Barbecoa

I took a client here for dinner last night having been a couple of times before.

The service was excellent as was the food. This is my favourite restaurant in the City.

Thoroughly recommended for a business lunch or a romantic dinner for two.

Cannot wait to go back again.
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Ms Chris Minshall
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, March 06, 2013

We eat here on Saturday and the experience for us was greater then expected. Our 13yr old daughter found this restaurant as she is a Jamie fan and told Dad to book it for my birthday. Upon arrival we were greated by a very pleasant lady and moved upstairs where we were shown to our seat. Our waiter introduced himself to us and went over the specials in detail. We ordered cocktails which were served quickly. Our food was absolutely delicious and the service was very good. The waiter must of heard us mention birthday as my dessert came along with Happy Birthday pipped in chocolate on the plate. My husband especially like the whisky's on offer and our waiter certainly knew his whisky's. The atmosphere was lively and very casual with a beautiful view of St Paul's. There are lots of helpful waiters. All in all a great place to eat. Will have to go again as my daughter wants to go.
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Karen
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, September 24, 2012

We visited Barbecoa this evening and, in short, the experience was so bad that we didn't even stay to eat. We hadn't booked and asked if a table was available. The welcome was less than warm but after some slightly grumpy checking we were told that we could have a table. We were then told, very coldly, that we could only have a table for 90 mins. We said that would be fine provided that they could serve us in that time.

We were then 'handed on' to a lady with an earpiece. We felt like we were being marched off for further questioning as opposed to being welcomed. We were taken to a somewhat dark corner table and left with some menus.

Some time later, a very pleasant waitress arrived. She then told us that there was an equipment failure in the kitchen and that a significant number of the items on the menu were unavailable. At this point, we were getting quite worried that the evening would be awful so we asked to see the manager.

The manager arrived sometime later. I told him that the experience had been very poor so far and asked him if the whole evening would continue in similar vein. I said that we would prefer to leave rather than have a bad experience but he apologised for the poor service and assured us that all would be fine. He offered us some drinks which we declined, explaining that we didn't want any freebies, we just wanted some good food and an enjoyable evening.

Our waitress re-appeared with some mineral water and left us to make our choices from the items that remained available on the menu. Shortly afterwards another lady appeared and said that she would like to offer us another table so that we could stay longer. Once again, we felt like we were somewhat of an inconvenience, but we agreed to move.

We were then taken to what I can only describe as the worst table we have ever been offered in a restaurant. We were effectively in a corridor and the table was too small for four people. At this point, we had definitely had enough and we left.

We are generally fans of Jamie Oliver and have had good experiences in many of his establishments. This was, without question, the worst 'welcome' we have ever had in a restaurant of any standard. Jamie is often very keen to give his opinions on the quality of food and service provided in other places. On this occasion, I think he needs to take a much closer look at what his own operation is delivering. Very disappointing.
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0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Saturday, August 25, 2012

Our first visit to Barbecoa,invited by my Son.Service was very good..Lovely choice on menu.The food tasted amazing,lovely flavours that went well together.Definitely recomend a visit.We shall certainly be back on our next visit to London.
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Susan Tait
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Friday, June 22, 2012

I must come to the defence of this restaurant (at least from some recent reviews) and say I had a great experience here. I cannot help feeling a combination of a couple of isolated cases and some jumping on of band-wagon's is going on. Not to mention it appears quite the fashion to knock 'celebrity chef' restaurants at the moment. So I want to put that aside and give an objective review.

I will start by saying the service was fine and very friendly. I think maybe sometimes with service you get out what you put in, unless you are at a formal venue in which case you get impeccable but impersonal service.

The atmosphere, I absolutely love, especially at night. Unfortunately I didn't have one of the seats overlooking St Paul's Cathedral. Next time I will make sure I do.

I guess it may not to everybody's tastes but with a name that translates as 'Barbecue' one might forgive a little smoke in the air.

Moving on to the food: We started with some 'nibbles' (which arrived promptly - Pork Crackling, jumbo green olives and bread. They all tasted fantastic, and honestly the best crackling I've ever had. The olives were impressively huge and very tasty. If you do have a big appetite the portion of bread was very generous and offered about 4 different varieties for a fiver - not much more than you'd pay at Paul's!

So for a starter, I ordered the Baby Back Ribs and again - delicious. Very well cooked, 'falling-off-the-bone' tender, great sauce, the only thing I might possibly complain about is the price / size. But I didn't. They were not as big as a main, but for a starter they were fine and I thought £9 was quite fair.

Anyway, I was already starting to feel a little full and didn’t want to take the edge off for my main - the 320g Sirloin (a little over 12oz). This is sizeable though not cheap by any standards, at £30. In fact this is £7.50 more than Gaucho, if this were a benchmark. It is the same as the Hawksmoor, but possibly just marginally smaller.

