Red’s True Barbecue

Fun setting and decent BBQ. I had the Pitmaster sandwich with onion rings and the jalapeño and cheese cornbread. The sandwich was pretty good, huge and I ate it deconstructed. The brisket was mostly just the burnt end with not much meat on it. The jalapeño cheese sausage was good. The cornbread was cold and would have been much tastier if it was warm. Service a bit slow, but lots of variety with sauces.

I was stay nearby visiting clients. I’m a big BBQ fan, and have been to every BBQ region of the US and most iconic restaurants. I ended up downstairs at the bar. That’s what I wanted. What an inviting space. I couldn’t have enjoyed the next couple hours more. Watching people enjoy the food, watching the drinks being made, enjoying the food and drinks, it was all great. The cocktails were above standard, and the BBQ I had was really good. You could drop this into a BBQ region in the US and it would not go out of business.

I really wanted to like Red’s after visiting the Leeds branch but after trying it twice I think that you can just find so much better BBQ in London.
I’ll start with the service. Haphazard is probably the best way to describe it. On my first visit I ended up with a completely different beer to what I ordered. Unfortunately for me it tasted terrible! Luckily the manageress was on hand to sort it out. On my second visit we were on a slightly bigger table so I could be a little bit more forgiving however after yet again delivering incorrect beers to the table (again well sorted out by the management) I had to wait 15 minutes for my next one. After bringing this to a different waitress’ attention I was told that they had been forgotten about!
Onto the food. I think I’ll go with disappointing for this. I’ve tried a variety of things from the donut burger (far too sweet and just didn’t work for me), a brisket sandwich which was probably the main that I tried, some king of chicken waffle sandwich (dry, sweet, burnt… just all kinds of wrong) as well as the sloppy Joe special that they had on recently. This just looked like a bit of a mess on a plate and sadly tasted like it.
One thing that I would recommend is the BBQ beans side with burnt ends. This has never failed to disappoint and if I ever found myself in Red’s again I’d probably just eat a load of these. Probably not good for whoever I was with!
The service is better than they food but sadly both let it done. One to avoid

Oh dear god!!! I didn’t think bbq in the UK could be this good. When you walk past and see the sign «Free Smells» it brings a smile to your face… then you go inside and you are truly thankful for the said free smells. Its just amazing.
Ended up here on a Friday night and were told it would be an hour for a table. Urgh was my initial thought but we made our way to the bar and continued our mission to consume all of the IPA London ahs to offer.
Once seated we soon decided that the key was to order as much meat as possible.
Chicken Wings, Brisket, Burnt Ends, Ribs, Smoked Chicken… pulled pork. Then to the side dishes, mac n’cheese, sweet potato fries… frickles…more fries… CORN BREAD.
So so much food and it was all. well truly amazing.
I encourage you all to go there NOW!

The food here is next level good. Try the bbq plates option as you can pick n mix just like being at your best friends BBQ. That is if your friend is incredible at cooking
Staff is super friendly and lovely too so the experience is just brilliant

There’s been a lot of hype about this place, so was looking forward to some excellent BBQ. Unfortunately, I left disappointed and peckish for something else.
We were a group of 11 on a Saturday night, and although it was busy, and people at the door were being told it was a two hour wait, there seemed to be tables left empty for a while. Service was slow — I had to actually go find someone so that I could order a drink! (Maybe that’s why the wait for a table is so long.)
When I ordered some sloe gin, it took them three times to get it right! The first two times, when I told them they’d got the order wrong (they brought over gin, not sloe gin), they simply pointed to the ticket and said «no, it says sloe gin on here». All three waitresses who had looked at the order didn’t know what sloe gin was… and it appears neither does the person working the bar!
The food was average at best. I ordered a full rack of baby back ribs, with skin on fries and slaw. I also got the frickles as I wanted to see how they compared to the Meat Liquor deep fried pickles (which i absolutely love). The ribs were tough, and for a place dedicated to BBQ, you really shouldn’t be getting it so wrong. The frickles also didn’t compare to Meat Liquor’s.
I won’t be making a trip back to Reds any time soon. If the service had been better, I probably would think about giving them another go to see how the rest of the menu stacks up.

True, pure gluttony. Red’s is some of the best BBQ I’ve had in my life. Don’t miss the brisket, and if you’re a little intoxicated consider digging into the appetiser fries, which are topped with pulled pork, cheese, sour cream and are incredible in an I-can’t-believe-I’m-eating-this-shit kind of way. You’ll walk away a pound heavier and feeling like a million bucks.

