It is another of those restaurants that started as street food, operating in some obscure food market or next to a pub, devised by some talented chefs with a real passion for the few things they are cooking, grilling or flipping. They then get permentant residence somewhere, make it look grundgy but ultimately cool, have a no reservation policy so people (the chef's frriends and B list celebrities) can not push in and generate a word of mouth which keeps the queues constant.
We arrived at 5.45pm on Saturday and the queue was already at least 30 people and they hadnt even opened yet. It was my birthday, it was raining and I was queueing.... but somehow I was still excited (the scent of thick BBQ sauce floated on the air) and just hoped we would make it through the doors at 6pm when the kitchen opened. The people in the queue around us helped, everyone being friendly and excitable too. At a few minutes past 6pm they started letting people in slowly, very slowly, I suppose they need to try and regulate the flow of people for the kitchen. By the time we got in at about 6.25pm, the downstairs restaurant was full but we could stand at the bar and have a cocktail (or three) whilst we waited.
The cocktails are whiskey heavy and strong, I went for the Hard Lemonade first and Mat one of the bottled ales. It was yummy and even though strong and tasting of whisky, surprisingly easy to drink. The second cocktail, a special Soho Sour was great but a little strong for me so I went back to the Hard Lemonade and Mat switched to the on tap ale - Whatever.
We finally got downstairs at 7.40ish, and three cocktails in I was on my way to merry and starving, so we may have ordered a little too much food... but no change there!
The tables are communal, with only about 20 seats making the space cosy and bustling. We went for some ribblets to share which were coated in a thick, gooey slightly spiced BBQ sauce, these disappeared very quickly.
Whilst waiting upstairs we had been eyeing up the food served to those who had the few window seats in the bar area (a place we were offered to sit but as it was so busy we waited until their was space downstairs) so we knew we wanted the pork ribs and the pulled pork, which we shared - based on the reviews and hype of this place you can probably guess how good they were, the meat just feel of the bone and pulled pork makes my mouth water thinking about it. I was surprised by how impressive the sides were - the slaw and burnt end mash were great, the mash topped with a layer of stewed meat in a thick gravy. We also went for the jar of picked vegetables, a really clean taste to cut through all the heavy, rich meat flavours.
Even though stuffed, I had to have a pudding to justify the wait. A bourbon soaked sticky toffee cake served with salted caramel ice cream pushed me over the cliff and into fit to burst, but in a good way.
If you like meat, especially pork - this is the place to go. I would definitely go again but the queue is off putting and you need to prepare for the wait which does take away from the magic of the meat.
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