It's nice to see an attempt at getting a southern USA style BBQ in the UK, I'm actually quite sad there aren't any of these down in the south east, as I'd definitely want to visit more. Food: I had frickles to start, these are pickle spears, battered and deep fried, with a nice dip too. Portion size is good, could do with a little more sauce, I was really scraping the bottom of the pot on my last frickle. Tasted good, might've been nice to have a little something going through the batter itself but the actual pickle was sharp, tangy, salty and a little sweet - exactly what I'd expect from an American pickle spear, compared to the more mustardy, spiced and much more sweet sliced gherkins that are more prevalent in the UK. For main I had the brisket Sub. It comes with fries, slaw and pickled onion and jalapenos. Oh and a side of gravy. This was the reason I wanted to try Hickory's. If I hadn't been squeezing into company expenses budget (more on that later) id definitely have tried to get more of a platter style with lots of different meats. But this seemed like a great option for me. First and foremost, this thing is hard to eat cleanly. The bun is soft, perhaps a little too soft, and the amount of sauce in there makes it a delicious sog-fest to get through. I cut mine in half and took my server's warning to heed that it would likely leak as I picked it up - shocking no one, it did just that. Flavour wise, I enjoyed the sub, and dipping it in the gravy gave it an extra boost of salty umami-ness which was thoroughly enjoyable. However, you might notice I said the amount of sauce made it soggy and not the amount of meat juice and unfortunately that's because the brisket was dry. Not unbearably so, as it was mitigated heavily by it's saucey accoutrements, but the brisket itself was definitely not oozing that characteristic juice that I'd expected from watching many BBQ reviews from US foodtubers. I think if I'd ordered that by itself I'd have been a bit more upset. Aside from that the only other detractor was that the slaw, while crisp and creamy, was a miniscule portion. I'd have loved another couple of spoonfuls of that. The Skin on fries were fine, and seasoned well enough. The pickled red onions and jalapenos were lovely, and had the brisket been a bit fattier and juicier, would've cut through it perfectly. I saved some for my last mouthful because it felt like the perfect zingy cleanse for my mouth after salty chips soaked in all the sauce and gravy leftover. Service: I was a walk-in table of 1 on a Wednesday evening, around 18:30. There were no regular tables available, but I got the choice of bar stools, not in the bar proper, but in front of the kitchen. I chose one directly on the divider between the kitchen and restaurant, great view of everything going on in there. I can't fault any of the servers I interacted with, aside from one minor thing that I had asked for the frickles to come out at the same time as my main, which didn't happen, but honestly that was fine, given how big a portion of frickles you get. Atmosphere: It really feels like the UK expectations of what a BBQ pit in the deep south would be like. Lots of wood, evoking the sort of 'wild west'/cowboy motif. Nice low warm lighting and comfortable chair style bar stool. On the other hand, it was LOUD, but it is touted as a family location, and there were 3 different renditions of Happy birthday in the hour and a bit I was there. Price: So I paid just shy of £29.00 for this meal, that being frickles and the sub (comes with fries, gravy, slaw and pickled veg as standard) and a raspberry lemonade. There is an automatically applied 7.5% on the bill for service, being that I was on the company card, I asked for it removed as it put me over my £30 limit for the night (don't worry I left exactly 10% tip in change instead). Frickles were good value, sub should've had more volume of sides or been a bit less than £17.50. The drink was pricey, but nice. Free sweet and salty popcorn when seated is nice too! Rating: 8/10, enjoyable especially for a chain.

We came here on 11/03/2025 just before 7pm. All the staff were friendly and helpful. We found the food reasonably priced. I have to say that our waiter was brilliant. He was polite and went above and beyond. The restaurant could not be faulted in anyway and I think that has to do with the staff. We were warmly treated in every aspect of this restaurant from the first point of contact at the door, the staff at the bar, the waiter and when we were leaving a lady said goodbye to us. The food was lovely, there was just so many nice little touches that you don’t see in other restaurants like the popcorn on the table, the feminine products in the ladies room. This place thinks of things that other restaurants don’t. We had a great experience and thank you to the staff for their hospitality.

Had a great family birthday brunch and food was lovely. Unfortunately the service was sporadic and then when trying to pay took forever and then mid paying the server decided to see to the door and told us to wait and then went to take other guests was not very professional.

All the soft drinks were great Blueberry lemonade Raspberry lemonade Root beer float Grape soda are all recommended. The share platter was as always out of this world. Food cooked to perfection. The brisket is a family favourite. The lemon meringue which is waffle based was absolutely delicious!!!!