Barbecoa

A typical Jamie atmosphere as expected. But based on the reviews I read, an unexpectedly great dinner! Just to clarify, yes it is a steak restaurant and yes, they are great at what they are doing. I had a simple fillet and it was one of the best steaks I ever ate. Even more stunning was the creamed spinach I had as a side. My mum had chicken which was quite unfortunately average. We were sitted next to a couple which had a quite unfortunate situation as one of them had to return his steak 3 times… Well what can I say… Their review would be probably very different to mine.
The service was great but perhaps quite slow. Everyone friendly exactly to telhe right extent. Overall, a great dinner and a fun night. I would recommend it to everyone!

Went their with somehow high expectations. Clearly a restaurant based on the idea of quantity over quality. It doesn't then help to be placed next to one of the tills, which means staff running around you constantly. Window table (for 4) next to us were seated with 2 people! Come on.

Had the Rib eye meal for two. Good quality (not medium rare as ordered though) but overpriced. Calamari and pig cheeks good choices to an ok price. Pulled pork was also very tasty and in line with “canteen” prices.

What made this night a night to forget, and means I wont come back, was the staff. Very unprofessional. Added items on the bill, lack of attention, rude and so forth. I dont know if staff quality comes with size of restaurant, but this was way below what you should expect.

Have been to Bread Street Kitchen opposite. That's a better choice. And do check out Madison at the top level. Nice bar.

I like the dining room, with the open kitchen set up, nice and buzzy. Food is good but nothing to shout about, i had steak tartar to start was a tad overseasoned, which was a shame and fillet steak for main, was very nice but not up to goodmans or cuts standard. having said that its not overprices and therefore i have been back on a number of occassions, entertaining clients and for groups its great fun, well done jamie!

Good Food in Comfortable surroundings. However it is OBSCENELY priced!!!

2 sirloin and 2 glass of red wines = £120!!! And that was for lunch too!

The restaurant is not even near the quality you would get for similar or even less amount of money at Hawksmoor, Goodmans and even touristy Gaucho!

What i find extremely irritating was that everything seemed set up to skim the numerous bankers that crowd the place at lunch time with their clients. I took a friend out there for some quick food and never expected to pay Michelin price for an average meal in brassiere style surrounding.

Portion of olives £4!!!

the steak comes on its own, add a couple of sides (all above £5) and you get to the hefty £120

TO AVOID AT ALL COSTS. UNLESS YOUR COMPANY PAYS. and even if your company pays choose a much better venue pls

120 quid buys you lunch at almost any Michelin Star restaurant in London

went on Sunday before christmas with wife and friends.

Lacklustre service further deplorable for their cack-handed attempts to palm of things on to us which we didn't want.

The food is best described as overpriced canteen food. I guess we'll have to wait for Pitt Cue Co. to see whether London will finally have a joint that serves good smoked brisket or pulled pork, because Babercoa 'sure as hell ain't servin' any!'

The location is nice enough, but the restaurant lacks any kind of warmth or genuine charm.

Now I hate Jamie Oliver as much as the next person, but, whilst every time those grating Sainsbury commercials come on I just want to take something large and heavy and batter him around the head, he does have a great brand. This brand comes from actually being able to cook, plus being a great marketer. It is just a shame that the latter is now more important than the former.

Much like the boy himself, Barbecoa seems to divide opinion very neatly between really hate and really love. I wouldn’t put myself in the really love this restaurant category, but it is no where near as bad as, having read some of the reviews below, I thought it was going to be. Maybe they have upped the game since opening, but I actually kind of like this place. Not so much that I wouldn’t still batter the living crap out of the annoying little tic, but I’d eat at the restaurant again.

Many years ago my office used to be on the site of what now looks like the stealth boat from Tomorrow Never Dies. Our canteen, which was on the ground floor, directly under what is now Barbecoa, was nothing to write home about, but I did once have an office that shared the same magnificent view over St Pauls. And this is a great selling point: big wide windows, terrific view. Shame that the room is L shaped and we were at a table with a view of the table with a view of the table that had the view of St Pauls.

