IN my defence I will say that in these trendy burger bars where the young staff are cooler than cool with super-fashionable jeans and chic tops it can be hard to know exactly who are the waiters.

So my apologies to the slightly startled young, trendy couple who this decidedly unfashionable, middle-aged, besuited man marched up to demanding a table, a menu and, most importantly, an alcoholic drink.

Simply hanging around to get served themselves they had the good grace to laugh. Naturally, being English, I spent the rest of the meal desperately trying to avoid their eye, not easy in this small, cosy venue.

Still, hopes were high for the food. In fact, having read the online reviews, they were sky high. “Hoboken is, without doubt, the most amazing meal my partner and I have had as a couple,” said one. If that is to be believed it’s not bad for what is, really, a simple if higher-than-usual class American burger joint.

That said, it’s a burger joint with a little style. All the meat is smoked on-site and there’s the rustic, at-home table features. Instead of napkins there’s tea towels and there’s nothing as fancy as a table cloth: we eat on a distressed wooden table. It’s all designed to make you relax, feel at home, and it works. That said, the food served in baking trays, yes, baking trays, may be a step too far.

I had enjoyed the website pitch used to make funny, tortured links between Hoboken, home of Frank Sinatra and On the Waterfront and Darlington. I smiled at: “Like Darlington’s bigger, brasher cousin, Hoboken was the site of the first American steam railway...let’s all celebrate this tenuous link with, burgers, brisket and beer.”

The waitress (the real one, and yes, she was wearing trendy jeans) had the same laid-back style and was friendly, quick to smile, quick with information.

My earlier embarrassment over, I began to relax over my beer. Even the lager fits with the general down at home in old-time America theme. Called Anchor Steam and it’s not cheap at £3.50 a bottle but the blurb says it was created in 1876, long before modern refrigeration made traditional lagers a California option thanks to an ice pond found in the mountains during the Gold Rush. It’s nice and cold and I decide I want to believe the story as I scan the menu.

The food is relatively, pleasingly cheap and the menu disarmingly simple. They don’t do starters but will serve up side-orders quickly if you’re really hungry. They don’t sound that appealing, ‘burnt ends’ anyone? Apparently that’s charred beef brisket tips. How ‘hush puppies?’ That’s cheesy beer-battered corn doughnuts, a depression-era favourite, no doubt for reasons of financial desperation. Others sound much nicer and are everyday; onion rings, fries, buffalo wings...classic American burger joint fare.

We decide to go for the main course and I have the burger that bears the restaurant’s name, the Hoboken Burger. It costs just £7 but if you want anything else other than the burger, including salad or fries, it costs another £2. The meat is tender, smoked in-house over 14 hours, and on its own is very good. But the taste obscured by some sort of salty mess, like deep-fried strands of onion ring batter, on the top. At least it had the virtue of being easy to scrape off.

My partner, Simone, has the chicken and chorizo burger, also £7 with some coleslaw at another £1.50. It has that lovely, smoky, paprika chorizo taste and is filling.

We enjoyed it as a kind of relatively cheap, midweek dinner. It was relaxed and had an element of fun with a nice atmosphere with eager-to-please staff and we would recommend it. But, of course, it wasn’t quite “the most amazing meal my partner and I have ever had,” as that ecstatic reviewer had it.

Surprisingly for a restaurant based on the cuisine of the land of the super-size, go-large, gut-buster burger there’s reasonable healthy, vegetarian options.

But, in the line of duty you understand, we decided to forget healthiness altogether to ask about puddings. There was nothing on the menu but we were told home-made ice-cream available but that was all and, on a cold night, we didn’t fancy it. “Our owner sometimes makes home-made puddings and brings them in though,” said our waitress. We liked the homeliness of that and it made me want to come back to try my luck at getting a real, home-made desert another time.

There’s an extensive cocktails list for those who maybe want to stay longer. However a negative online review complained that the cocktails were not in fact available after all. Hopefully that was not typical. In any event, while eating out of a baking tray, it didn’t quite feel quite grand enough for a cocktails night. It’s beer and burgers in a homely atmosphere and it’s fine.

Hoboken Grill

36 Duke St , Darlington, DL3 7AQ

Tel: 01325 486620

Web: hobokengrill.com

Open: 5-10pm, Tuesday to Friday and 11am-10pm on Saturday. Closed Sunday and Monday.

Disabled access

Ratings (out of ten): Food quality: 7 Service 8 Surroundings 7 Value 7