert, just the bill please.' Naturally, she'd forgotten to take off the 'free' drinks we'd been promised as compensation. Once rectified, we paid the £45 for a simple menu of waiting for godot and left, too polite to express our frustration but with a 2 star review brewing... I'm loathe to give bad review but Spice Roots deserves to be taken down a peg or two – the 5 stars just wasn't representative of our spoilt evening.

Fab place to celebrate a special family birthday. Excellent food and atmosphere. Sometimes a bit difficult getting the attention of waiting staff as the place was getting very busy at the time. However, a superb night with lovely food full of flavour. If only the jerk chicken was available off-the-bone, I would have been in heaven. Please make your jerk chicken available as breast fillets!

Very tasty food. Friendly place too.

10/10 food loads of taste. Says they close 23, but they close at 22.

Easily the best Caribbean food we've ever had. Service was great, food was fresh and tasted amazing. This is definitely a hidden gem, very clean restaurant with a relaxed atmosphere. Will visit again and they should open more branches.

A terrific find in Oxford. Authentic Caribbean food, great vibes, good service and the flavors of the dishes were off the chart. We started with a smoked aubergine and tomato dip with flat bread. It was very good, and just the right tough on spiciness. For our mains we had king prawns with curried potatoes and chickpeas with a roti. This was a great dish but the star was the jerk chicken. Wow! A fantastic dish. If you are in Oxford, make a visit.

I have to give 1 star but I'd give zero for the service received numerous times trying to order food only for it to be cancelled leaving my belly mash up kmt

Had the jerk chicken and the Caribbean rum cake with rum and raisin ice cream ... OMG absolutely delicious 😋

This place is incredible! Friendly service and the most flavoursome food we've had in years. My husband is still talking about the jerk chicken. Great vegetarian/vegan options too. We tried both the non-alcoholic coolers and the rum punch - both delicious. Book ahead as it's not very big and we saw several groups turned away.

An amazing restaurant for both atmosphere and food. Staff incredibly friendly, food and cocktails were some of the best I've ever had. Will definitely revisit

What an amazing place, food was so delicious and the staff were wonderful to. Loved the rum punch🫶🏼

First time in a Caribbean restaurant, thought it was amazing. The jerk chicken spring rolls are very tasty, as was the jerked chicken with rice and beans. The Rum old fashioned drink also tasted really good. Give this place a try.

An absolute gem of a restaurant in Oxford, the most authentic Caribbean food I have had. Fresh and good quality ingredients, lovely cocktails, great vibes. You can’t get better value for money than here, it’s so worth the visit for all of this but on top of that the service is 5 star, our waiter was Canveer and he was brilliant - I look forward to our next trip here.

Amazing food, drinks and atmosphere. Brilliant and friendly service from Tanveer too 👏

Great place, definitely coming here again loving the vibe.

The food was excellent and the staff were lovely, a great place with a really good atmosphere. Thoroughly recommend this place.

Our meals were absolutely fresh and delicious loved it warm friendly service recommend

Absolutely excellent! One vegetarian, one gluten free vegan, two meat eaters, all catered for straight off the menu! Food was fantastic, such a treat to be able to go to one place that can cater for all in such an imaginative way. Mains, cocktails and dessert - all delicious. Would highly recommend and wish I lived nearer so that I can go back as often as I can.

Brilliant food, so tasty. Best jerk chicken I think I've had. Can't wait to come back and try some other things

Gorgeous food and great service!

+ve: good cocktails, quality food, ok service -ve: underflavoured curry goat, tasted like lamb stew. Way too sweet. Caribbean food can be quite sweet but OTT (trini doubles should not be sugary). Restaurant on Saturday night run entirely by teenagers, who were fine, but obviously inexperienced.

Got oxtail and Mac and cheese. Food was bussin.

A great little restaurant with a lovely atmosphere

THE BEST FOOD IN OXFORD!!! I’ve spent 4 years in Oxford and tried all the spots but this tops it. Food: consistently amazing, best jerk chicken I’ve had, the stews are also impeccable. Portion size great. Starters and desserts also very good. Drinks: fun and sophisticated cocktail list, very strong which I like! Vibes: super chill and fun. Cosy area with excellent music and interesting decor with nods to the Caribbean. Service is always very attentive and friendly. Homely family feel. YOU HAVE TO TRY IT

One of my favourite restaurants in Oxford. The food is absolutely amazing for very reasonably prices, and they have some great vegan options (but meat I hear is also great, particularly the jerk chicken). Great combinations of flavours. I love the trini doubles, the festivals and the jerk tempeh (although tempeh portion is a bit small). If you're feeling indulgent, should also definitely get the rum cake!

Good, hearty food, bit young staff. If they would get their tips, most likely they would be more motivated.

Some of the best food I’ve had in Oxford. Would recommend the kingfish especially.

Absolutely loved it! Great quality, friendly staff and cosy atmosphere. I recommend to try the cocktails, delicious!

Jerk Chicken, rice and peas, mac and cheese and a rum punch. So flavourful. Lovely presentation.

Beautiful food, punchy cocktails and great staff - thank you!

Had a lovely meal with four friends; So we ordered th five different starters; all were good; prawns favourite. Can recommend the lamb chops, king fish and goat curry mains! Food was delicious and service very friendly. We’ll worth the ten minutes walk out from high street

Ordered the vegan starters and the vegan main. The roti with the starter was stale but everything else tasted great.

Incredible food. From the moment we walked in it smelt amazing and the food was delicious. We had both vegetarian starters and mains and they were superb. The rum cake and rum and raisin ice cream was delicious and the banana bread was too. Great price, great service, would heartily recommend!

Fantastic Caribbean food, lovely staff, superb cocktails, great ambience. What more could you want? I would absolutely recommend Spiced Roots.

One of the most delicious restaurants I've ever eaten in the whole UK. Yes, that much tasty! We've been talking about it non-stop since the day we ate there. Big portions, tasty food - melting in your mouth. Nice small restaurant, friendly staff. Not overrated...

One of the most delicious restaurants I've ever eaten in the whole UK. Yes, that much tasty! We've been talking about it non-stop since the day we ate there. Big portions, tasty food - melting in your mouth. Nice small restaurant, friendly staff. Not overrated prices. Perfect.

Best restaurant I’ve been to in Oxford in recent years

Great music, great ambience, good food, poor service! Was really excited to try this independent Caribbean restaurant, seen the reviews and food photos and thought it would be a nice place. Overall the food keeps the tradition and flavours are nice and balanced. The lamb...