Restaurant review: The Kite, Oxford - 'top notch comfort food at a back street pub'

But The Kite has ignored all of that and gone straight for the jugular, ensuring that the character of the proper little boozer on Osney remains intact, while serving simple but scrumptious fare to stave off the hunger pangs and keep you chatting, drinking, listening to live music and generally enjoying yourself.

It’s the brainchild of Patrick Kinsella who ran the bar at The Hollybush in Witney for Luke Champion. He hails from London where his old man is a landlord as well, so grew up in the business. Saddened by the continual gentrification of pubs and wanting to bring some life back to them, he reopened The Kite Taphouse and Kitchens as his first solo venture.

Initially it was a fine dining restaurant, but quickly evident that his clientele wanted something more casual, less involved, that the pub should be centre stage and the food fit around it.

His menus are therefore dominated by burgers and hotdogs as well as some really good bar snacks, pies and fish and chips, all good for soaking up alcohol, real man food that we put away with a frightening lack of decorum.

You can book if you want but otherwise just rock up, grab a drink and when you get hungry order what you want. There is no decorum here and is much the better for it.

And while it may have angered the old bar flies, Pat has injected a much needed, more youthful, energetic vibe into the largely undiscovered Oxford pub.

And we had a ball. Pat’s a young, cheeky chappy who’s keen as mustard to make his new enterprise work and has the vigour of youth and a healthy disregard for the establishment to make it work.

We were ravenous by the time we met up and after a pint tried the beef fingers which came with a lovely gravy, perfect for dunking. The onion rings were less of a success, too battered, not seasoned enough and needed a dip of some sort, something smokey and BBQey to accompany them.

Then the burgers and dogs. I haven’t had a good hotdog for a long time, usually relying on the Germans to stave off my cravings so am delighted they are back in fashion. I went for the Kite Dog (onions, peppers, ketchup, mustard) which came in at a lovely £6, served with fries, although there were lots of variations on the theme for the more adventurous.

There isn’t a polite way to eat one so I just dived in, smearing ketchup and mustard all over the place, devouring my dog in an indecent amount of time, before smacking my lips and returning to the bar for another drink, some lovely guest beers from the XT BREWING FAMILY in Long Crendon, Thame.

Music maestro Tim Hughes went for the full burger – which if appearances were anything to go by was a mammoth monster of an animal and almost impossible to eat with any dignity at all, something which didn’t bother him in the slightest. Sleeves us, head down, he attacked The Big Kahuna (a beef burger, bacon, pineapple, a fried egg, cheese, hash brown and spicy fries at £13) with a zest not witnessed since Baywatch came out on DVD.

A great deal of attention has obviously been put into getting the patty just right and judging by Tim’s monumental praise for said burger, it ticked all the boxes. Our friend and compatriot tried the £13 Jammy Burger – which was pretty similar but came with blackcurrants strangely and fried chilli. “Do you think a burger can have too many components?” she asked, trying to talk to me over the top of her towering feast, but failing to make eye contact.

She didn’t mention it again though, even when the last splat of sauce was the only thing evident on her plate.

For dessert we had frangelica – a sweet hazelnut liquer served with lime slices coated in brown sugar, and listened to the amazing acoustic set by a young chap from Witney. By the time we left we had met all the locals and booked in to go back for the St Patricks Day stampede.

See you there because Pat has put this little backstreet boozer back on the map.

• The Kite
• 68-69 Mill St,
• Oxford
• OX2 0AL
• osneykite.com or 01865 248546