American-style BBQ is about dedication. It is about the right cut of meat and the hours of preparation that goes into it before it reaches the plate. And tucked away between Iffley Road and Cowley Road is the Oxford Blue Smokehouse (complete with smoker in its garden area). It is the perfect destination for any meat lover, complete with a welcoming atmosphere and a selection of 50s & 60s era songs that were fabulous.

Portions range from the approachable to the excessive. As it was a Saturday lunchtime we resisted the call of The Big Smoke Platter (two kinds of ribs, brisket, pulled pork, sausages, burnt ends AND honey roasted chicken... wow) and instead plumped for a combo each. My partner picked a quarter chicken, Jacob's Ladder (beef ribs), and pulled pork with a side of burnt ends (chunks of brisket meat), while I picked beef brisket, pulled pork and burnt ends with a side of Mac & cheese. I am a firm believer that all BBQs are only perfected with the addition of Mac & cheese! We complemented our orders with a diet coke for my wife and a mint Aero milkshake (there are a range of chocolate flavours to pick from).

When our food arrived it was quickly apparent we had picked very good items from the menu. The chicken was noticeably juicy and flavoursome while the pulled pork was a very good example of an ever-so-popular dish. While the Jacob's Ladder didn't quite cause my wife to forgo her love for baby back ribs, the burnt ends got an appreciative exclamation of "huge!" and were delicious, hefty chunks of meat. Her one improvement would be the BBQ sauce out on the table as a condiment; surely a compliment for the sauce itself. As for my meal, the brisket was delicious, tender and easy to pull apart (proof of dedication to the BBQ-ing process), while the pulled pork and, in particular, the burnt ends, were great accomplishments. And the Mac & Cheese was a very tasty side, affirming my belief in its importance. Overall our mains were delicious, served in portion sizes that almost defeated us. Yet we found room for a pudding...

And there are a number of tasty options in this department. I went for the Oreo cheesecake, while my co-eater went for a Daim ice cream sundae. The cheesecake was tasty and surprisingly light for a cheesecake, which was much appreciated. The ice cream sundae was appreciated by both my wife and our young daughter, complete with hefty chunks of chocolate amongst the ice cream and sauce.

The food at Oxford Blue Smokehouse is great, with the menu promising food for many subsequent trips. The staff are polite and friendly, but it felt understaffed, particularly when it came to paying our bill (as there were a number of other diners with requests and orders). I also managed to learn about the lovely floor tiles in the men's bathroom as this was where I had to change our daughter's nappy. This was due to a lack of any baby change facilities, as well as no disabled toilets. Certainly a necessity that feels missing from this establishment. Still the food and atmosphere won the day and it is a restaurant I will definitely return to.

The Oxford Blue Smokehouse is the newest meat joint in the Cowley area. The owners – who also run a smokehouse in Witney – have recently expanded into Oxford, taking the place of the old Oxford Blue pub (a canonical institution that had sadly fallen into disrepair.)

The outside is bright and pleasing, lighting up Marston St like a blue and white beacon.

We walk in and are surrounded by pig. Pigs on the wall. Pigs both in and on the menu. The party line is clear: we do meat here. (Even the wine list is divided into little stencils of animals; white in a chicken, red in a cow, etc).

The effusion of the meat decór is notable but not necessarily overboard. In fact, it nicely complements the historical heritage of a southern American cuisine. Especially concerning pigs. For the eighteenth and nineteenth century American family, salted pig was a necessity, providing perhaps the only meat over long cold winters. Farmers developed their own secret recipes for salting and curing, compiled of particular variants of honey, molasses, sugar, charcoal, mustard, etc. This proliferation of pig was such that it became a joke in its own time. One 'Dr. John S. Wilson', for example, wonderfully remarked that; "The United States may more properly be called the Great Hog Eating Confederacy or The Republic of Porkdom" [1]

Fantastic renaming of the U.S. aside, the layout of the Oxford Blue Smokehouse does support its claims to American authenticity. The interior is set out like a traditional diner; all the lager and beer is American brands, there are bison horns and vintage Sailor Jerry's ads placed artfully next to the pig pictures.

