JOHN CARTER is in hog heaven at a burger restaurant offering huge portions of the most delicious meals

AND still the undisputed heavyweight burger champion of the town… Moody’s Place Swindon.

Earlier in the year I was invited to write a review on a new burger delivery service, and suggested Moody’s was ready to go toe-to-toe with the best takeaways around.

So you can imagine my delight when it was announced in September that the burger start-up was launching its first restaurant on Commercial Road.

Even more of a knockout treat was a request from the Adver’s food and drink editor to go and review said restaurant, which had replaced Mok’s Streetfood and Grill.

With two of my children in tow, I was delighted to find a restaurant buzzing with atmosphere, despite it being reasonably early on a cold and blustery Saturday night in November.

This is a place perfect for a party, ideal for a family, snug enough for a couple and trendy enough to take a gang of mates before a night out on the town.

There’s a rugged feel to the décor, with an abundance of those stripped-back lights you’ll see in most modern restaurants.

On the wall are emblazoned the words Burgers. Cocktails. Good times. It couldn’t sum it up any better.

The menu is just champion and there’s a sensational addition to the burgers which I’ll reveal at the finish (my way of ensuring you read to the end!).

For drinks we ordered milkshakes and the fact we had a long time to wait for them actually worked in my favour… it meant we were already well into our meal and they could serve as a perfect dessert.

Priced at £3.95 each, two of us plumped for chocolate and the other banana. They are delicious but also incredibly filling, so be careful not to let them spoil your appetite.

Portion sizes at Moody’s are not to be scoffed at. Every burger is colossal in size but it’s the loaded fries and sides which will really take you by surprise.

Austin took on the biggest challenge, ordering the Moody Stack (£10.95), comprising a double patty, double cheese, double smoky streaky bacon and a couple of battered onion rings. Double everything basically (that’s my boy!).

To this he added a portion of Loaded Hog Fries (£5.95), potato fries with lashings of BBQ pulled pork, bacconaise and a gooey cheesy sauce. It won’t surprise you to learn he had to ask the waitress for a carry out box having been well and truly floored by the enormity of it all.

Millie was a lot more sensible and chose the bacon cheese burger (£8.45), a classic Moody’s burger topped with smoky streaky bacon and Monterey Jack cheese.

But the highlight for her was the portion of Loaded Northern Fries (£5.95), those potato fries again but this time smothered in cheesy sauce and oodles and oodles of gravy. And she’s not even from ‘up north’!

To add a bit of variety to proceedings I opted for The Big Hog, pig everywhere for £10.45.

This was a mighty specimen, comprising a pork and chorizo burger with home-made BBQ pulled pork, smoky streaky bacon, Monterey Jack cheese, crispy onions and a dollop of home-made bacconaise... oink, oink, yum,

yum.

My salted fries (£2.65) were delicious but still mightily impressive in size. Don’t say you haven’t been warned!

I had been won over by that delivery order earlier in the year, but I have to say the dining out experience at Moody’s Place was the winner, hands down.

Our young waitress could have been a little more welcoming, but her colleagues were more than friendly enough so I’m prepared to put it down to her perhaps having an off-night.

And the noise coming from the tables surrounding us suggest everyone was having as good a time as we were.

Oh, and that twist I mentioned to the burgers… All of them come with a pig-in-blanket skewered on top.

Anyone would think Christmas was just around the corner. Knockout stuff…