The place is cavernous, double height industrial chic; all bare metal, brick and air conditioning ducts. The kitchen is open (or at least glassed off), with views over the barbeque pit and the grill.

We just had mains, and they were all rather tasty: the Lamb skewer was a couple of kebabs, some so-so mushrooms, and a big slick of what was advertised as ‘wet polenta’, but I’d never have guessed. It was very pleasant. Even if I had wanted the special, which had run out by the time I’d ordered it. Never mind, lamb kebab is never a bad choice, and this was solid chunks of Baa Baa, pink on the inside, charred on the out, with hint of grated lemon rind. The brined chicken came with creamed corn. I hate creamed corn, but it seemed to go down well enough with my companion who chose this, as did the plaice with my other companion. This was simply grilled with a small watercress salad. Simple foods, well cooked. There is little more to say about the food, or indeed little more that you could want from the cooking at any barbeque restaurant.

Service is ok; they got the orders right, they weren’t intrusive, they didn’t try and push us hard to ‘upscale’ with extras and didn’t really bother us, which again is all you really want at a place like this.

I may only have come here as Bread Street Social was fully booked, but I will definitely be back. Hopefully a little closer to the table with the view of the table with a view of St Pauls.

Don't get me wrong, I like Jamie Oliver, I just feel that he's a little scruffy, lacks style and whilst the food he combines is tasty, it’s a little of a hit-and-miss affair. Barbecoa is precisely this. The restaurant setting and atmosphere is good solid US steak house style. The food is generally tasty, but predominantly due to the fact it’s packed with salt. The meat is clearly well sourced, but there is no way this is hung sufficiently and the cooking style was incorrect across all dishes we sampled (Rib-eye, short ribs and lamb chops). Despite an 8:30pm reservation, we had to wait 30 minutes for a table. As we ordered a quality wine, this had to be sourced from the cellar and was served too cold. All in all, an experience I will not repeat. Avoid this one unless you want to be disappointed.

I visited Barbecoa on a business lunch with two other diners. The restaurant had been chosed becasue my guests were foodies and loved good steak. As we walked past the interesting Barbecoa butchers, our expectations were high as the meat looked excellent.

We were wellcomed with a smile and attentive staff and had a well situated table with a nice view of St Pauls. So far, so good.

The menu arrived and we were all underwelmed. The array of meats and cuts we noticed in the butchers seemed to have stayed there. The menu was simple (not a bad thing) but sadly lacking in any spark. (lamb kebabs with wet polenta? very uninspired)

Two of us had the pork ribs and the other oysters to start. The ribs arrived and looked OK but were soon found to be to dry and the meat too chewy. It tasted OK but I have had far better. The oysters were good and well presented.

Mains were simple-two fillet steaks and one sirlion. All three arrived and looked good. My fellow diners had the fillets and the first thing they commented on was the bonemarrow, that looked very tasty. Their steaks were good but not exceptional and the smoked bearnaise was bland.

My sirlion was placed on a flaccid pile of wet “pan roasted” escarole, tasteless and pointless. It also made one half of the steak wet, spoiling the chargrill texture. It had been grilled OK but again very ordinary-for a 48 dry aged steak it had little flavour. (i am not sure how you can spoil such a good quality ingredient to be honest)

Service throughout was OK. The wine list basic but fine. The sides boring and tasteless. (at this point, my review is depressing me!)

In my opinion, if you want to have a good steak, with Goodmans in the City is far, far better. The meat is cooked to perfection and the service is excellent.

The shame of it all is that the Barbecoa states it has excellent ingredients, all of the state of the art cooking methods but produces bland, expensive food-a serious rethink is needed by the management is needed, as this place has been found out to be lacking in all of the important departments.

No desire to return at present.

