With a big refurb, Big Society is pushing to reassert its dominance in the East Oxford pub scene, expanding its offer to be both a workspace and a lunch time spot. With this in mind, the team at Daily Info ventured out to check out the new menu and what the lunch time menu has to offer.

Niamh: Big Soc’s staff are as friendly as ever, but I can’t help but think something’s been lost in the new refurb. The new decor, particularly the neon signage nestled in a wall of greenery, feels a bit Love Island confessional booth for my tastes, though I’m glad their garden mural has withstood the rebrand.

I was after something light and opted for the house nachos, a regular go-to of mine at Big Soc 1.0. The guacamole was pleasantly chunky and well seasoned, and the sour cream’s richness and mild tang was a lovely contrast; but the salsa was a touch insubstantial and watery for me, the cheese was tepid and a little claggy, and the smattering of jalapeños felt like an afterthought. The ratio of condiments to tortilla also needed some adjustment - it didn’t take long before I was picking away at a bowl of dry chips. I’ve had good luck with this dish before here, but for £9.95, I expect something with more production value than I could make at home, and I don’t think this quite hit the mark. In future, maybe one of the meatier options would be a better call!

As it stands, I can see the new Big Soc being a reliable haunt for people leaving a screening in need of a quick bite and a brew. It being lunchtime, none of us were hitting the hard drinks on the menu, which I’m sure is still a big draw for BS’s clientele. But personally, I don’t know if I’d make an evening of it in the same way I would have before.

Russell: Big Society has always drawn to it for its tasty burgers (I am a burger fiend after, all). But as a change of pace and to get to try the Big Soc lunch time menu, I instead went for a pizza. You can get a half-sized pizza and soft drink for £8.25 and can add chips on top of this.

And it turns put a half-sized pizza is perfect for the time of the day, not too much but perfectly formatted to cure ones hunger. With 13 topping combinations to choose from it feels like there's something for everyone. I went for the New Yorker, a chicken, bacon, BBQ sauce combo. It comes out on a thin base, hand-stretched and stone-baked, and is a flavoursome meal. It all goes down easily, a great lunch time treat. You aren't going to find the best pizza in Oxford at the Big Soc but their's are easy to eat, enticingly flavoured and suitable for both lunch time trips out and sustenance on a pub trip.

Sophia: I ordered the Buttermilk Strips, Chips and Sides (£14.95) an upmarket KFC medley consisting of a generous portion of fried chicken atop an equally generous portion of chips. This was accompanied by three small pots, containing gravy, coleslaw, and baked beans.

When one orders a meal like this, it’s for the chicken, and I’m happy to say that it did not disappoint. It was crisp and well seasoned on the outside, and - just as importantly - juicy, flavourful and tender within. The chips were great too, uniformly warm and with the right amount of bite. The long, matchstick cut to the potatoes is a smart move of Big Soc’s part for quality assurance - skinny fries cool rapidly, and chunky wedges tend to get stodgy in the middle.

No complaints on the gravy or baked bean fronts, but the coleslaw baffled me. It tasted completely devoid of both sweet and tart elements, as though the usual shredded vegetables had simply been coated with crème fraîche and dished up. It didn’t seem poorly made so much as poorly conceived in the first place. The result was a buttery and bland side that added nothing.

As for the halloumi fries on the side, I have a beef with halloumi and mozzarella sticks in general: they are only really good when piping hot. The cheese gets rubbery so quickly that it’s worth accounting for every second between removing it from the heat source and delivering it to diners’ tables. Which is to say, they could have been warmer. The hot honey BBQ sauce they were with was delicious though.

My verdict personally is that it is a nice and roomy place to drop in after a film, with fun cocktails (I can attest from other trips!), solid food, and friendly staff, but don’t expect quick food service or mind-blowing culinary delights.

It's such a hard life working so close to many restaurants and takeaways. Sometimes the DI team crack under the pressure, especially when we heard that Big Society have introduced some tasty additions to their menu. #toughtimes

Katy: I decided to pig-out on the pulled pork bun. The brioche bun is generously filled with meat, just about remaining enclosed in the bun. Accompanying the pork is a vinegar slaw which provides the much needed sour tones to contrast with the sweet, BBQed pork. The very moist filling means it is a bit soggy - one of the downsides to getting a takeaway rather than eating in. Rather than fries, I opted for the two pieces of fried chicken. I'm convinced that Big Soc have the best flavoured fried chicken I've ever tasted, perhaps because they soak it overnight in milk and then roll it in their secret rub mix, but let's see what Susie thought of her fried chicken burger:

Susie: The chicken wasn't breast meat which was nice but it does mean that the overall combo of the mayo, chicken and batter was overpowering grease-wise. The size of the burger is good - stacked but not massively wide as well; sumptuous but manageable. Airy fried chips can be dry and without potatoey substance, which was a little the case with these, but they pretty much got the balance right and were well seasoned.

Katy: Dan, did your philly cheesesteak fill you with joy?

Dan: It had a generous filling with a good amount of tender steak. The green chilli heat was necessary - no skimping! As ever it was hard to make it look appetising in tin foil, but rest assured that it tastes MUCH better than it looks. A fork is required due to the generous filling and as street takeaway it would definitely be tricky without the aid of a napkin. I was glad to be provided with melted American cheese rather than the squirty Cheese Whiz you'd probably get in Philadelphia itself!

Katy: Michael, did you have any cheese-induced revelations?

Michael: Sometimes burgers convince me that I could be vegetarian. This was such a burger. The sweetness of bun and the salty, battered halloumi worked really well together. There was nothing superfluous in there, no stray onions - delish.

Katy: Bloke, anything to add?

Bloke: This is the closest thing I've had to a McDonalds chicken burger in twenty years. (Ed: The comparison is complimentary!)

Katy: Russ, any thoughts on the new kid on the block, the BBQ burger?

Russ: There is many a burger to choose from in Oxford but Big Soc's BBQ one still stands out as a mighty fine addition to the roster. A tasty combination; the patty is refreshingly unprocessed and the BBQ sauce has a sweet edge that doesn't overpower the meat. The burger is cooked to just the right degree and the red onions seal the deal. The chips are tasty, retaining enough of the potato in the centre to not just be crispy deep-fried sticks. A very good work lunch.

Other new additions to their new menu includes the skinny chicken (sans batter), the dbl stkd burger plus the meat-feast that is the dirty burger. There was general agreement that the packaging was good, especially the shower cap-style wrapping on the burgers, which may sound like a strange thing to comment on but is vitally important for the safe delivery of these tasty treats. Big Soc, we'll be back to indulge in more of your fried goodness very soon.

Price: £51.50 for 6 burgers and 4 sides.

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