So I assure you my expectations were high; it had to be up there with the best.

It did at least include some mushrooms ('cep') on the side, although extra sides like chips would be another £4-5.

There are cheaper main options from £16 if you want the experience of the place and the view (which I maintain is a massive selling point) on a tighter budget.

On that note: The wine and champagne is very well selected and excellent value; I would say most if not all are only about a 40-60% mark-up on retail prices. House white / red is available in a half litre carafe for £12

So how was that steak? To my relief - excellent. The quality of the meat was at the higher end, but the seasoning made all the difference - I found this superb, a real authentic yet unique barbecued taste. I guess this could be a matter of taste, which is the only reason I would hesitate to give top marks. But for my taste, this was much better than a Gaucho or a Hawksmoor, certainly in the Sirloin stakes (sorry!).

When I go back, I will definitely be trying the Fillet to see if it trumps in this cut also.

Price here is £35 per 225g against £25 and £32, so again I have great expectations.

I'm afraid I didn't have a dessert because I was fit to burst after all that. I did see a few and they looked good. But they were £8 so not at all cheap.

Overall- I would definitely return for a romantic evening or with friends for some other special occasion. Though it was not cheap, I certainly did not leave feeling cheated. If I could afford it I would come much more often; and I personally would certainly choose it over the competition. But some may consider a 'celebrity chef' restaurant like this shouldn't be considered in the same breath as the Hawksmoor; it does not have the pedigree. I think it has a right to be there; this is the 'new money' of the steak world.
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Noel
8 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 6
Friday, May 18, 2012

Great location, great views, nice enough staff, average to disappointing food, overpriced for what it is.
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3 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 1
Wednesday, May 09, 2012

We went to the restaurant on a Sunday night to cap off our anniversary weekend and was really pleased with our choice.

The atmosphere was good and it was busy for a Sunday night in the city (all of the other restaurants seemed dead).

We had some starters, baby ribs and Calamari, which were good, although maybe slightly expensive at £9 and £10 for not huge portions.

We then got the Rump Steak and Burger and Chips which were excellent. The food really was tasty and we were certainly full at the end of the meal.

The stand out thing for us as the service, we were served by a Scottish girl and she was extremely friendly and interested in how are meal was without being too much. She was knowledgeable about all the specials and each meal and was giving the table next to us information about the local nightlife. Great advocate for how staff in a restaurant should be!!! The rest of the staff were also friendly and it made the experience.

All in all I thought for a celebration it was a great place. good food and good service, certainly not cheap but a I left full and happy.
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Matt
8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 6
Monday, March 19, 2012

We never received any food (not even bread) as the smoke that the restaurant is so proud of penetrated the entire restaurant and unsettled the fire alarm system - this meant that some areas of the kitchen were open and other areas were closed.

Unforseen events do happen, however how you respond to these situations really differentiates strong and weak perfomance. Unfortunatley the team at Barbecoa really didn't care about us. Their advice was for us to wait all night and order an expensive steak that we didn't want with a limited selection of sides that may or may not arrive at some point during the evening.

Luckily we escaped before the situation became any worse. The team at Barbecoa were unapologetic and offered no solutions - clearly they have so many customers they don't need to offer care and attention to all of them.
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Tony
0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Friday, March 02, 2012

We didn't start out on a good footing, because I asked for a lunch table at 12.30 and was told they could only do 12.15 or 12.45... this is the kind of response that always gets my back up. So i got there at 12.22 to a virtually empty restaurant. By 12.30 it filled a little but was by no means full, so why not just give me the time i asked for in the first place?

Anyway, i had a starter of smoked beetroot salad - three pieces of average beetroot, a few very small dollops of cheese and some not especially fresh watercress on top. Very poor value. My main was the pulled pork and waffle, which i really wanted to enjoy but the bbq sauce was just too sweet and the pork too dry, despite being a generous helping.

Decor - too many hard surfaces, way too noisy. And wooden floors near kitchens often seem to result in an ice rink effect (especially in heels) so why do they still do it?

Service was friendly and efficient, so points for that, even though the lady on the door seemed baffled when i asked why i couldn't have just boooked the stoopid table for 12.30 in the first place. i won't bother again.
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HW3 - View all reviews by this user
5 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 3
Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Fantastic!!!

I went for lunch on 17th February with a friend, the food was fabulous and reasonably priced!! I wanted to try everything on the menu!!

This is not a Brazilian BBQ or an American rib and steak joint, it is Jamie and Adam's take on a theme and it is done very well and without costing a fortune.

The room is large and buzzy which I personally like. The view I had of St Paul's was fantastic and my friend had the fun of watching the rest of the dining room.

I'm looking forward to going back with my wife in the very near future.
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RalphT - View all reviews by this user
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 8
Monday, February 20, 2012