My wife and I visited Barbecoa this Tuesday evening to celebrate our wedding anniversary and were left feeling rather confused and empty following our two hour sitting. We arrived on time and were taken upstairs into a large L-Shaped dining room which looks like you have just walked into a mock South American Grill constructed within the confines of a brand new shopping centre. Decor is more on a par with a Nando's chain rather than a top-end city establishment.

Service was equally dismaying in this overly packed restaurant full of your typical city professionals. We were left waiting for a drink for at least 10 minutes which is disappointing in a restaurant of this price and hype.

On a culinary level the quality of the food is tasty but still not quite as good as one would hope. Our starters of calamari and smoked baby ribs had great flavour and certainly picked our spirits up however this part of the meal was again let down by the service because the Goddess Olives we ordered pre – starter didn’t turn up until after we had finished our first course. There was no apology nor realisation that this is simply unacceptable so we found ourselves eating a £4 bowl of olives ‘after’ our starters and across our dirty plates which sat uncollected for another 12 minutes (yes i was counting by this point as it was really going downhill).

On to the mains we ordered the Fillet Steak which was slightly overdone and the Short Rib was advertised by our waiter as bursting with flavour due to the 8-hours slow cooking technique of the chef. The Rib, served with a buttery mash potato, was initially a delight but quickly became dry and tough as one ate through it. It lacked a sauce or gravy to really bring the texture our and the sides we ordered of Beans, Creamed Spinach and ‘cold chips’ did little to appease us. Still thirsty because our bottle of Sancerre was placed in an ice bucket 5 metres away from the table we decided to skip desserts and exit the building.

The bill of £180 took over 10 minutes to arrive and then my wifes jacket was misplaced for another 5 minutes. In conclusion a disappointing and rather expensive meal in soulless surroundings with below par service. A shame as it was supposed to be a special evening.

Wonderfully sourced meat, fabulous bread and home made scratchings. Service very entertaining and attentive and fab views of St Paul's Cathedral. A real buzz and restaurant pretty full even on a Monday.

Downsides: plates were not hot, food was not hot enough. Would go again for the overall experience. Reasonable value

A bit disappointed with this overall. I went with a small group (6) for a dinner for a friend's birthday and it was immediately obvious that they felt they were doing us a favour by serving us. To begin with the cloakroom was full so nowhere to leave coats and bags, then the bar was too busy to have a drink at. We were shown straight to a table where we were promptly forgotten and when they did finally condescend to serve us, not only was it slow with attitude but a birthday cake which had been pre-ordered (and confirmed by them very efficiently on the day) failed to show and they could not have cared less.

Having said that the food was good (some of it excellent – particularly the starters) and the place has a lively buzz.

I visited Barbecoa recently with my family and was left feeling a bit…underwhelmed.

On arrival we were ushered to the cloakroom where they took our coats and the receptionist told us that we had to vacate our table by 9pm, i generally dislike an ‘out time’ but tonight this was no problem as we were off to catch a show at 9.30pm. We were given a table looking out at St Paul's Cathedral and given menus. Being a family of meat eaters we got pretty excited by the thought of lamb leg steak, fillet steak and pulled pork shoulder.

Our waitress eventually came over half an hour later to our table to take a drinks order (i thought they wanted us to be out by 9pm?) and we ordered breads at the same time for fear of having to wait another half hour for service. The drinks and breads were brought to the table and a couple of minutes later our waitress popped back to the table to explain to us what the breads were…but not before cursing her colleague who obviously didn't do it for her. The breads were absolutely delicious and i had to stop myself from filling up on them as i wanted to save room for the main event – the meat! The kitchen is very impressive, you get a clear view right into it as you walk around the restaurant. Two of the biggest tandoori ovens i've ever seen – no wonder, for all of that yummy bread. The equipment is still all new and sparkly, obviously well looked after by Adam and his brigade.

