Queens Lane Coffee House

I’m having a Bailey’s Latte with Bake potato with vegetarian chilli and cheese in one of England’s oldest coffee house.

Nice spot for a casual meal and a coffee… It has a lot of history and you can see it in the setting and the inside of the restaurant.
Tried the omelette over chips, and it was a large affair of at least 3 eggs and many chips to accopmany it. The avocado came on the side as the insides of the omelette are reserved for protein (ham etc)… Still very tasty. Coffee was strong and the chickpeas as a side were phenomenal. Fresh, crunchy and in just the right amount of tomato! I did go back and tried the curry chicken melt, a variant of the tuna melt — not necessary, as the cheese drowned out the deliciously simple but tasty curry.
Nice easy going service and casual dining. Good for a visit or many more.

A cozy place with a really nice baileys latte and cream cheese bagel. My friend ordered the jumbo breakfast and the portion is really big it is enough for you to skip lunch.

I was very disappointed in the food here. I ordered the Full English breakfast, and was served a gigantic place filled with beans. The juice from the beans was essentially a soup in which my toast, eggs, bacon, mushrooms, and potatoes were swimming. Quite disappointing. Nothing about the breakfast was redeemable. I then ordered a special hot chocolate, with banana and whipped cream, and was disappointed. It was very bitter and the whipped cream was fairly unpleasant.
Overall, it was a very disappointing experience. Especially considering the quality of other brunch/​breakfast/​tea/​coffee options in Oxford, I won’t be coming back here.

Totally solid for breakfast or lunch — loooved the vegetarian breakfast (but I’m a sucker for baked beans) and my mom said the mushy peas brought her back to her childhood in Ireland. Mellow atmosphere, slow service, and the wait staff has to buzz you into the bathroom which is a bit strange.

Love this place, always stopped by in the mornings since it’s right around the corner from New College where I stayed. Wouldn’t say it’s pricey by any stretch compared to some other places in Oxford .Can’t say anything about lunch there but I’ve always enjoyed my breakfast. I don’t need fireworks with my food so I was happy… but like the other review said. service is ridiculously slow so makes for a good place to hang out and kill some time for whatever reason.

C’est peut être la plus vielle house coffee du royaume uni mais leur snacks salé né sont pas top. Les gâteaux paraissent appétissant mais je né peux le confirmer n’y ayant pas gouté.
Le bar en lui même n’est pas pire mais je pense qu’il y a beaucoup plus sympa à découvrir à Oxford. Je dirais que la salle est banale.
Les prix sont dans la moyenne basse (si je peux dire) d’Oxford.

The Queen’s Lane Coffee House claims to be the oldest coffee house in Europe. I’m not sure that the building that houses it can be that old, but perhaps there has been a coffee house on the premises for longer than the building has been standing.
While I can heartily recommend their excellent scrambled egg on toast, the menu is somewhat overpriced considering that it is pretty standard sandwich/​tea shop fare (£4.50 for a fairly ordinary ciabatta is pushing it a bit). You do get table service, but it can be a little sporadic at busy times of day, and although the waiting staff are friendly and helpful, errors in orders are more frequent than they should be. It is very touristy and tends to be packed all day at weekends and lunchtimes throughout the week.
Oh, also, despite what the menu may tell you, they do take credit cards, so don’t do what I did and walk half way up the High Street to get some cash, only to return and see someone paying with a card.
I guess it’s a good spot for a cream tea, but there are quieter and more interesting places in Oxford to have lunch.

allegedly, the queens lane coffee house is the oldest coffee shop in europe. i was going to knock it for its terrible service AND its absurdly high prices but now that a 5 GBP breakfast is about 6 USD, i’m going to say the prices are pretty reasonable. if you’re looking for some fancy high tea, head to the grand café across the road, but if you feel like getting a solid english breakfast (which is slightly less greasy than the neighbouring st. giles café) and shooting the shit with your friends for a couple hours, it’ll take the eastern european waitresses about that long to get you your bill, so queens lane is your place. :sigh: i could really go for a legit cumberland sausage right now.

oxford is known for its quaint coffee shops but to be honest your more likely to find starbucks and costa than original shops. this place is a real gem, it serves REAL fresh food and monster sized jacket potatoes, good for vegetarians but can get very busy so be warned

I’d cycled past this so many times and always thought it was really traditional and therefore overpriced and touristy. When I finally went in I was pleasantly surprised.
First things first: it’s not hugely traditional. If you want proper, old-​fashioned English afternoon tea with scones and sarnies, try the Grand Café across the road. However, for a pleasant café with a good selection of cakes, this does the job.
The tables are really small so good luck fitting everything on! There’s also not much room for big groups, so it’s more a place for intimate conversation or to go on your own. There’s a magazine rack, although most magazines seem to be aimed at men, which is a bit annoying.
The food and drink costs as much as you would expect it to. My partner had a cream tea which was about £3.50. The scones had no fruit in, which I think is great as I don’t like it, but he was disappointed. The portions of jam and cream are also quite small, but there aren’t many places doing cream tea in Oxford, so it might be the best you can get. I had a fruit smoothie which was really good — very fruity, ice cold and really tasty. Mind you, so it should be at nearly £3. I was torn between the excellent selection of cakes, but there’s a counter where you can look at them all, so I eventually chose the hot fudge brownie, which was delicious. The bill was under £10 — quite a lot for afternoon tea, but we stayed in there a long time and weren’t rushed, and I was certainly full when I left!

This place is quite nice, but I do think that it’s a bit overrated. The coffee is fairly good and the sandwiches are great. However, I find that it’s always very busy in here and there’s not a great deal of room. It’s also quite expensive — it claims to be the oldest coffee shop in Oxford and I think the first in the UK, but so does the Grand Café across the road!
Beware of this if you’re a tourist — there are better places to have lunch, don’t be fooled by its claims. A bit expensive for students too.
The service is quite efficient but I always find it a little snooty.
A nice place to take your family if they’re keen to see Oxford as you can walk down the High Street and see a good handful of the colleges.