You’ve got to love Tap Social, because when they do something they do it properly.
Not content with their sites in Oxford, Kennington, Botley, Banbury and Kidlington, in various incarnations from breweries to bars, cafes and bakeries, they combine them all in one and bring us Day Release at Milton Park near Didcot.
And yes it’s a science, business, and technology park, but firstly it’s huge, secondly Tap revel in unusual and unusual locations, thirdly it’s just off the Didcot interchange ,and last but not least it boasts Signal Yard – a burgeoning centre of independent restaurants, cafes and businesses with new companies joining the band wagon all the time, ensuring a thriving hub for all and sundry.
Day Release is the icing on the cake
Day Release is the icing on the cake, a huge, stylish, welcoming and contemporary space which had people queueing out the door when we visited on a weekday lunchtime.
The all-day café, bar, wood-fired pizza kitchen, artisan bakery, and brewing school are combined under one roof, but more than that it’s beautifully designed for indoors, outdoors, take aways and those who want to take their time.
if you want to nip ion for a quick sandwich or a coffee and homemade pastry, Bob’s your uncle
So if you want to nip ion for a quick sandwich or a coffee and homemade pastry, Bob’s your uncle, but should you, like us, want to enjoy Day Release’s full culinary capacity than nab a table downstairs or up and take it all in.
The onsite pizza ovens are an obvious draw, but the sit down menu includes lots of other enticing options from breakfast baps to toasties, salads, small plates and desserts, and we literally wanted everything on the menu.
The onsite pizza ovens are an obvious draw, but the sit down menu includes lots of other enticing options
Luckily there were four of us for lunch and we made pretty good inroads, kicking off with iced coffees and a Tap pilsner, and some starting plates – the sausage roll with seasonal chutney (£5.50) which was a meal in itself, the pastry glossy, the dense meat flavoured with fennel
The freshly baked breadsticks with lemon and oregano hummus (£6) was another favourite, the twisted dough wands dunked with relish in the rich, oily, herbed dip until it disappeared, and a panzanella salad (£12) the bread croutons (rather than soaked) mixed with some sterling tomatoes, Nocellara green olives, chives and a balsamic dressing, the ingredients speaking for themselves.
Then a toastie – mature English cheddar and red onion (£5.75), nicely ridged and crispy, if rather lacking in filling. But then the pizzas arrived diverting all our attention, the Margie – San Marzano tomato sauce, fior di latte, oregano, parmesan and basil (£12.50), the bada bing! – the same except with Italian sausage, crispy onions and a garlic butter crust (£15) and the pinello pie – lemon ricotta, Tap Social beer braised onions, sesame seeds, oregano and smoked bacon (£14).
The latter was truly original, sounding sweet and obviously lacking the favoured tomato sauce, and yet it sang, the creamy savoury lemon blanched with crispy bacon bits and layered with rich French onion style soft rings packing in the flavour.
But the bada bing had it all going on, and vanished in a trice, that extra garlic hit proving impossible to resist.
The counter downstairs was groaning with sandwiches and we had to try one, the Ruby (£7.50) a heady combination of pastrami, Emmental, mustard, pickles, sauerkraut and lettuce, the sub bun light but dense, the filling so moreish we fought over the last crumb.
The counter downstairs was groaning with sandwiches
We should have called it a day there and then, but the desserts beckoned; the tiramisu converting even me, more spongey then the usual creamy concoction the coffee seeping through the flaky layers, casually magnificent.
And as for the double chocolate brownie, I’ll take my hat off right here because it knocked us for six, managing to encapsulate that real dense, chcolately flavour without losing the texture of a crumbly brownie.
Even the ice creams and sorbets hit the spot, the raspberry ripple elegant and delicate while the strawberry packed a punch.
we can’t wait to go back
The queues had abated by the time we stumbled out into the car park clutching our bellies, the lovely GM Jules sending us packing with the scant few slices of pizza left in a takeaway box as we vowed never to eat again.
But writing this up just a day later, my stomach is already rumbling and we can’t wait to go back.
Day Release is slick, funky, enterprising and delivers exactly what people want, hence its immediate popularity. So if you live anywhere nearby, or are passing on the A34, nip off, get in and enjoy, because regardless of anything else Tap Social‘s incredible work to rehabilitate prisoners and reduce offending, is wrapped up in a mightily impressive package and we literally can’t fault it. Take a bow.
Day Release is at 6 Signal Yard, Milton Park, Oxfordshire https://www.tapsocialmovement.com/pages/dayrelease
