Future Bookings Policy

An open letter to those planning to make party bookings:

You should never really write these things when you're miffed, but it's quite a depressing day when one is forced to restrict the way one operates a business because of repeated customer insensitivity to your situation.

We have always trusted people to turn up to bookings, with a hope of a recognition that, in a very difficult economy, we are having to put on extra staff and buy in extra food, and cancel other bookings so that we can accommodate the larger ones.

So, each time we have a major cancellation, it's upsetting - Clearly some are perfectly understandable, but on an evening when 3 big reservations of tables cancel at the very last minute, it leaves us with rather a costly situation and 100 seats empty - something that an independent restaurant can not afford to stomach.

So, I regret that from this moment forward we will be taking a card number for each reservation to ensure the booking. We will establish the following procedure;

If the party cancels within 48 hours of the allotted reservation time we will take £5 per person as compensation.

If the total number of the party is reduced by 25% or more then we will take £3 per person for every person not in attendance.

If the party damage the restaurant or refuse to maintain order then we shall take a bond of £50, after the leader of a party are warned twice to act in a more responsible manner.

We do our level best to accommodate all parties and are delighted that The Big Bang is a restaurant where student parties sit alongside parties of tourists and locals, but it is reliant upon the major bookings realising that they are acting as ambassadors for their respective student bodies and if they don't have the maturity to act appropriately, then we have to devise ways to ensure they do, or ask them to dine elsewhere.

In ten years of business I've never had to do this, it's something I've tried hard to avoid, because I think people should be trusted with the maturity to treat us the way we try to treat them.

A sad day, Max

2013, Year of the Sausage

 Happy New Year, we're calling 2013 the Year of the Sausage - This'll be my only long post of the year, but it's kind of a resolutions post, so I figure I'm allowed!

Bangers & Mash, Barbecues & Beer:

It's the year when we settle into our new home and spread our wings as Sausageers - Since I opened the place 9years ago in Jericho, I've known that I really want to have a place that's Bangers & Mash in Winter and Barbecue & Beers in summer. There's no better place for that in Oxford than the Castle Quarter, with our massive forecourt area.

From Mayday onwards, starting with a major MayDay morning feast, we'll be having Barbecues whenever the weather is good enough, celebrating that other great institution of the British culinary calendar, the Summer BBQ.

A Hesitant Start:

Looking back, I'm afraid to say I have an admission to make, we were a bit useless, between opening and the New Year. I had to make a decision when we opened, to either employ waiting staff who knew the job, but didn't really care about the Customer's experience, or to employ nice people and train them from scratch, but know that they'd care about whether you had a good experience. 

Well, I chose the second, I don't believe we're in the catering 'business', we are in Hospitality, and it's a huge difference. I don't believe that many of the restaurants on the High Street today are hospitable, I think they're more interested in upselling, in making their margins and in ensuring that the spreadsheet works, my thought is that if you're good enough at being hospitable, the rest should follow.

I'm happy to report that as soon as the New Year broke, staff began to understand what The abig Bang was about and started to realise they were being hospitable, not following instructions - I feel confident now that everyone visiting will have a pretty splendid experience.

However, If your experience isn't up to scratch, we'd always welcome comments and feedback, but similarly, if you have a good experience, we'd happily take any good comments, ideally on some forum as visible as TripAdvisor, weirdly, after 8years of hard work, all of our reviews and any web presence was devoured by our move to the Castle Quarter. Without a major marketing budget, it's the only way to get people to know about you, so we'd always welcome s nice review.

Big Bang Pigs: 

Last year we started serving up vegetables grown by prisoners at SpringHill Farm prison, this season we have our own piglets roaming around their perimeter fence, ready to become our sausages early in Spring - Keep an eye out for them popping up on twitter and Facebook (Follow us on Twitter or Like us on Facebook) 

Jazz & Sing for your Sausages: 

We have a stunning season of Jazz lined up each Tuesday night, check it out on the website, see what you fancy.

And, if you're any good at tinkling the ivories, come and have a play on a Monday night, when we'll swap some good piano-work for meals and drinks, depending upon how good you are! 

Other stuff:

New menu hits the streets on Monday, with pineapple & cheese on sticks as a starter, more cracking Great British pudds and some cream teas, so you don't have to pay the exorbitant price tags elsewhere!  Our Sunday Roasts and our Friday Fish & chips are becoming rightfully appreciated and we're becoming known as a place which sympathises and understands allergies, so come along if you've got a dietary need or two, we'd be delighted to feed you, safely. Check out the Menu

So, 2013 is going to be a tricky year, but we aim to bring the Oxford Castle Quarter back to form & show what a spectacular corner of Oxford it is, we'll always have a good meal at the right price, no matter how gloomy the economy gets!

Happy 2013, Year of the Sausage

New Year - 2013 - Year of the Sausage

We had a busy Christmas period, admittedly we weren't on our finest game, but we had a lot of people who now know where the restaurant is and will hopefully come and see us when we're not flying around like a headless sausage.
Staffing is always an issue in a place like this, you can't afford to do what the chains do and recruit and train hundreds of people, you have to make the decision to either employ nice people and then train them to carry plates, or employ trained and tired waiters and train them to give a damn, I always opt for the first option, but it can sometimes make things tricky during those early months!

So, 2013, our resolutions are to give the very best service in Oxford, to have staff who actually care, and who aren't serving you from some laminated instructions from Head Office, but who are truly being Hospitable, we are in the hospitality industry after all.
We aim to give the best coffees and needless to say best sausagey based, Great British meal in Oxford, one which supports as many local farmers, brewers, vintners and vegetable growers, prisons and colleges as possible and we'll do it with continued style.

I, for one, can't wait for the sun to start to shine, as our Courtyard area will form the most amazing place ever seen in Oxford for when Bangers & Mash gives way to Barbeque and Beers!

Happy New Year, we hope to see you whenever you would normally have been going to a chain restaurant in 2013.

Max