LOCATION: 5.9
Snack Bar is located at the back of an uninviting strip mall several blocks north of the square in Oxford. It’s easy enough to get to, but it scores near the bottom on Oxford’s charm scale.
ATMOSPHERE: 7.3
The interior has an English-pub vibe, lively and friendly. Seating can be a little crowded, with servers and other diners brushing past you throughout your meal. Not to say that’s a bad thing — a lot of people prefer that kind of atmosphere, and while we generally don’t, it’s just part of the deal with any respectable pub. Sparsely-populated pubs are things to be wary of, and that was definitely not the case when we went. Snack Bar’s weeknight crowd when we went would be the envy of many restaurants on the weekend.
FOOD: 7.7
We started off with the Okra Chaat, a light but still spicy and complex mix of fried okra cut in half lengthwise, with cherry tomatoes, red onion, peanuts, and Indian spices. We ordered a second serving after polishing off the first.
We ordered the French Onion Soup and the Damn Fine Burger. In too many restaurants, French onion soup is made with overly-salty, pre-fab broth, low-quality cheese, and lackluster bread, with the hope that undiscerning diners will be satisfied enough with the combination of salt, cheese, and carbs to think about whether they’ve actually been served a good bowl of soup. At Snack Bar, the soup won’t threaten anything served in the bistros of Paris and Lyon, but it’s a well-above-average effort that was obviously prepared with care. A nice, appropriately thick slice of bread was submerged beneath a gooey, generous layer of cheese, a nice, classic assembly we prefer far more than some of the funny business we’ve seen elsewhere. We like ours served a little too hot to dig into right away, but not so hot that we can’t eat it until the dessert has arrived. Snack Bar hit that temperature just right.
The Damn Fine Burger was… pretty good. Kudos to Snack Bar for proclaiming American cheese on the menu — the right and proper cheese to use on cheeseburgers — and not trying to “improve” a classic with things like provolone (too bland) or cheddar (too greasy, wrong mouthfeel), like so many of the cool kids have been doing for so many years now. It’s served with proper trimmings on a brioche bun (wise choice) and amounts to… a pretty good burger. We wouldn’t call it “damn fine.” Maybe “darn good,” but we would rank the cheeseburgers at McB’s in Ridgeland, Dixie’s Kozy Kitchen in North Carrollton, and Carnell’s in Louisville, as superior. Again, that’s not to say the burger at Snack Bar isn’t good — it is — but if you’re going to call your cheeseburger “Damn Fine,” and charge $15 for it, it needs to blow away what you can get for $10 at McB’s or $5 at Dixie’s, and it didn’t.
The real star was the rosemary-parmesan fries. We could have eaten our weight in them. They are cut to just the right size, and masterfully cooked, a perfect combination of crisp outside and fluffy inside, and served with a slightly tangy, garlicky aioli that could not have been better with them. We ordered another two rounds for the table.
Snack Bar puts an Indian twist on several of its dishes, but you could hardly call it “an Indian restaurant.” It’s a light and skillful application of spices and flavors that keeps some unusual dishes coexisting peacefully with more traditional southern ones without becoming an incoherent mess, and means diners on both ends of the adventurousness spectrum can find something to make them happy.
We look forward to our next visit, when we plan to try the Slow Roasted Lamb and the Kerala Fried Chicken.
SERVICE: 7.7
Our soup came out with the burger, which was a misstep, but overall the service was attentive, accurate, and polite.
OVERALL: 7.1
Snack Bar is part of the John Currence empire that includes City Grocery and Big Bad Breakfast, and was all-around a good experience for a price that didn’t shock the conscience. We’ll be back.