Worth every calorie
This adorable bakery, just off the town square, boasts giant croissants, great coffee, and pastries that will delight your senses. Try the broiche, fruit danish, and other offerings.    [11 Feb 2003 17:24:49]

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Recommended Dishes: Croissants with butter

     ­Jane Varner, Arkansas State University   razzie5 at hotmail dot com

Times Change
Used to enjoy the breads here, but not anymore. Obviously the baker has moved, and it's just not the same. So disappointing.    [12 Feb 2003 17:44:09]

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     ­Linda... Tupelo,MS   

We love this place! The apple pie is great! It was featured on Oprah as the best pie in the country.    [19 Jul 2003 11:53:16]

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     ­Anonymous   

Unbelievable pastries!
Great atmosphere in a bakery just off the most charming town square I've ever seen. But it's not just for looks--the food here is outstanding. Good coffee, unbelievable pastries and croissants, and an apple pie that defies words!    [29 Jul 2003 17:41:00]

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Recommended Dishes: Apple pie, brioche, danishes, sourdough bread

     ­Greg...Madison, WI   

Like no other
I've been to NYC and back and can't find a bakery like it. Best coffee, food, people, and atmosphere. Original owner is still intact and the bakers are the best.    [06 Aug 2006 00:07:07]

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Recommended Dishes: Cinnamon roll, granola with fruit, Delta with Chicken salad

     ­Anonymous, Oxford, MS   

Coffee, Food, & Deserts
1. Their coffee is probably the best I've had anywhere.
2. They have a sandwich called the "Trailblazer" and it is amazing. I am a big fan of good roast beef sandwiches and this might be the best I've had anywhere in this country; seriously, its amazing.
3. I don't have a big sweet tooth so I usually steer away from the pastries and desserts, but the few that I have tried were very good and I see people buy them all the time.    [31 Jul 2007 14:14:15]

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Recommended Dishes: Coffee, The Trailblazer

     ­Anonymous   

Light meals that will lighten your wallet
Bottletree Bakery has had some good press in the past; Oprah Winfrey picked Bottletree as one of the places for pie in the US for their creative ribbon apple pie. With the good reviews here, I thought it would be worth trying on my next trip to Oxford.

The bakery is located just off Oxford's town square on Van Buren street. It's a narrow one-way with scarce parking, so you may need to park on another block during lunch time.

The decór is folk-art cool. A Stevie Wonder portrait is on one wall, a vintage Tom's snack machine stands against another. The wooden tables have unique sand-filled bottles to hold up the menus.

The eclectic menu features several different coffees, soup, sandwiches, pastries and baked goods.

On this visit, I tried the Bottletree Club ($7.90). It features smoked ham and turkey, bacon, lettuce, tomato, mayo and dijon mustard. Another dining partner chose The Delta ($8.50) with chicken salad, and the third followed in my footsteps with the club, minus cheese.

In short order our food was delivered, but my club was identical my partners, with no cheese. A small oversight but certainly not a big deal. The baguette was soft and chewy. The meats tasted fresh and the bacon, crispy. I liked that the baguette wasn't too large; the amount of bread was well proportioned to the filling. Otherwise, it wasn't anything special. They mayo and dijon were rather sparsely layered onto the sandwich, making it slightly dry tasting. In fact for a while, I didn't think it had any condiments on it at all.

The Delta's croissant was very well received, but the chicken salad was noted as being too bland. The diner noted it could use some sweet pickles to give it more flavor and texture.

Side orders with sandwiches include potato salad and regular or barbeque potato chips. The potato salad is unlike any traditional ones I've tried; it has big chunks of browned potatoes with a thinner mixture of spices and seaonings. I couldn't quite pin what the exact flavorings were. Unusual, but tasteful.

No one in my party drinks coffees, so we tried the sweet tea. It was good and sweet like southern sweet tea should be, but not too strong, either. Very good.

The only negative part of the meal was discovering that this party of three's "sandwich lunch" set us back over $33 before tip. Had we gotten coffee and desserts it would have been close to $40. That's an awful lot for lunch at a bakery and café!

If you are looking to save money, lighter fare (scones, danish, bagels, granola) are aplenty.

Although the ambience is nice and the food is certainly good, it was a little pricey for my blood. Perhaps in the future I can give their desserts a shot, but it will be a while before I have the money.    [31 Jul 2007 19:04:58]

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Recommended Dishes: Croissants

     ­Tom Servo, ChefMoz - MS editor   

Renowned for its poor service
Bottletree has great food but absolutely horrible service. You can almost go behind the counter and get it yourself, because you'll be waiting a very long time otherwise.    [19 Sep 2007 18:19:18]

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     ­Anonymous   

I gave up and left
I'm happy for everybody else who has commented here and got to enjoy their food because I have never, ever been waited on at Bottletree. It would happen to me again and again, and I would tell myself I'd never go back, only to feel optimistic one day and be disappointed again. Let me point out that they were busy but never overwhelmed with customers any of the times I was there. I used to think it was something about me, but I have found this to be the case for several other nice, normal people, so I feel better. Are they proud of having this reputation? If anybody has suggestions on what makes a person "worthy" of attention at Bottletree, please let us know. Not that I'll be going back, I'm just curious.    [15 Jan 2008 15:26:35]

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     ­Tammy   

I'll never go back
If you enjoy plastic in your sandwich and dining with the employees while they all seem to take their lunch break at the same time, forgetting they have a job to serve you, then dine in at Bottletree. Oh, and when you inform the waitress and manager of the foreign objects you were able to enjoy with your meal, you should be pleased to know that they will handle the situation in the most unprofessional, rude way I have ever experienced. They claim that "tips bring about good karma." Well, I'm sorry to say that in my opinion, karma's a b*tch when you're treated inappropriately as a customer because the employees WERE WRONG.    [23 Apr 2008 16:09:08]

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Recommended Dishes: Trailblazer with plastic

     ­Anonymous