Oxford Arms: The Best Place to Spend an Evening in London, Ontario

When you walk into the Oxford Arms Pub in London, Ontario, you can't help but feel at home. This bustling bar and restaurant is rarely empty, and you can find good food, wonderful wait staff brimming with great stories, and excellent management waiting to hear how you're enjoying your time there. When there's a hockey or soccer game going on, you can be sure that it will be showing at the Oxford Arms-- the Canadian pasttime of hockey is honored side by side with the English pasttime of soccer, a merging of cultures indicative of the pub's British and Canadian owners.

If you've never really understood the meaning of the phrase "service with a smile," a dinner and drink at the Oxford Arms can remedy this. The youthful staff is never short or impatient, even on the busiest nights, and they will go out of their way to make conversation with the clientele whenever the chance permits. Perhaps the truest testimony to the quality of this establishment is the fact that this is where the staff go on their days off; you can often find them scheduling nights off so that they can participate in Tuesday night trivia or sit and enjoy a band brought in for special events.

This five-room establishment offers plenty of options in terms of seating and comfort. Two rooms tout fireplaces, perfect for keeping warm during chilly Canadian winters, and the bar space is broken into another two rooms, seperated by framing but not doors, as the entire space is quite open. From time to time the cook will serve up snacks for the patrons, and the food is of such quality that they're usually gone pretty quickly. You could spend all day at the Oxford Arms, sitting and working on projects or reading, or even just chatting with the regular customers, who are generally of the well-educated variety and are diverse in both their cultures and their backgrounds.

The Oxford Arms, which employs a full-time chef and another 1-2 part-time chefs at any given time, offers a wide array of dishes to choose from. There are plenty of vegetarian options if that's your fare, and several options could be made to accommodate other, stricter dietary regimen. From side dishes like the chips with malt vinegar to stuffed jalepenos to truly standard entrees like pot roast and fish and chips, Oxford Arms prides itself on carrying all the best of English cuisine, not unlike its namesake in (where else?) Oxford, England, where one of the pub's proprietors originates.

The sandwiches are all very solid selections, and the entrees themselves offer considerable portion sizes at prices quite reasonable given their quality and the quantity of food. While the stuffed jalepenos are perhaps a good deal too ripe by the time they make it to Canada and should be avoided by Mexican food afficionados, it is hard to find better fish and chips on the North American continent.

The bar also offers a wide variety of beers and liquor, from the Scottish Strongbow Ale and Belhaven Lager to the ever mystical absinthe. Expect to enjoy your beverages at the Oxford Arms; all of the staff is well-versed in their craft and they can help you to pick the right ale or the perfect concoction to suit your personal tastes.

The only thing that one really needs to worry about when visiting the Oxford Arms Pub is the steps outside. Under winter's icy conditions, they can be quite slippery when iced over. Since this seems to be true of a good deal of London in the winter, it appears that the best place to be in the middle of a storm is at your favorite pub, cavorting with staff and clientele alike and enjoying the best that the chillier season has to offer-- good food, good friends, and an environment so comfortable and relaxing, you'll wish you could take it home with you.