A restaurant whose speciality is BBQ might not sound like everyone cup of tea, but for me personally, the idea of melt in the mouth beef brisket cooked low and slow with a side of super sweet BBQ chicken cooked over apple wood is pretty darn appealing.
London always seems to be pretty hot on foodie trends so it's no surprise that restaurants like Big Easy, specialising in BBQ fare are springing up all over the capital. The draw of Big Easy is it's super reasonable prices and the fact that, as the name might suggest, it's pretty simple to find being situated in close proximity to Covent Gardens main piazza.
Now as a word of warning, I would say this place is more tailored towards those of us who enjoy our meat (see the menu above), so if that's you, I would suggest checking it out. The interior makes you feel as though you've entered an old school Texan smoke shack with its moody warm lighting, wooden interior and heavy metal touches.
The moody ambiance is added to with mason jar tea lights, neon lighting and chunky crockery.
Anyway onto the food and drink which is what we're all here for! On the drinks side, they have a rather substantial menu which includes bourbon whiskey, rye whiskey (actually lots of whiskey in general), delicious alcoholic slushies, cocktails on tap, craft ales and American ales if that's more to your fancy. Point being, if alcohol is your thing, you won't be bored here!
Now onto the food, and as it was our first visit, we wanted to ensure that we had a little bit of everything on the table to try. As such, we ordered the Bar.B.Q Blow Out which consisted of pit smoked chicken, dry rubbed pork ribs, pulled pork, cornbread, fries and brisket.
As the good arrived, we realised that perhaps we had over ordered, I mean this was for two! It also came with some coleslaw and I'm pretty sure some beans arrived at some point, but by this point I was in a bit of a meat based coma.
Thankfully, before we tucked in, the staff ensured we were fully equipped with bibs to ensure we didn't make a mess and wet wipes to clean it up if you do!
The St Louis dry rubbed pork ribs were especially juicy having been cooked for 6 hours in the on site smoker and then smothered in their own BBQ sauce. Both the Carolina pulled pork and Texan brisket are slow cooked for 16 hours plus, the pit-smoked chicken cooked for 2 1/2 (a slightly odd texture but still scrummy) and are all full of flavour and uber juicy.
I obviously cannot comment on authenticity in terms of flavour, but the Texan brisket was definitely my favourite, not overly fatty in terms of the cut and with a really rich strong smoky flavour. The chicken had a much milder flavour but was no less tasty.
All in all at just £21.50 per person, this is a heck of a lot of food and to be honest we couldn't finish it all so had to ask for the leftovers to be packaged up so we could take it home. The staff of course, we more than happy to oblige and we had the rest in sandwiches the next day.
Would we be back? In short, yes, whilst the food looked a touch expensive on paper, given the sheer volume of food, it does represent good value for money. Like us, you can always take your leftovers home if you can't finish so technically speaking, it's two meals for the price of one. There are plenty of other bits and pieces I'd love to try from the menu and of course, I'm always game for a blinking good cocktail, the menu here was a page long so I've got more I need to try!
Have you been to Big Easy? What do you recommend trying from the menu? Do you think it's good value for money?
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