Monday 18 August 2014

Top 10 Best BBQ Restaurants in London

Sunny skies and warmer temperatures bring out the culinary chefs and carnivores in all of us, and so it’s no surprise that summer is the season of the BBQ here in Britain. Whether you’re after a relaxed BBQ joint or something a little more sophisticated, we guarantee to have something to whet your appetite. Here’s our pick of the best BBQ restaurants London has to offer, serving up succulent steaks, tender ribs and juicy burgers just the way you like them.
1. Q Grill  BOOK Q GRILL
Camden
Q Grill
Situated in the heart of buzzy Camden, Q Grill is a chic and industrial-looking BBQ restaurant in London, filled with chesterfield sofas, stripped wooden floors and low-level lighting. Succulent meat cuts, juicy poultry and fresh seafood is infused with BBQ flavours and cooked over the charcoal pit. Tuck into the Bannockburn rib eye for 2, or the whole garlic and lemon chicken. With sides including creamed corn and house slaw, this is BBQ fayre at its best.

2. Pitt Cue Co
Soho

Image: Hotel Club
 Sometimes good things come to those who wait. With space for only 30 diners at any one time, bagging a table at Pitt Cue Co BBQ restaurant in Soho is a feat to be celebrated, and when you’ve tasted the food, you’ll definitely want to go back for more. Offering informal BBQ dining in the intimate restaurant, slabs of steaks and meaty ribs are served up along with side dishes that include bone marrow mash and grilled lambs hearts. A carnivore’s paradise.

3. Forge Bar  BOOK FORGE BAR
St Paul's
Forge Bar
Searing cuts of succulent steaks and sizzling spit roasts are cooked up before your eyes at Forge Bar in St Paul’s, with meats made to order and barbequed over the open-plan furnace. Signature specials from the charcoal pit include rack of coca cola-glazed pork ribs and a 20oz tomahawk sharing steak for 2, while the spit offers cider-infused belly pork and spit-roasted chicken, marinated in fennel seeds, cumin and coriander. Arguably one of the best BBQ restaurants in London.

4. The Blues Kitchen  BOOK THE BLUES KITCHEN
Camden
The Blues Kitchen
With all the heady glamour of a New Orleans blues joint, and with a liquor selection to boot, The Blues Kitchen in Camden serves up a hearty BBQ menu, perfect for a slab of summer indulgence. Cooked over fruit woods in its own BBQ pit, the beef brisket joint, glazed with a beer and hickory BBQ sauce, is slow smoked for 20 hours, while the pork ribs is smoked for 12. Melt-in-your-mouth BBQ meats never tasted so good.

5. Duke’s Brew & Que 
Haggerston
Duke's Brew & Que
Taking residency in a former 18th-century brewery, Duke’s Brew and Que BBQ restaurant in Haggerston prides itself on its classic southern American BBQ fayre and craft beer selection. Excellent meat cuts are smoked slow and low over the imported American wood burners to create an intense BBQ flavour. Norfolk pork and Irish beef ribs are offered alongside 21 day aged sirloins and pulled pork.

6. Smokehouse
Islington
Smokehouse
Seamlessly fusing classic BBQ fayre with something of a fine dining experience, Smokehouse BBQ restaurant in Islington focuses on locally-sourced ingredients and quality food. Highland cattle meat sourced from farms in Yorkshire is barbequed or smoked over sustainably-sourced English oak. Dishes include short rib Bourguignon and smoked ham hock with pig cheek, and pulled pork features on the menu as a side dish. For sophisticated BBQ dining in London, look no further.

7. Sticky Fingers  BOOK STICKY FINGERS
Kensington
Sticky Fingers
The brainchild of Bill Wyman, original bassist from The Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers BBQ restaurant serves up classic American BBQ food in a relaxed and buzzy environment. Menu favourites include 12 hour slow-smoked beef short rib, and a classic ‘pig’ burger, topped with honey-seared bacon and pulled pork. Classic BBQ sides include pulled pork beans and fries with chicken salt, and the bar serves up bourbon milkshakes and fragrant cocktails.

8. Joe's Southern Kitchen & Bar  BOOK JOE'S SOUTHERN KITCHEN & BAR
Covent Garden
Joe's Southern Kitchen & Bar
Serving up the taste of the Deep South in the heart of London, Joe’s Southern Kitchen & Bar offers hearty southern-inspired BBQ fayre that would make even Louisiana residents head in droves. 8 hour slow-roasted beef short ribs are marinated in Joe’s BBQ rub and plated up with house slaw, while shaved beef rump with horseradish onions is sandwiched in a bun and served soaked in gravy.

9. Hawksmoor  BOOK HAWKSMOOR
Seven Dials
Hawksmoor
Serving up dictionary-thick slabs of prime British cattle, hailing from award-winning Yorkshire farm The Ginger Pig, Hawksmoor at Seven Dials is a paradise for meat lovers, making it the perfect joint for a BBQ in London. Hawksmoor plates up enormous cuts of succulent fillet, rib-eye and bone-in prime rib steak, weighing in at 500g, and are tenderly cooked over BBQ to give them an intensely deep flavour while maintaining all the natural juices. For steak barbequed to perfection, look no further than Hawksmoor - a heaven for carnivores.

10. Bodean's BBQ
Fulham
Image: Food I Fancy
Intent on bringing the authentic taste of Kansas City, USA to London, Bodean’s BBQ restaurant in Fulham isjust the ticket for classic American fayre in a modern and stylish diner setting. With all manner of accolades including ‘Best Ribs this side of the Atlantic’ (Time Out), Bodean’s menu cooks up a charm with its in-house oak-burning smoke pit, serving baby back ribs and slow-smoked chunks of beef brisket with pulled pork. 
About The AuthorGrace Elisabeth Cook
Grace is a freelance writer currently based in Newcastle. Her main loves in life are food, fashion and the Queen. She is a keen baker and mean cupcake maker. 

As a child with a long list of food allergies, until the age of 14 Grace lived on a diet of sausage and chips and chocolate biscuits. Since then, she has branched out and discovered her love of authentic Italian and Indian cuisine. She is also something of an afternoon tea connoisseur, and as a result is a self-confessed jam snob. 

Her favourite London eateries are The Tea Rooms and The Hummingbird Bakery. 

You can follow her on twitter @graceelisabethc
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