AMAZING. We have eaten at BBQ joint all over America, coast to coast, Memphis, St. Louis, you name it, and none were as good as this. Cooked perfectly with all those tasty burnt bits, the sauces on the table were all fantastic (I even liked the vinegar one and the mustard one, and I’m normally not a fan of either).
We got the Shredded pork and the baby back ribs. The full rack of ribs was smaller than we get in the U.S., not sure why, but still a plenty big portion (the difference being that in the U.S. I’d be taking a doggy bag home, whereas here I was completely satisfied, but no leftovers). The shredded pork was the best we’ve had, it’s normally a bit too wet or a bit too bland, but this one nailed it, but again, an adequate but not huge portion. I guess I need to start thinking more England, less America when doing these size comparisons.
For sides we got the BBQ beans, chips, and cornbread. The chips was a little too small a portion, it needs about ¹⁄₃ more. The chips were good, but nothing out of the ordinary. The cornbread was far more dense than we are used to, but was very tasty, not complaining. The BBQ beans, OMG, it was more like a side dish of brisket with some beans thrown in, just the way I like them, a dense thick blob of beans and meat with no resemblance to any English baked beans. The portion size on those was more than enough. I will be getting them every time I go back.
My only negative is we went downstairs to the bar while waiting for a seat, and got two highly priced (£8 each) cocktails. My g/​f liked her Hedgerow Honey, but my bloody cow was an incredibly bland vodka and tomato juice, even though it boasted several interesting ingredients. It was also supposed to come with a beef jerky wedge, but didn’t. It also wasn’t spicy, even though I’d asked if they could make it spicy, highly disappointed, especially at those prices. The girl who made it and served us was very nice though, and did go and get us a little plate of jerky bits when i asked for my jerky wedge.
But forget that, the food here is amazing, and that’s really why you are here.

Aside from the burnt ends, cornbread and the brisket, pretty good for London. I read some bad reviews about the donut burger so even though I really, really wanted to try it, I didn’t. Besides, it was a bit expensive if I wanted just a taste. So, instead we ordered lots and lots of meat. The bucket of bones was good, particularly the beef long. The sweet potato fries were good too and my fellow diner enjoyed the peach cobbler for dessert. Interesting beer list although I feel like a lot of places in London are now doing the same «interesting» beer. I’m not sure if I would go out of my way to return but I would recommend it for barbecue in London.

Dagnabbit!
I really hoped this place would be awesome! If it was as close to perfection as it is to my office, it would be a 5 star place, but it let itself down hugely.
I’ll start with what was good.
The waiting staff. Lovely people who seem to enjoy working there.
The atmosphere. Seems cool.
But here’s the problem… What’s bad?
The food. The food is bad. Damn!
Chicken wings that are burnt to a crisp, and dry. With hot sauce that just tastes of hot without compensating by way of flavour.
Ribs that don’t have a lot of meat on them.
And it’s a chain.
So it’s a fair way off the mark. Doesn’t come up to the standard of abode and let alone the likes of Big Easy to the west.

This is a really great barbecue joint. They had a live bad playing American country rock music which really set the tone of the restaurant. It has a really cool atmosphere, a nice vibe and fantastic staff. What you expect for a barbecue restaurant chilled out and perfect to sink a few cold beers, relax and enjoy some great food.
They have an amazing menu everything sounds mouth watering good, I wanted to try everything. Along side a punchy menu they have a drinks menu to rival any great bar in london, with a fine selection of craft beers wine and cocktails, and a downstairs bar to accompany it and relax either before or after your food.
The food was packed full of flavour some of the best barbecue I’ve had in London. We had a group of four and as we wanted to try everything we went for the four person feast which was indeed that. You could probably feed six with it.
Highly recommend Reds and i will be returning as there is more of that menu i want to try.

Wow this place is good.
The experience starts when you walk in and the whole place smells like bbq all smokey and delicious. The waitress was really friendly but did start off by telling us what they didn’t have, which was a bit odd but was soon forgotten.
Anyway, we were sat and drinks were ordered and came very quickly, cider a beer and a gin and tonic. All of which were very nice! The food though, was the star of the show. I ordered a pulled pork sandwich which was juicy, sweet and smokey. The bun was soft and the pork was very tender. It came with sweet potato fries which were really crispy and yummy!
One friend ordered a bacon cheeseburger which was well cooked and juicy while the other friend ordered the doughnut burger. This was immense. Two steak burgers, melted double cheese, smoked peppered bacon, dirty sauce and deep fried crispy onions, all between two sweet glazed donuts. It was a thing of beauty. My friend assured me it tasted as good as it looked and he came out of the restaurant one happy bunny!
The service was fast and friendly and the atmosphere was like that of a good ol’ american bar. The bill came to about £16 each which was not bad considering how much food there was and overall we left feeling full and content. I would definitely go there again and try some of their other crazy menu items such as The Sleepy James, which was southern fried chicken breast sandwiched between two waffles, that’s right I said WAFFLES! with peppered bacon, shredded lettuce, burger cheese, slaw and ranch dressing. Cant wait!