For the first time ever all four of us ordered a different starter and main course to each other and i started with the beef tartare. It was an excellent choice and of course i couldn't resist dipping into my dad's calamari and my brother's ribs. My dad chose a Chateauneuf du Pape from the wine list which was divine and a perfect match with our mains. My fillet steak was slightly overcooked but saved by the fact that it was such a beautiful cut of meat and my dad's rump steak was a little under for his liking. Nonetheless the food was fantastic, and i would have expected nothing less from Jamie Oliver and his commitment to high quality produce.

No time for dessert as service was a bit slow and we had to leave for our show.

A little over priced? Maybe. Especially as the interior seemed a bit sterile and you could imagine one in every shopping centre in London. It was really filling up by the time we left and the atmosphere was getting quite buzzy.

Perhaps ‘underwhelmed’ is a little unfair but having visited Jamie's Italian where the concept is perfectly matched by it's interior design i felt as if more effort had gone into the menu than the restaurant itself. But the menu is, without a doubt, spot on.

Would i visit again? If i wasn't picking up the bill, yes.

We litterally dropped in without a reservation late on a Saturday night. We got a table for two immediately (they had a no-show). We were wisked to the dining room by a very friendly maitre d'. The decor is very nice, modern but not run of the mill. We really liked the copper lampshades. However the room could do with a bit more light and it wouldn't detract from the sense of intimacy. It was so dark we had a real problem reading our menus. The menu is good if somewhat short. We both ordered the pulled pork, but there were a couple of other dishes that sounded great. The meat was impeccably coocked. The only problem is that the barbecue sauce was absolutely overwhelming and ruined the delicate flavour. A pitty for a piece of very good meat that must have spent several hours cooking (we mentioned that to the maitre d' and said that they are still “experimenting”…mmmhh). The portions are on the right side of large and the coleslaw that accompanied the main dish was deliciously made and very balanced in flavour. The wine list is carefully selected to go with the strong flavours. The Melbec is worth a try. However the puddings are a real revelation. The Vin Santo cake is absolutely incredible: spongy and light. Forget the rest and go for that instead. Overall a very pleasant experience. The service was very good and competent. For a fun night out accompanied by a good bite to eat and good lively atmosphere this is a very good place.

Since when are we supposed to be paying premium prices for cheap cuts of meat? This bothers me. I joined some friends at Barbecoa recently and had just enough time for one course so I ordered the crispy pig's cheeks charged at £8. I'm fine paying more for starters but it annoys me that restaurants don't seem to be passing on the value of cheaper cuts to us, especially when the portions are better suited to children. There was also nothing ‘crispy’ about these crispy pig's cheeks. Everyone elses courses seemed a bit his and miss too and luckily I didn't have to stay for more.

What I did find hilarious is that as I left the restaurant… there sitting outside was the American Chef Adam Perry Lang, effing and blinding at pretty high volume about how he is sick of this and sick of that and how he will “F***ing walk out of here”… Some kind of Chef drama to do with someone not placing correct food orders or something. Either way, HIGHLY unprofessional! I mean, if YOU owned a restaurant, would YOU stand outside it yelling at a member of your staff loudly about how crap everything is?

DEFINITELY NOT GOING BACK.

This is a very refreshing new restaurant situated right in the centre of town. The four of us really enjoyed our Sunday lunch here, and felt we could really take our time. The food is very tasty – a charcol / bbq flavour to every meal, which is so different and are great flavours all year round. The overall menu is quite rustic, consistent to Jamie's other restaurants which I love. We had the best table in the restaurant as we sat by the window right in front of St Paul's Cathedral which made the entire experience one worth remembering.

Barbecoa – maybe Bar-B-NO-GO!
Every wine was served warm, then each sold out! so we were left drinking water for 30 mins whilst something was found and chilled
Table layout “chef's view” is like an american diner, in a bad way. there is no waiter access to half the table, meaning passing of hot dishes/diry plates to the front – inevitably someone had a dirty fork in their lap.
Fair selection of starters, which unfortunately neither arrive together nor live up to their name..
Few mains to choose from, especially so when a third are substituted with “chops” as they ran out (we had a 7pm table!)
The GAME SPECIAL was sausages – WHOOP DE DOO…
The Bar-B-Q's meats are like at home, burnt on the outside, raw in the middle, & with the sides SO SALTY they are inedible.
STAY AWAY!

