Austen’s

I’ve been to many BBQ places across the world and think this is an absolute hidden gem in North London. The beer is fantastic (I recommend the Weissbier) and with succulent juicy ribs, fantastic Mac n Cheese and a dessert called, «Crack pie», they have a great recipe for success.

Overrated affair for an early evening midweek family meal.
I arrived with much anticipation with my wife and 3 year old son. Quickly shown a table and once the food started arriving I was quickly disappointed.
Ribs over priced, fatty and bland.
Brisket was thin, tasteless and cold. I was glad the table sauces were tasty otherwise it would had been a disaster. The hot bbq sauce was the highlight of my meal, made a great dip for everything.
My chicken wings’ starter arrived at the end of the meal after I had to ask where they were, when they did arrive I told my waitress they were cold, she replied with a «sorry» and that was that. I then realised my coleslaw hadn’t arrived. So in essence I had that for my dessert.
Mac and cheese was not nice, children’s smoked sausage came sliced and any juices had vaporised in the oven making them dry, no vegetable option on the kids meal.
Chips and sweet potato chips were drenched in salt and we had to order another for my son «without» salt.
Bernstein beer was nice but at £4.5 seems a bit over priced. Vanilla milkshake was runny and not thick as expected.
Shame, as the venue and setting is very nice, but ultimately the food and service lets it down. I have eaten in lots of smoke houses in the states and they pride themselves on good food, shame I can’t say the same for Austens of Kensal Rise.

As someone who loves the developing scene in Kensal Rise I was eager to try this place as soon as it opened. A friend and I came along on a Friday evening and were able to get a table quite easily, however, after speaking to others booking is recommended to avoid disappointment.
The sausage here is the best thing about the whole place in my opinion. A plate of sausages and some of their mac and cheese and I would be happy! The lemonades are a nice touch but the portion size is a little small in my opinion. All of the condiments are really nice and I appreciate a restaurant that knows the importance of a good BBQ sauce.

There’s a rumour going around that Austen’s BBQ is the little sister of the much loved Bodean’s chain. I wouldn’t be surprised if that were true, as Kensal Rise’s newest addition is on par with the same delicious meals that any Bodean’s regular knows and loves.
The restaurant is just the right size to offer its diners a chilled but fun atmosphere without feeling too crowded like some other places. The food is well cooked, full great flavours without overwhelming the meat and their selection of sides will keep any fussy eater happy.
If you’re planning on stopping by for dinner, I’d recommend booking yourself a table.

Basically a cool trendy place. That’s not a put down, the décor is what you would expect from a new restaurant of this genre, there’s a dj playing downstairs, the menu is expertly designed, and food is served on trays and paper plates. All very on point and a great place for friends to hang out.
Shrimp po boy was good, pulled pork was average as was the Mac and cheese, the coleslaw was tiny. Front of house still needs a bit or work and it’s not cheap but you pay for the ambience and although trendy it doesn’t feel fake.

Visited 14÷8÷2015: Austens is a good place, soon to be a great place, and I’ve no doubt that this review will increase the stars in time. But to say Austens needs to iron out some issues is only fair.
Four of us ate here for approximately £130, the end bill a result mostly of our enthusiasm to try as many starters, mains, desserts, & drinks as possible. So it’s actually alright value (approx £30−40 each). Though I’d now just get a pulled pork based dish, or sandwich.
+ The staff are amazing. Won’t say a bad word against our perfect waitress.
— Starters: the ‘Hush Puppies’ we’re basically fried dough balls, and weren’t too impressive. Worst was the ‘chilli jam’, which was sliced red chilli picking in vinegar. Not even close to jam; pre-​jam possibly? Did ye run out? If not, go have Dishoom’s chilli jam guys. We ordered Fried Pickles aswell, and was more flavoursome with the ranch dip.
+Mains: in an effort to taste all the meat, we ordered 2x£25 meat platters expecting Pulled Pork, Ribs, Brisket, southern fried Chicken, Toulouse Sausage. When they came out looking a bit sparse, the waitress informed us that due to customer feedback they had removed the ribs and added more pulled pork to the platter, and offered to get us ribs/​which we took.
Now, this is where I’m left down. The ribs we expected originally cost us £16 extra for 4; and weren’t mind-​blowing. In fact they were bland; deliciously tender, but we smothered them in sauce for flavour– possibly why got removed originally. And while the pulled pork is AMAZING, the problem remains that the Sampler is not value for money without a decent wide selection. That’s the whole point of it; our ribs should have been complimentary given we ordered expecting them.
+ Spicy chicken was good, brisket was tasty, and the sausage was deliciously smoked.
+Sides: BBQ Pit Beans were delicious and recommended. Onion rings were tasty and crisp, but the chips were basic. Learn from Patty&Bun or Honest Burger!
— Desserts: completely underwhelming. Cookies & icecream was one giant cookie, not warm but at least soft, with a scoop of icecream. Key Lime Pie was a needed citrus blast after all the meat, but a bit sickly sweet and almost fake.
Drinks: The Beers are not pints! They are ²⁄₃^rd of a pint (schooner), and for full pint price it’s a bit cheeky at £4.50. The best beer by far is the ‘Friday’ £4.70, as voted by our table en masse. Austens own house larger was fine, not a shining jewel. The Lebowski ‘Hard Shake’ was a decent milkshake but didn’t taste like there was any alcohol in it (the measure is 25ml) for £8.5. If you like a bourbon to wash down the meal, the Elijah Wood 12yr is my recommendation for a drink if you like (no ice, trust me), but with a 25ml measure you may feel it’s a bit dainty.
Sauces: a huge part of the BBQ/​smokehouse set up, they were also hit and miss. The ‘Fiery’ sauce wasn’t hot by any means, and the ‘Carolina’ while tasty was so thin it was watery– they may need to fix their thickening agent. All agreed the mustard sauce was the nicest.
Interim verdict: Go check it out. We’ll be back to see how things are coming, but we know what we’ll order for future visits (pulled pork/​sandwich. Friday schooner, Brunch starting September 2015 will be the true test for Austens. The local crowd love their brunches, but hard to see a hardcore following if they can’t nail some changes needed, lest they carry over into it.

Good menu, great décor, lovely proposition.
Food is overall good — our various food was very good, except my pulled pork sauce which was tear-​makingly sharp.
Service is friendly but inexpert. Our waiter
— wasn’t quite sure what some of the menu items were and did some not very helpful guessing,
— didn’t write down our order, saying in an unconfident way she thought she could remember it all (why not write it down?).
— didn’t react to my feedback about the sauce with any comment — and maybe my comment will be passed back to the manager, maybe it won’t.
— waited +5 mins in between us asking for the bill and giving it to us, for no obvious reason.
We got asked whether we wanted any more drinks a lot though.
I’m being picky because those kind of things can so easily be sorted by better management and Austen’s could do with knowing about it. Staff were all 100% very nice, if not well managed in some key respects.
We’ll go back for sure, because it’s overall great BBQ, a really nice vibe and hey, DJ Yoda!

Fantastic authentic southern bbq. Great quality ingredients and incredible sauces. Service was excellent (thanks Jason), more like US service than what you usually get in London /​UK. Décor very cool, own brand lager definitely worth a try. Can’t recommend highly enough. Just go!