The restaurant will be serving up jaw-droppingly juicy burgers from a spot on Camden Road, writes Marijke Hall

He’s won over the Tunbridge Wells masses with his seriously juicy burgers, creating them from the kitchen of The Sussex Arms on The Pantiles.

And now Richard Oddy - the brainchild of Roddyburger (@roddyburger) - is expanding, opening a restaurant on Camden Road.

The premises, formerly Delaney’s, will have an eat-in restaurant on one side and on the other a bar and take-away, where you can have a drink while you wait for your food.

There’ll also be specially curated beers by Fuggles Beer Cafe (@fugglesbeercafe) among a selection of craft drinks.

Amazingly, before launching Roddyburger, Oddy hadn’t worked in the restaurant industry, but his independent burger business has fast become a runaway success.

“I’d lost my job due to the pandemic and although I wasn’t twiddling my thumbs, I had a mortgage to pay and so thought I’d try something,” he says. “I love burgers and to be brutally honest, I didn’t think there was a good burger bar in Tunbridge Wells.

“I saw a gap in the market. I’ve always been a home cook, I love doing bbqs and cooking from scratch and so I started Roddyburger at Sankey’s.”

That was in December 2020. Four months later, Sankey’s needed its kitchen back as lockdown started to lift and so Oddy moved to The Sussex Arms (@the_sussex_arms).

“It just grew from what was initially something to do into a proper bonafide business, with four full time employees,” he explains. “It’s gone from strength-to-strength and the most logical step was to set up our own restaurant, which I’d always had at the back of my mind.

“Hopefully we should be open in the first couple of weeks of May.”

He says the public seem to love his burgers, with turnover going up every month meaning he’s also been able to take on more staff.

He’ll continue to run the service from The Sussex Arms, too, even when the new restaurant is open.

So what is the secret to his success?

“I wanted to make the best burgers possible and so we use quality ingredients,” he explains. “Our beef is all ex-dairy aged beef so the flavour in there with the high fat content is superb and that really sets us aside from other competitors.

“Plus we make everything from scratch, right down to the sauces. We source our buns from the local bakery.

“We’ve basically tried to take the burger back and look at every aspect of it to make the tastiest, juiciest burgers possible.”

He says the new premises is the perfect spot for the expanding business.

“Camden Road is really up and coming, it’s become the road in the town for small independents to set up,” he explains. “There aren’t really any chains and from a food perspective it’s going from strength-to-strength.

“There are a lot of fantastic restaurants and bakeries there, and we’re right next door to a bottleshop.

“It’s the place to be really. We’re lucky to find such a great premises.”