It's not a bar or pub, though there's plenty of beer, not quite a cafe, though there's a brunch menu and coffee. No, Beef and Barley is more of a casual eatery, a burger and tinnie joint where the food come in little metal trays with matched beers.

It's on the far corner of the Kingston Foreshore, with Norgrove Park on one side and the lake on another. Bar tables out front, built on blue, green and red oil drums, a covered outdoor area with benches and little tables and a chilled out vibe of the kind that mandates Coldplay on the speakers. Waiters are friendly, casual, with time to chat. Canberrans who have brought their pups along for dinner get a lot of practice in doggie socialising with their burgers.

Each of the burgers comes with fries or coleslaw and there's the option to add a matched tinnie for an extra $7. There's a squid burger for your pescetarians, the inevitable mushroom veggie burger as well as the classic. Beers are from Yenda, Young Henry's and Canberra's own Pact Beer Co. There's also a wine list that hasn't been formalised beyond varietals at the time we dine (sauv blanc, rose, shiraz...)

Beef and Barley's burgers are a little on the small side - halfway between a slider and a full size - but each little tray comes with a big tangle of battered fries that are deep, crisp brown and crunchy. They're different enough from your standard fries to pique interest, though we do need to make a trip to the sauce bar for salt.

The American burger ($17) is your classic piece - a juicy patty, lots of cheese and curls of onion. It's a very good little burger for its kind, exactly what you'd want after a long day at work with a cold beer. Coleslaw on the side makes a nice change from fries but is rather rough chopped.

The "fried and spicy" chicken burger ($18.50) comes in a variety of heat settings leading up to "extra hot". Happily, this is well spicy with plenty of kick and the chicken itself is very nicely fried although under all that chili and heat there's a lack of seasoning. The matched Yenda pale ale is pretty standard and doesn't especially shine as a complement to the burger.

The Pedro burger ($18.50), which features chorizo, goat's cheese and onion, has aspirations to be a more upmarket burger but suffers from blandness. The sharp goat's cheese is probably the best thing about it but it could do with a lot more punching up.

It's a brave move to specialise in burgers with Brodburger in the neighbourhood but perhaps Beef and Barley works in a slightly different sphere - the post-work beers and chill crowd, more in the mode of Grease Monkey.

The burger list is nicely varied and the emphasis on craft beer is of the moment. It is early days and there are a few kinks to be worked out - seasoning has been inconsistent in my view tonight - but there's no faulting the location and the young owners' enthusiasms.