We visit American Grill on a Friday afternoon, just as it is wrapping up its brunch buffet. With large windows and comfortable chairs, it already feels less like your typical burger joint, where waiters wear goofy hats and the walls are covered in ‘flare’. It also smells amazing: the entire room swirls in barbecue sauce richness.

My dining companion for this round is from the Southern United States, so he knows barbecue. With that in mind, we go for the buffalo chicken quesadilla and the barbecue wings to start. The quesadilla is a surprise: generally, Tex-Mex food is a delicious, if heart-attack-inducing, mixture of cheese, cheese and more cheese, but this is actually rather delicate, with a subtle spicy kick that’s just right. The wings too are delicious, but messy: this is not the restaurant to go if you’re trying to impress someone with your ability to get food from the plate to your mouth, without smearing it across your face. But they’re literally so tasty, albeit a little over sauced and sloppy, that we don’t particularly mind licking our fingers.

But, we are here on a mission: we’ve heard about these burgers, and they must be tried! We go for the hickory barbecue burger (as our napkins have already suffered enough not to inflict them with the chilli burger), and the grilled boneless chicken. Both arrive promptly, on giant platters. This is truly epic amounts of food. The burger needs to be cut in half with a knife before it can reasonably be eaten, and comes with a mountain of golden French fries – easily shared, and enough for two.

The chicken comes with vegetables and rice, and is glazed lightly in barbecue sauce. The burger itself is mammoth, yet tasty – topped with onion rings, cheese, beef bacon and yet more barbecue sauce, it’s got that rich beef consistency you want when you’re craving a burger. Again, the seasonings are dead on: not too spicy, but not too bland, and the chefs have not resorted to just dumping tons of salt into the mix. It’s a subtle burn that I’m assured tastes like barbecue is supposed to. The bun is fresh and soft, and though it has to be cut in half, the burger stands up well to such treatment.

Stuffed, we still move on to dessert – it has to be done. This is the sort of place where you expect to find home comfort food for dessert, nothing fancy, something childlike. And the menu won’t disappoint, with chocolate volcano sundae, an ooey-gooey piece of chocolate cake, so soft it’s almost like a fondant, topped with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate sauce and a cherry. My friend goes for the warm chocolate brownie, topped with ice cream, and our first thought is that, while both are tasty, they’re also remarkably similar! The cake is amazing, and it comes served in large old fashioned soda shoppe-style glasses, with real whipped cream. The only disappointment is a lower quality vanilla ice cream: the whole thing could have had us licking our spoons if the ice cream had been just a little richer, without the chemical aftertaste.

But this is a great spot if you just want a little bit of American home cooking without the swag on the walls or gimmicks. It’s simple, the spices are incredible, and it’s higher quality than a drive-in. We’ll definitely back – once we’ve digested.

The bill (for two)
1x barbecue wings QR29
1x buffalo chicken quesadilla QR29
1x hickory barbecue burger QR45
1x grilled boneless chicken QR45
1x café latte QR15
1x tea QR12
2x soda QR12
1x water QR6
1x chocolate volcano sundae QR38
1x chocolate brownie QR38
Total (incl charges) QR259