What a shame and a great disappointment. From the experience had yesterday for a late lunch I have to wonder whether Jamie Oliver has been into the restaurant. On entry the greeting was good, but the cloakroom is the size of a small shoebox and some of my guests were asked to keep their coats with them??!? The male WC was also microsized, needed a good clean and has the blowing hand dryer right by the backs of where the people are at the stand up urinal. All a bit awkward and not nice.Why on earth so small…it isn't all about the number of covers a restaurant has.

In terms of decor as a whole it was mixed; it felt like 2-3 restaurants put together. There is an area that has been fashionably left from the original shell the site will have been taken on in, to show the extract piping, but it just didn't work and we know it would have been done to save some fitting out cost. Lighting was too dark and the three tea lights put on the table (in coloured glass that had spilled wax all over the inside of them) didn't work…I had to lean sideways to see my food more clearly in order to separate the fat from the steak out more easily.

We were seated at one of the ‘bird cage’ larger round tables as the party was one of 7. Getting into the table was very tight indeed for anyone normal or above in size. Important to note to go to the WC before sitting down so as to not disrupt those around you to squeeze out during the meal. Once in it was apparent that the menus are far too large unless you alternate how each of you hold it. Once ordered, which took some time for the “2 minutes more please” to have a member of staff, different from the first, to return. My starter of baby rack ribs was pretty luke warm at best, but was very tasty. It was a surprise not to have any bread or olives etc put on the table while the starters were being ordered, or asked if we wanted any to get a larger sale.

Due to the table and seating layout all of us apart from those on the front end had to pass food plates, new cutlery, napkins etc around from the staff not being able to physically get to more of the table. Fine in a less formal tapas style and much cheaper establishment, but not here. Filling water and wine needed us to move our glasses further forward each time as well, which wasn't ideal. The main courses were ok, apart from the shocking version of ‘creamed spinach’ I had that looked more like Olive tapenade and tasted like I'm not sure what. The burger buns were burnt on the inside and no attempt to take it off; the chap next to me nearly choked from the charcoal on his.

Staff as a whole were ok. They were friendly enough but I got an idea that most were new to waiting. There seemed to be a good number of them chatting away randomly and that should not be done outside in the main restaurant.

A lot of the above may be teething problems and may be due to the later-mid afternoon start my table had, but it really wasn't what was expected and unfortunately will never get a repeat visit from me or my guests, or a recommendation for anyone else to try it. I had lunch today at the Gaucho Grill on Swallow Street and it was ten times better in everything. Perhaps my experience was a one off, but if not Barbecoa needs to really up its game if it is going to survive.

Warning! Beware! Watch what you eat at Jamie Oliver and Adam Perry Lang’s new eaterie, Barbecoa, in the New Change Development, EC4.

Yesterday, three friends and I decided to sample the much vaunted “celebration of the relationship between fire and food” that is touted as Barbecoa in EC4. The plat du jour – a salmon and noodle dish – came with complementarily coloured string masquerading as a noodle. Not unexpectedly, the charmingly embarrassed and apologetic waiter had the dish replaced immediately.

The second attempt, “a celebration of the estrangement between fire and food” contained more string and hurried undercooked salmon.

The manager offered the 2 uneaten dishes of salmon and string FOC. Not a hint of redemptive restitution for shoddy fare. Shame on you Jamie Oliver.

Needless to say, none of us were brave enough to try the desserts, nor will we be hurrying back or recommending Barbecoa as a ‘must visit’ venue.

Overall opinion: The square mile is Gordon’s for the gastronomical taking.