For a mid-week evening, the restaurant is reasonably full. There are a few meanderers at the bar, with probably half the tables filled. We sit by the door (I've found the periphery the best place to watch the secret inners of the working world). The staff are friendly and accommodating - one of the party has a nut allergy, and they're more than happy to cater for this, double checking each dish.

Tables are of a decent size (a note important but often overlooked), and well-spaced. We note in trepidation the excessive amount of napkins on the table. The menu itself is satisfactorily dispersed. The majority of white space is given to the mains, and as name may suggest, the Smokehouse uses a custom made wood smoker for the meat.

For those vegetarian smokehouse goers, there is both vegetarian chilli and burger on offer, as well as a good selection of starters (fries, potato skins, mac and cheese, nachos). In terms of health/weight watching, there is regrettably no vegetarian salad. Though, to be fair, the only salad on the menu contains avocado, bacon and chicken (with ranch dressing). It seems pretty self-explanatory: the Smokehouse is not a place to head on a diet.

To start, we order BBQ chicken wings with sour cream, and corn on the cob with chilli butter. For mains, the 'combo' of 1/4 chicken, Jacob's Ladder and Pulled Pork, and the Homemade Veggie Chilli, with beetroot, mushroom and aubergine and homemade nachos and tomato rice. To drink, a bottle of white wine - even though it's placed on the fish - because sometimes you just have to rebel against zoological taxonomy.

The presentation of the food is in keeping with the classic diner trope; small bite-size pieces of corn, flecked with chilli, set in a traditional white and blue enamel bowl. The chicken wings arrive dripping in sauce. The number of napkins begins to look reasonable.

The reality does not disappoint; the wings are hot and spicy, and an absolute nightmare to eat attractively (precisely how it should be). The corn is a slight disappointment. The only vegetable in sight, they're smothered in butter and only vaguely spicy . With the general acceptance of an artery-loading comradery on entry, I regret not plumping for the cream cheese stuffed jalapeños. The biggest problem, however, is that I am already starting to feel full.

Our mains arrive.

The 'combo' is a behemoth; served again in the classic enamel baking dish. The quarter chicken is, as my friend frankly puts it, "a lot of chicken". Coupled with the Jacob's Ladder, and pulled pork, it is the type of meal that requires a non-starter, non-pudding temperament. Sadly (or maybe gladly) we plan on having both, so we get to test the restaurant's doggie bag etiquette (they are more than happy to help).

In keeping with the heritage of the Southern pig, the pulled pork is the best thing on the plate (perhaps the work of the custom woodsmoker). The quarter/half/whole chicken is fine, but nothing particularly special. Jacob's Ladder, though deliciously succulent looking, does not quite live up to the look. Both the sides - coleslaw and sweet potato fries - are great.

The vegetarian chilli is steaming hot. I suspect that the kitchen have fallen foul of the credo that one can simply replace meat with spice, but that is still far better than the often-found tasteless counterpart (replacing meat with nothing whatsoever). The home-made nachos are huge and very exciting. Together with the chilli and tomato rice, it makes for a solid blend. I think I probably prefer the vegetarian chilli to the combo - which for a Smokehouse is not necessarily a good thing - but both meals are good. And as my frank friend (FF) remarks on the combo; 'it's meat, right'. And it is meat. Pretty good meat too. I would recommend this meat to my meat-eating friends. I might not recommend the platter, simply because for £15.95, there are probably cheaper and better options on the considerable menu. For example, one could get the pulled pork for £9.95, and then a dessert, all for the price of one chicken.

And talking of dessert, we go all out. Oreo cheesecake (though really more of a highly enjoyable oreo and biscuit infused mousse), and churros with peanut butter dipping sauce. By this time we're so full that thoughts of portion size are inconsequential. The plan is to just keep eating until they stop providing.

