Diners clamouring to eat at Swindon's Pick Up Point

Pick Up Point in Devizes Road opened at the beginning of October, and since then owner Josh West and his team have barely known a moment's rest.

"There's been loads of drama, fun and excitement - all the drama a restaurant opening brings and you can't anticipate," he said.

As of the time of writing the menu features an array of four styles of burger with intriguing names such as Orange Sunshine and Seoul Survivor, together with a variety of other dishes. A weekly special steak dish is proving very popular and there are plans to add more.

Josh is also thinking about expanding the dining area - possibly in time for Christmas - and enabling the restaurant to cater for larger parties.

How would he describe what Pick Up Point has to offer?

"It's hard to categorise but I suppose brasserie food - accessible, bustling, noisy, with a whiskey bar kind of feel to it.

"The main thing is that we are cooking accessible food, things that people like. My background is French cooking, French technique, but the food we're serving is American, really - burgers and steaks.

"We'd love to flex some culinary muscle. Steaks are going down a storm at the moment.

"It's been mental since the opening - just non-stop.

"The only thing I was nervous about before we opened was, 'What's it actually going to be like when people come in?' Because you can't plan for that. The vibe is great - we turn the music up a couple of notches to make it more intimate.

"What I would like to see us is a bustling and slightly noisy neighbourhood restaurant. I would also love to see families come out and children here for Saturday and Sunday lunch, especially. I think that makes for a warm and welcoming atmosphere when you see people sitting around a table with their children. It shows that they also have faith in us."

Josh was born in Swindon and grew up in a catering business in Marlborough.

"It's always been in my blood," he said. "I was quite a latecomer to the industry professionally. I went to train in France in my mid-twenties, in Paris - the Chamber of Commerce."

Fellow graduates of the prestigious professional culinary school have gone on to work throughout the world.

"I was the only English person there. I'm glad I chose that course as opposed to any others. Then I went to work at a bistro in London - very high pressure, old-school tough chefs. It was a horrible experience but I learned a lot. They don't teach like that anymore.

"I went to work in pubs, eventually working myself up to head chef. I worked in pubs for years across the Cotswolds and around Wiltshire. Then I got an injury, broke my leg in a bar brawl! That was in the Cotswolds, I was sticking up for one of the barmen who was getting some trouble from one of the regulars. It was initially a friendly bar brawl, but I fell badly and broke my ankle in three places. I've still got the metal in it."

Returning to Swindon, where he owned a home, Josh was approached by Jason Putt of The Hop.

"We had a good eight months before lockdown. I suggested a burger kitchen and he went for it."

When lockdown came, the venue offered everything from a takeaway night to self-assembly food kits for people to prepare at home.

"We were doing stuff that people recognise and just trying to put the Pick Up Point mark of quality on it - just doing it better.

"They were hugely popular and ultimately that put us in the position to open this place, because people eventually were just having faith in what we were doing."

The dishes Josh creates use ingredients from many culinary traditions, but the chef avoids the word 'fusion' as he feels a great deal of nonsense is spoken about it, with some establishments mixing things up for the sake of it. His philosophy is to mix things only if they work.

The Pick Up Point ethos?

"Underselling and overdelivering - people see a burger on the menu and I don't think they necessarily think they're going to be blown away by it - but if I can make them remember it to the point of coming back...I've worked in hospitality for many years, and one of the things that is said is, 'Compliments to the chef.' It's the most empty and boring thing to say!

"What I want to hear is, 'Compliments to the chef - here's a 20 percent tip to your wonderful staff and here's a booking for next week!'"

The restaurant's website is thepickuppoint.com