You might have seen that the big family-friendly pub that used to be Riverside on Shipton Road has had a significant change to become a Hickory’s Smokehouse. We were lucky enough to attend the soft launch night last night before the restaurant opens properly next Monday the 24th of February.
I have a lot to tell you about the restaurant and not only about the food. To start with, although the soft play has gone, the restaurant is still very family friendly. I am just gutted that this wasn’t around when my teenagers were small!
There is a large outdoor play area with climbing frames as well as a huge lawn for them to run off steam on, which will be especially good in the summer months.
There are lots of comfortable outdoor tables out there too and the whole area is enclosed.
There are even private dining chalets outside too.
That’s not all though, inside there is a cinema room with eleven proper cinema seats and a big screen showing lots of family films. (Excuse the dark photo!)
Last night they were showing Inside Out.
So that’s the kids covered. What’s in it for the adults? The restaurant itself is large and comfortable, separated into lots of sections to feel cosy with a good mix of both tables and booths.
There is also an area to sit on high stools where you can watch the kitchen in action. Lastly, there is a bar with three large screens showing sporting events.
Now, on to the food which obviously is the highlight of this review. Hickory’s serves American style BBQ food and does it really well. They’re good size portions, well seasoned with lots of different options to add on.
We took the teens, so there were four of us. We shared two starters between us (mainly because I didn’t want us full before the puddings!).
We tried the Smoky Bourbon Bacon Bites which were delicious, sweet and salty. These were served with a blue cheese dip which I absolutely loved and got to eat all to myself. If you could buy tubs of this I would, I loved it that much. Hubby was happy as he ate most of the bacon bites.
We also tried the Southern Fried Chicken ‘In a Basket’ served with Nashville hot honey. The kids loved the chicken but found the hot honey a little too hot – we loved both.
My husband tried the ‘Star of the Show’, half a pound of slow-smoked Texas style brisket. He is a BBQ fan and loves anything with brisket. He informs me that Hickory’s is quite popular on the geeky BBQ Facebook group he is in. And that lot don’t pull their punches when it comes to BBQ!
I went for a full rack of Memphis Style Baby Back Ribs with the House BBQ sauce. Like the brisket, this was served with skin-on fries and slaw. I chose to upgrade to the cheesy fries with fresh chillies, which were a complete winner with me and I’d recommend these every time!
My youngest teen went for the Cedar Plank Roasted Salmon served with dirty corn and tater tots. They love salmon and never complained about anything so I consider this high praise indeed.
My eldest teen went for this mammoth burger stack! The aptly name Go Big or Go Home.
I’ll give the menu description so you get the full impact – three toasted buns, two prime-beef patties, a Southern fried chicken fillet, streaky bacon, magic-dusted pork collar, a hash brown & three slices of American style cheese. Plus lettuce, tomatoes, pickled red onions, pickles & Hickory’s burger sauce. He pretty much finished it all too!
Even though we were absolutely stuffed at this point, we couldn’t say no to dessert could we? We tried the cookie sandwich:
Cinnamon Sugar-Coated Churros:
Cookies & Cream waffles:
Finally I went for the Table Toasted Campfire Marshmallows, which looked fabulous and tasted even better! You get to toast your own marshmallows at the table before dipping them in chocolate sauce!
Do check their website for mid week and lunchtime offers that are very reasonably priced too. Finally, I will leave you with my eldest’s ‘Cookie Monster Freak Shake’ (Cookies, maple, chocolate & even more cookies, with a nostalgic malted cereal taste).