We waddle out, content. I'm a bit confused about the target market they're pushing for. It's on the verge of a hipster hangout, but not quite. On the verge of all-out gluttony, but with cool metal chairs. There's the sense that it doesn't quite know what it wants to achieve. But these issues are workable, and not damning. I think that Dr. John S. Wilson would probably approve.

What we ate:

1 x Chilli Corn £5.00

1 x BBQ Chicken Wings £6.50

1 x 1/4 Chicken Combo £15.95

Sweet Pot Fries £1.50

1 x Veggie Chilli £9.00

1 x Oreo Cheesecake £5.00

1 x Churros £5.00

1 x Alto Bajo Bottle £17.50

[1] Quotation taken from Rick McDaniel's extensive work into American Cuisine; "An Irresistible History of Southern Food: Four Centuries of Black-eyed Peas". Chapter 6, The Incredible, Edible Pig.

Looks like meat's back on the menu, boys - Uglúk the Uruk-Hai

29/02/3019 of the Third Age

American food is all the rage in East Oxford these days. First there was Atomic Burger, with its Elvis-and-also-spaceships themed menu and all-American food gluttony chilli porn Eating Challenge. Next came Joe Perks & Co. and Big Society: sudden, almost simultaneous attempts to capitalise on the gourmet hot dog and pulled pork on everything movements. There was even, briefly, an American diner called Route 66 on the spot that Atomic Burger currently occupies: it ceased operations several months ago. Now there's a new barbecue-oriented addition to the canon on the former premises of the Oxford Blue pub. It promises to take matters to the next level by offering not just one, but a weekly-changing series of gargantuan eating challenges.

The furnishings of the Oxford Blue Smokehouse make it very clear from the outset that a Point is being made. A vintage Fender Telecaster guitar and a banjo hang from one zeitgeisty corrugated iron wall. On the other side of the bar there's a pair of Texas Longhorn cattle horns as adornment and a poster informing customers that vegetarians are delicious if cooked correctly. Meat, needless to say, forms the heart, soul and probably most of the extremities of the Smokehouse's food philosophy. We can't help but wonder if the location was chosen in order to prey on the hunger of carnivorous athletes emerging from the Iffley Road sports ground.

When Daily Info inspected their offerings for a lunchtime takeaway, then, it was a pleasant surprise that the Smokehouse Menu actually caters reasonably well to alternative diets. The resident coeliac in the office declared their dedicated Gluten Free section to be admirably varied, while our in-house vegetarian thought that the "Ultimate Grilled Cheese" sandwich (containing avocado, chilli, tomatoes and three different types of cheese) did a good job of living up to its name. The skinny, American-style fries were done very well: crunchy, moreish and perfectly salted. If fluffy British chips are more your thing, the chunky sweet potato fries come highly recommended.

Remarkably, for all its boasting, it is on its meat that the Smokehouse starts to fall down. The chicken, ribs and pulled pork in our BBQ meat combo had a pleasantly gentle, smoky sweetness but offered nothing special in the way of texture. A cajun chicken burger was judged to be tough, not particularly flavourful and notable only for the crispiness of its bacon garnish. The "Big Daddy" and "Big Pig" burgers were better: tender, well-cooked, and even more heavily laden with goodies than their names would suggest. The steak cuts in my Philly cheese steak were not at all bad, but the bun which harboured them was frankly mediocre: tasteless, mealy white bread with not much to recommend it.

A couple of qualifiers are necessary. Barbecued meat should ideally be eaten straight from the smoker, and even though the walk between the Daily Info office and Marston Street is hardly an onerous one, our takeaway probably couldn't replicate the freshness of an in-house meal. There are definitely positives, too. Portion sizes are generous and sandwiches stuffed, meaning it will be almost impossible to come away from a meal and not be pleasantly well-fed.

Still, we cannot help but feel a little disappointed by the food on offer at the Smokehouse, which promises a lot and only partially delivers. Here's hoping they get their eye in the game soon.

The Oxford Blue has changed into the Oxford Blue Smokehouse. Under new management from August 2015.