Gee's up

Fresh crab and avocado salad with a garlic and brown shrimp dressing, £5.95

Sea trout cured in horseradish with mixed leaves and a celeriac remoulade, £5.95

Confit of duck and Puy lentil salad with a hazelnut and orange dressing, £5.45

New season lambs' liver chargrilled with colcannon and a chorizo and thyme sauce, £10.95

Grilled fillet of Scotch beef with field mushrooms, caramelised onions and a home-made red wine mustard, £16.75

Roast aubergine and courgette galette with taleggio and coriander pesto, £9.85

Coffee panna cotta with roasted plums and grappa, £4.85

Steamed marmalade sponge with vanilla custard, £4.95

Passion fruit tart with tamarillo sauce, £4.95

ASPARAGUS features prominently on the present menu at Gee's restaurant in Oxford, where head chef Michael Wright took charge of the nine-strong kitchen brigade earlier this year. "I like to make the most of what's available, so my menus tend to be quite seasonal," he says.

Wright uses English asparagus and it has appeared in the soup of the day - asparagus and minted pea soup (£3.95) - and as an accompaniment to seared king scallops along with baby spinach and parsley gremolata (£7.20), one of the most popular of the 11 starters.

On returning to the 75-seat restaurant, where he worked as sous chef before leaving for Australia in 1996, Wright brought back new ideas that now influence his cooking. "I kept the backbone of the menu but I've modernised it," he explains. It includes a variation on moules mariniäres in which coriander, saffron and chilli are added to mussels and cream to give a Thai influence (£5.95).

Wright's personal favourite among the 13 or so main courses on offer is a pan-fried duck breast served with aubergine - chargrilled for a smoked flavour and finished with olive oil, garlic and tahini - and polenta, which has been pan-fried with the duck to give it more flavour and a crispy texture. "The smoked aubergine is a Lebanese dish I picked up in Australia," explains Wright.

It was in Australia that Wright developed a love of working with the freshest of produce, particularly when it comes to fish, the chief component of one-third of the main dishes. In addition to such dishes as roast cod fillet with a chickpea purée and tomato dressing (£13.75), there is also a fresh fish of the day priced at around £13-£14, such as a chunky mako shark steak, chargrilled and served with couscous and a home-made onion and mustard relish (£13.25).

Saffron appears again in the dessert section, which usually consists of five or six choices priced from £4.45 to £5.95. It is used with orange juice for poaching pears, which are then served with vanilla ice-cream and pistachio nuts (£4.95).

May and June are the busiest months, with 50 covers served at lunchtime by a front of house team consisting of nine waiters, two assistant managers and general manager Mark Tutton, with an average spend per head of £12. The lunch menu is a smaller version of the à la carte, and there is a set menu priced at £7.50 for two courses which is proving very popular. Up to 100 covers are served in the evening, when average spend is £30-£35 per head including wine, but this is surpassed on Saturday evenings and Sunday lunchtimes when 130-140 covers are more usual. n

Gee's Restaurant, 61 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6PE. Tel: 01865 553540