The former Jamie’s Italian on Oxford’s George Street has a very different look these days. Megan’s by the Spires has brought Eastern Mediterranean-inspired food, colourful interiors and a basement entertainment space to the familiar city-centre address.
The restaurant opened on 17 August 2026, and we accepted an invitation to try its evening menu. What followed was a relaxed dinner, a sharing tray that proved more than a match for two diners and, somehow, enough room for dessert.
We visited at the restaurant’s invitation.
A colourful makeover, upstairs and down
The décor makes an immediate impression. Quirky, playful and with a distinctly Moroccan feel, the interior is a substantial departure from the building’s previous life. It is striking without making the experience feel formal, and we found it an easy place to settle into for the evening.
Megan’s welcomes dogs and laptop users, and serves food from breakfast through to dinner. That gives it a role beyond the evening meal, whether visitors are stopping for coffee, meeting over brunch or making a longer occasion of it.
Downstairs, the basement takes things in a different direction. A disco ball and pink flamingos set the scene for an entertainment space that is also available for private events, including birthdays, graduations, networking and private dining.
The restaurant’s published Megan’s After Dark programme advertises live music and DJ sets on Friday and Saturday evenings from 6pm, with the bar open until midnight. That is a separate side of the venue from the dinner we came to review, but worth knowing about when choosing an evening to visit.
What we ate: Megan’s Mezze Tray
There are separate breakfast, brunch and lunch, evening and dessert menus, alongside a children’s menu. For our visit, we chose the Megan’s Mezze Tray for two, priced at £23.50 per person, or £47 for the sharing dish.
It arrived with an arayes burger, spiced lamb and beef kofte, chargrilled chicken, sucuk and chilli chicken shakshouka. Alongside the meat were tabbouleh, za’atar house fries, padrón peppers, pickles and flatbread, with garlic yoghurt, piri piri and date barbecue sauces.
It is a broad selection rather than a token assortment of small bites, and the combination of meat, bread, vegetables and sauces gives you plenty to work through. We also ordered a side of Turkish chorizo, although, with hindsight, we could comfortably have left the extras alone.
We thoroughly enjoyed the food. The other talking point was the quantity: this was a substantial meal for two, and despite our best efforts, we could not finish it.
For anyone considering the same order, our advice would be to see the tray before adding more dishes. There is already a great deal on it, particularly when dessert is part of the plan.
Somehow, there was room for cookie dough
Having admitted defeat on the main course, we did what apparently well-fed diners sometimes do and found a little extra capacity when the dessert menu arrived.
We shared the half-baked cookie dough with Nutella, pistachios and ice cream, priced at £11.90. The menu asks: “Did you even go to Megan’s if you didn’t order the cookie dough?”
It is a confident sales pitch, but this was a pudding we were glad to have tried. Sharing it also felt like the sensible option after the mezze tray, even if ordering dessert at all suggested our judgement on portion sizes had not entirely improved.
At the listed prices, the tray and shared pudding total £58.90 for two, before the additional side, drinks and service. The evening menu lists a discretionary service charge of 12.5%.
There were pleasing details beyond the food, too. Our beer arrived in frozen glasses, a small touch, but one we appreciated during an evening that felt relaxed and enjoyable.
At a glance: visiting Megan’s by the Spires
| Address | 24–26 George Street, Oxford, OX1 2AE |
| Food | Eastern Mediterranean-inspired breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner, with separate dessert and children’s menus |
| Monday opening | 8.30am to 10pm |
| Tuesday and Wednesday opening | 8.30am to 11pm |
| Thursday to Saturday opening | 8.30am to midnight |
| Sunday opening | 9am to 9pm |
| Dogs | Well-behaved dogs are welcome inside |
| Payment | Cashless. Megan’s says it accepts card payments but not American Express. |
| Telephone | 01865 506151 |
| Menus | View the Oxford restaurant’s menus |
These are the venue’s published opening hours, not confirmed last food-order times. Check with the restaurant when planning a late meal.
Megan’s lists vegetarian and vegan choices, highchairs and baby-changing facilities. Discuss allergies and any access requirements with the team before visiting, particularly when booking a downstairs event.
Walk-ins are accepted subject to availability. For a particular dining time, check the online booking calendar.
The verdict
Megan’s by the Spires gave us an enjoyable evening built around generous sharing food and a setting with plenty of personality. The makeover is striking, but it was the combination of a laid-back atmosphere, an enjoyable meal and those smaller touches that left us wanting to return.
Our main lesson was about ordering rather than anything missing from the experience: the mezze tray needs less help from extra sides than we imagined. Next time, we would leave a little more room for the cookie dough.
For table bookings and the latest restaurant information, visit Megan’s by the Spires. Further information about the restaurant group is available at megans.co.uk.
