The Rib Man

Excellent choice if you like a chunk of pork ribs with great satisfaction! I so wanted to get another one just to save it for dinner! And it’s only 5 quilts!!! The only downside is that they don’t serve napkins: P given that it’s so tasty and juicy with the hot sauce, you’ll get your hand dirty for sure.

I love ribs. When I moved to London I tried to seek out the best BBQ in London. It is no doubt the ribman! Not only is he very friendly, but he serves up the best ribs you will ever have. It is hard not to mention the holy fuck hot sauce, which has some of the best heat/​flavour ratio I have ever tasted in a hot sauce. You must get to bricklane on a Sunday!

Since joining Twitter and Unilocal and taking an interest in street food, I’ve always heard and read about the infamous Rib Man. I finally was able to track him down and try a rib roll. I was NOT disappointed.
A more than generous serving of insanely moist and flavoursome pork ribs in between a bun. What’s not to love? It was delicious. I understand why they sell out so quickly.
And that hot sauce. Oh god. It is amazing!!! Shout out to the BBQ sauce which is quite decent also.
His sauces are very popular and if you can’t make it to try the ribs, I suggest you buy his sauce from his website — that’ll convince you to make the effort!
Mark (Rib Man) is a really lovely guy, and is very dedicated to making ‘the best ribs in London’

Deliciously moist rib sandwich. I can understand the one reviewer who said it felt like the ribs were steamed that BBQ, but doesn’t make it anymore moist and flavorful. One nit pick would be the bits of crunchy char that were in my sandwich, but overall, a very delicious sandwich and as for the hot sauce – holy fuck.

I walked past on Sunday after a heavy brunch in brick lane and I was like OOOF I SO CAN’T MANAGE THIS. Luckily, 2 days later, they popped up at kerb at canary wharf, right under my workplace.
I was like, it’s meant to be! And everyone else thought that too because it was BY FAR the busiest stall at kerb. It was snaking around by the time I left.
Not surprised either– a white bap with piles of pulled pork on top like the size of a small child’s head. The pulled pork itself was tender, full of flavour and it worked well with their famous hot sauce! Could do without the bun, just the meat. Like a cave WOMAN style. yeah, its that good.
Beware, meat coma and meat sweats but regret. Never.

I’ve been visiting The Ribman every chance I get since first meeting him a couple of years ago. For a while that was every Sunday, but unfortunately less frequently since moving down south.
I’ll admit that I’m biased, I get free ribs and sauce for designing the Holy Fuck sauce logo a couple of years ago (Mark is seriously generous, there’s no way I should still be getting free stuff) but visiting eating one of those rolls, stuffed with far more meat than makes economical sense and slathered in one of his tasty but torturous sauces fulfils some kind of primal urge inside me. I’m a meat fan above all else and this meat mountain is all I ever want.
Don’t go expecting a rack of ribs — they’re bbq’d overnight until the meat can be pulled off the bone — you get more meat that way anyway. Don’t go later than about 1300 — even cooking half a tonne of ribs, Mark still sells out every time he trades. Also don’t pass up the chance to buy a bottle of Holy Fuck (or hotter sauces) — they’re far from your average super-​hot chili extract sauces, they’re super tasty as well as mega hot and you will be addicted after one taste.

My noble eating companion, Gaz, was not so noble this time round having had his iphone mugged in a dark alleyway. Selfish. So another round of shoddy photos it is then… this seems to be a running theme. Thinking of renaming this the shit photos food blog.
The Ribman (as pictures in all his ribby glory) is a bit of a hero, anyone who is up and ready at 3am preparing food can only be described as that. This is another sell out place, i’d suggest getting there well before 2pm. Well worth a sober Saturday night.
Where? The Ribman, Brick Lane
What? Rib Roll — £6
Yays — THE MEAT. Next time i’m just going to ask them to forget the roll and just whack a great big portion into my hands. That’s a ridiculous idea actually. The tender baby back rib meat just falls apart in your mouth but you can still taste the remnants of the slightly sweet but smokey barbecue marinade. Since all the hard work is done for you, there’s no mess or bones. Though i do secretly love watching my pile of meatlessly clean bones grow, like a dug up ancient Indian pig burial ground, after tackling a full rack. Also a big plus in my books is the HUGE portion, i rarely feel full from the portions of street food but this was close.
Nays — It’s called Holy Fuck sauce for a reason. I like to think i can handle my spice, see insert of my giant tabasco bottle for reference. But this was something else. A few bites in and ‘oh, this isn’t too bad’.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS CHIKAY LO.
Gaz used the term ‘slow burner’ to describe the scotch bonnets… and that they certainly were. A few bites in you feel the slow tingle of spice which then escalates to a throbbing sensation around the ears. Beyond that is a bit of a blur. i might have started to hallucinate. Who knows? The sauce was hotter than i could handle but still relatively enjoyable. When i go again i’m definitely getting the holy fuck sauce again with the knowledge that the lassi/​milkshake stall across the road is my haven. The mango lassi (£2.50) from across the road was much needed and delicious.
8.5÷10 9 with the mango lassi plus my desert of baked cheese cake (70p!!!) from the beigel shop down the road. BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS OR WUT.
Best ribs in London? I’d say so.
More reviews of cheap eats and street food in London by Chikay Lo at

