Hickory's Smokehouse Hutton: We took a sneak peek at the kitchen's giant £30,000 smoker and tested out the menu

The giant rotisserie smoker, so big she required special building adaptations to fit her in the new kitchen space, is now hard at work at Hickory’s after it officially opened earlier than planned on Friday, following several successful ‘soft launch’ events.

She is being used to cook a range of smokehouse classics, including pulled pork, ribs and Texas style brisket, all smoked “low and slow”, for up to 16 hours at a time to give a genuine southern taste.

The new restaurant, which has seen a 100-150 jobs created, is located at the former Anchor Inn site in Liverpool Road and boasts a completely new, open kitchen and chef’s bar, along with relaxed dining areas for up to 160 guests.

The inside is styled with Americana to give you the feel of southern hospitality with the staff trained to be chatty, helpful and smiling. It’s menu has been inspired by 18 trips to more than 70 towns and cities across the southern states of the US.

Inspired by a trip to South Carolina specifically, there’s a cosy sheltered veranda for all-year drinking and dining outside, plus some additional outdoor seating too.

The dedicated bar area is designed to be a focal point for regulars and the three large screens will be showing all major US sports and major rugby and golf. There’s also a Texas inspired frozen custard station for kids and specially-designed kids cinema, complete with real cinema seats.

On the menu, which is printed newspaper-style, is everything from brunch, appetisers, burgers, subs and dogs, salads, steaks and mains with a special section for ‘The smokehouse’, plus sides and smokehouse platters for the indecisive (or very hungry). The restaurant is hot on allergies, going to great lengths to check details of any dishes for you, if you ask.

A substantial drinks menu offers both soft and alcoholic drinks, from signature cocktails, frozen smokehouse margaritas, to the famed milkshakes, sodas and easy sippers.

What’s the food like?

In the name of research we went large on the appetisers, testing out smokehouse nachos (£7.99), cauliflower burnt ends (£5.99), southern fried ‘chicken in a basket’ (£7.25) plus (‘Frickles’ £5.99), juicy pickles deep fried in a crispy Cajun-spiced batter with Carolina barbeque dip.

For main courses we opted for a juicy and mouthwatering Cajun cowboy steak (£18.99), Chicken friend waffle (£12.50), Barbeque pulled pork (£14.99) and Hickory Wood Smoked Pork, Jalapeno and cheese sausage (£13.99) – they were all a hit and all came with sides. Despite this, we tested some more, with the Classic Mac n’Cheese highly recommended.

And it would have been rude not to try dessert; we highly recommend the jam jar lemon meringue cheesecake £6.50) and the famous Fro-Co (frozen custard menu all around £4.50 mark)

Everything was delicious but wise to go hungry and you’ll probably need a doggy bag for the way home – which staff at Hickory’s happily provide. An absolute feast for all the family. Five stars.