Does Katherine MacAlister find for burgers worthy of a lord? I should Coco, she says...

I miss Coco’s, the one by the station. It was grand and classic, the food was delicious, it was classy, you could take the kids or the husband. It was perfect for every occasion and easy to get home again afterwards. So when faced with booking the pre-panto lunch I was lost. If I couldn’t have the Coco’s Greek pizza, I didn’t want anything.

But it made me think. Where to go? Somewhere accessible, child-friendly, not too expensive. All the obvious options like Mamma Mia were too far out, as we were already in town with small children, and so were faced with the battle of the chains — Jamie’s, Ask, Zizzi, Bill’s and Pizza Express, going round and round in my head like a giant commercial washing machine.

In the end we opted for Byron because I hadn’t been back since it opened and it wasn’t Italian. We thought burgers would be fun for a change. We were wrong.

So we booked and processed in at the right time through the white/ urban/warehouse style interior of the George Street franchise, smiling at the welcoming staff and looking forward to the legendary burgers and the simple pared-down menu.

And with three generations to impress, all sat around one table, the question was: would Byron pass the pre-panto test?

The giant cookie milkshake (£4.25) was a good start, as was the kids’ menu on the giant colouring sheets which boasted a mini classic hamburger, mini chargrilled chicken breast burger or macaroni cheese all with fries, and a pudding of ice cream or a brownie for £6.50, so far so good.

The rest of us ate everything else on the menu — from a classic burger with lettuce, tomato, red onion and mayo (£10.70 for the double) to the Byron with dry-cure bacon, mature Cheddar (£9.25), the chicken which was a chargrilled chicken breast with baby spinach (£8.95) and the chilli burger (£8.95). Chips are extra which is irritating and costly (£2.95) pushing most burgers over the £10 mark, plus onion rings (£3.25) and suddenly everything was totting up rather alarmingly.

Not fancying a burger, I went for the Ranch Avocado salad with green beans, roasted red pepper, black olives, cucumber, radicchio, cos lettuce, croutons and ranch dressing (£8.50) and we settled back. The place was heaving with a similarly delighted-not-to-be-eating-Italian bunch of people, young and old, and a strange man dressed in a reindeer suit.

Before too long our food arrived, and I have to say I was rather disappointed when it did. Admittedly it’s hard to fill a large white plate with a burger when the fries are served separately, but there was still a gleaming expanse of white space highlighting that you had to pay for the extras. My salad was nice enough, warranted and there was lots of it. I ate and ate and ate and when I looked down it was the same size as when I started. And it wasn’t that anyone complained. But no one was ‘ooh’ing and ‘aah’ing either, although maybe they were saving that for the panto.

Mr Greedy however summed it up best. He said that for £11.80 his chicken burger and chips should have been superb. Or in his own words: “For that price it needed to be exceptional and it wasn’t. Not by any means.” Convenient yes, child-friendly yes, open all day yes... memorable, no.

And it seemed that the gilt had rubbed off Byron’s dazzling George Street debut and what was left was a superbly passable, average restaurant selling expensive burgers, not pizza.

But hey maybe I’m spoilt, maybe I’m picky, maybe I’ve been ruined for ever by the magnificence of Atomic Burger in Cowley Road, or maybe no one can come close to Coco’s ever again. Back to the drawing board then.

But one thing’s for sure, with the new Cleaver restaurant shaping up nicely over the road in the former Fire & Stone site, its chicken/ribs/steak style menu might give the Byron omnivores and the Italian antivores a run for their money.

Byron
33-35 George Street, Oxford, OX1 2AY
01865 792155
byronhamburgers.com

* Opening times: Monday-Thursday noon-11pm, Friday noon-11.30pm, Saturday 11am-10.30pm, Sunday 11am-10.30pm
* Parking: Car parking: it’s central Oxford so no
* Make sure you try the burgers... to see whether it’s just me
* In ten words: It’s perfect for George Street, just not perfect for me