Giant pile of super tender rib meat with some awesome sauce… Yes please! Although I enjoy eating ribmeat off the bone, the rib meat sandwich is a nice change. They generously pile on the meat and the juices and sauce are soaked up by the bun. We tried the bbq sauce but I will have to try the spicy one next time!

This place is the real deal! The pork was so tender and the «HOLY FUCK» hot sauce is really tasty. Highly recommend this spot if you go to the Brick Lane Market on Sundays!

Quite a disappointment. Patronised this vendor at the London Street Feast in Haggerston. I had the ribs, and it seemed like they had been boiled and then had BBQ sauce poured over them; soggy is not a descriptor I had ever applied to ribs until this meal. The sauce tasted alright but the meat was flabby and chewy. I’d be willing to give these guys another shot, but this first experience was pretty rough.

When you need some ribs, and you’re in the mood — who you gonna call? The Rib Man! Unfortunately, this master of meat on a stick (or rather bone) doesn’t deliver so as they say — when the ribs won’t come to you, you gotta go to the ribs!
The Rib Man can be found dishing up succulent ribs during the week at King’s Cross Boulevard or most Fridays at London Street Feast (currently up at Camden Town Brewery). The offering is pretty straight forward. You can get a plate of ribs (roughly 8 – 10 medium sized ribs) or a rib meat sandwich. Both provide a substantial amount of tender juicy meat although the sandwich is noticeably less messy to eat. However, I prefer the hands on experience of the full ribs as there is nothing better than reliving those primal memories of tearing out hunks of meat with your teeth.
Anyways, once you’ve made your choice, pick a sauce to douse said ribs in. There are typically a few different options ranging from mild and tangy to hellfire. The man behind the ribs looks tough enough to make it to hell and back and I wouldn’t be surprised if he had found the fire for some of his sauces along the way. I’m no stranger to chilli but the new sauce he was trialing (name to be decided) had me in tears in seconds!
Overall, it’s a good value delicious meal hot off the smoker and it’s hard to get much better than that. I’d like to see something of a side to go with it… maybe some sweet cornbread… and a bit better bun for the rib meat roll but minor points to improve on I think.

I take my barbecue pretty seriously and have fairly high standards, considering I’m from the US. while you will probably never find bbq ribs in the UK that can beat what they have in the states, The Rib Man is as good as it gets around here. i had a full rack of ribs which were cooked fresh, very flavorful, moist, tender and the meat slides right off the bone just the way it should. his bbq sauce is pretty darn good as well, not too tangy or overpowering and complements the flavor of the meat very well. considering this all cost £5, you really can’t get any better than this. next time i’m looking forward to trying the sandwich and his special hot sauce. definitely plan to bring some friends here.

HOLY F**K!
Having read a lot about The Ribman and amazing sauce I needed to go get me some. As he says on his website. He is at the market from 3am ready to serve his slow cooked ribs by 9am. So I planned my Sunday around getting one of his famous rib rolls with the oh holy Holy F**k sauce. But disaster struck. He sold out the Friday, thus resulting in not being open on the Sunday. I tweeted him my sadness. To which he replies I could order his sauce online. I got the ol’ plastic out and within a few minutes the sauce was ordered.
Mark makes his Holy F**k sauce him self. I will tell you the name really says it all. Made with scotch bonnet peppers and naga jolokia you cannot take the sauce lightly. It packs a punch of heat but a very addictive flavour. When I first got my bottle I put it on EVERYTHING (to the dismay of my bowels) Anyhew… The Ribman states his ribs are the BEST in London. The meat is so tender and melts away in your mouth. I do believe these are the BEST RIBS IN LONDON!!!