Our Beer Man had popped in for an early visit to OX184 when it first opened and been pretty impressed with their beer selection. I’d visited for drinks a couple of times and been overwhelmed with the smoky barbecue aromas from the kitchen but felt the place was still finding its feet. I thought it was about time to give it a visit for food.

The large industrial space was quite sparsely populated when I stopped in on a sunny but chilly afternoon. With black and red to the fore, it has some of the tranquil trappings of a sushi bar but the overall vibe is smart, smoky warehouse. I quite liked it.

I took a seat at one of their round red tables after ordering a half of the ever reliable Long White Cloud by Tempest.

I was in burger mood so ordered their house beefy offering along with some fries and cheese dip. The friendly waitress took my order then after a decent wait while things were freshly prepared was delivering the items. They looked pretty much as expected.

The fries were nicely seasoned and the cheese sauce was pretty good. The burger was made of good quality meat and cooked accurately pink, but was very light on flavour as there simply wasn’t enough fat in the mix the convey the expected beefy notes. Even the lightly smoky bacon didn’t bring much to the party. The glazed brioche bun was tough going. It was all rather underwhelming stuff.

So overall, OX184 is doing solid enough work but has plenty of room to improve their food offering. The beer selection is very good so worth the visit alone, but the burger didn’t prove a winner with me. I’ll no doubt be back for drinks again in the future, but I’ll likely eat elsewhere unless major efforts are made to reinvigorate the menu.

Scores
Blythe scores OX184
3/5 for food
3.5/5 for presentation
3.5/5 for setting
3.5/5 for service
giving an overall 13.5/20

I ate: OX184 burger; fries and cheese dip

I drank: Long White Cloud

I wore: new autumnal overcoat

Total bill: £13.70