Had lunch here with the family on Sunday and was really impressed and its going to be a great success. Of the starters the crab cakes, ribs and pigs cheeks were big favourites. The pulled shoulder of pork was excellent. Jerk chicken could have been spicier. Service was very friendly and worked to compensate for any teething problems (of which we saw very few). Great building and look forward to many more meals here.
Just seen the moans from others – phoned up yesterday and got a table for Sunday!!! Can't wait to go back

How can you review a restaurant when you've never even eaten there!? It does make me wonder about some people, even if I do appreciate the frustration of unanswered calls… Anyway, to the food!

We had the “nibbles” as opposed to the proper starters, I guess they would equate to bar snacks, posh cheese on toast etc. Nice enough but I think next time I'd go for the crab cakes or squid…

Pulled Pork was not on the main menu, but was a special and is worth asking for – tender meat, sweet and spicy sauce (not too hot, but then I am a fan of the chilli!). Steak was excellent, you could taste the flavouring of the smoke and the general quality of the meat – large helpings too!

Sides were tasty, big portions and more-ish. Beware of over ordering though!

Puddings – See Food Fiends review (I'm Mr Food Fiend!)

The service (I think a girl called Rachel) was excellent, didn't mind Ms Food Fiend's somewhat fussy request to site RIGHT NEXT to the window with the great view of St Pauls. Explained all of the dishes well, spoke about Jamie's involvement and interactions with the staff (according to her, he is around during the week – but with the kids on Sunday) and was generally very friendly, helpful, and even got me some extra lettuce “wraps” for my pulled pork when I ran out. If the management are reading, put her in charge of the telephones!! (It might help to convert some of the poor “ratings”).

It was quiet – between 3-5pm on a Sunday, and I'd imagine that if you were turning up on the off chance of a space this might be a good time to go. I can imagine it getting packed during the week over lunchtime and dinner. And it's only the lack of “buzz” that drops the atmosphere rating down to a 7.

Go along on a Sunday, late lunchtime – give the people there a nice smile, talk about the good food and you'll probably end up with a table…

I have been to this restaurant and am therefore in a position to rate it . Good food and service in a stylish setting with great views of St Pauls
I will be going back.

Give Jamie a break!! I was told they got 5000 calls in the first hour! Definitely requiring sorting out though this place is sure to be popular. We also booked well in advance to get a weekday evening but had to move it – after a long time on hold, i managed to get a Sunday early evening slot. If you call, i recommend during the day/afternoon as ive always got through in reasonable time when calling.

Food was generally rather lovely – we started wit the chicken liver (good texture but slightly too generous with the salt) and welsh rarebit (slightly warm rather than hot). Mains – we shared the special of pulled pork – great flavours and lovely rustic presentation on blocks of wood all round. I also had the rump steak which was perfectly cooked. We had sides of creamed spinach and fries – both far too big portions in my opinion, at least three could have shared the spinach alone and we ended up wasting half. There is no salt/pepper so they obviously assumed its seasoned enough. The chocolate nemesis is truly delicious – i had heard stories of its loveliness at the River Cafe and i completely recommend it to anyone. Looks stodgy but was actually very light and enough to share. Service was great – very friendly, well informed staff. Our bill was £70 for 2 starters, 2 mains, 2 sides and one pudding (and a couple of non alc drinks)

Downsides – early on in the day, i tried to reschedule my booking slightly earlier online but it only had availability in Dec – when we turned up, it was 3/4 empty (around 4) and got a table earlier – despite the maitre D making out that it was a one time offer of an earlier table! Where were the other diners who booked!?

My thoughts – good food, well worth repeated visits – avoid the starters i picked, have mains but share the hefty sides and puddings to save money. If you have a big group, ask to sit in the cage things which looked funky but are for parties of 8 or more. The funky booths/leather area near the front is also somewhere i would like to sit next time rather than at the back with less atmosphere. Try a Sunday visit to ensure guaranteed seating – you could even drive in though even then, hardly any parking but at least you have the option with the yellow lines…Jamie – if you read this, the booking issue is the only thing dragging it down and getting bad reviews! Must be worth a bit of money/investment sorting it out…