:::: G & D's Ice Cream Cafe

While tourists from the world over come to Oxford to admire the magnificent quads, listen to the college choirs and photograph eccentric dons dashing about in red cloaks, few realise that the true attraction of Oxford for much of its academic community is an amazing ice-cream joint on trendy Little Clarendon Street.

George and Davis has now been around for over a decade in Oxford and has become something of an institution. On a sunny May day, you can see an animated tutorial in one corner, a group of teenage European tourists giggling in the other, and a tired graduate student wearily sipping a hot chocolate by the window after an all-nighter. Late nights see everything from rowdy first year students trying to fight off hangovers with massive sundaes, and serious middle-aged couples sneaking away half-liter ice-cream packs for guilty late-night snacks.

G&Ds (as it is affectionately called by its devotees) is funkily decorated, with huge cows painted on the walls, comfy chairs in one corner, and minimalist wooden stools scattered around the rest of the small shop. A huge notice board at the entrance announces an eclectic selection of plays, films and music gigs in the area, while a pile of newspapers are scattered at the back for those wanting to while away a lazy afternoon. A large board at one end has the "Quiz of the Day" - a "Trivial Pursuit" kind-of-question, which entitles the winner to a free scoop of any ice-cream!

A Petition Chart allows customers to choose their favourite new ice-creams, which are served for a week once 25 people sign a petition; latest Petition flavours included "lemon and lime" sorbet and rhubarb crumble. But the key attraction is obviously the magnificent ice-cream itself: rich and incredibly creamy. The most amazing ice-cream is the criminally intense Super Chocolate, a luscious velvety ice-cream made with dark Belgian chocolate.

Also stunning are the passion-fruit sorbet (with just the right degree of tanginess) and the mango sorbet, which for once tastes of real South Asian mangoes rather than the generic bottled Sunny-Delight-style flavouring. Other classic G&Ds flavours include the Mars Delight (made with melted nougat and toffee), the Wadham Ball (with Maltesers), and the After Eight (made with crushed mint chocolates and vanilla ice-cream).

Also served are a wonderful array of pizza bagels (cheese, tomatoes and various toppings melted on a toasted sesame bagel), melt-in-the-mouth chocolate chip cookies and moist, fudgy chocolate brownies.

True ice-cream connoisseurs quickly learn to ignore the ivory towers of Oxford University: for those with a real sense of taste the ultimate Oxford destination must surely be G&Ds !