Pitt Cue Co.

I’ve finally made it to the permanent base for the Pitt Cue Crew in their new premises in Central London.

I’d eaten at the food truck under Hungerford Bridge a few times last year and was more or else impressed with their food that they managed to deliver.

London is not known as an epicentre for good barbecued food. An Englishman’s knowledge of food cooked on a charcoal grill is normally undercooked burnt sausages on a cold, wet, windy Sunday afternoon.

The locals from the American South and Mid West would wage war on what we call barbecue. But we are a slow nation and new things like this take their time to come to us. But how many people would want to wait 24 hours to grill a brisket or 6 hours to slowly smoke some ribs in their back garden. Not many.

It’d been a while and a few failed attempts to eat at the new shop, but long queues and bad weather always kind of put me off. Queuing in the rain ain’t fun.

So, as I’m coming to the end of my lazy days before starting a new job in a week or two, I’d arranged to meet J before he flew to Hong Kong, luckily he was on a midweek weekend from work. So we met outside the restaurant just before noon so we could snag a table before the expectant queues came.

As it turned out we didn’t need to turn up early, as by the time we left there were only a few tables taken and none upstairs.

The menu itself is short and sweet, the mainstays of pulled pork, pork and beef ribs, with those good ol’ barbecue sides of pickles, baked beans and spicy coleslaw. Excellent.
I was in the mood for some ribs, so I opted for the pork, but after seeing the beef ribs go past I wished I had gone for them. I also had a side of baked beans as well as pickles and bread. J had the pulled pork and the coleslaw, which we were told was quite spicy.

The bourbon menu is very good and we had a couple of pickleback shots that went down a treat before the meal arrived. The pickle brine definitely helped to neutralise the burn of the bourbon on my throat.

The meals are served in enamel dishes, which are becoming the plate of choice in trendy East London these days.

The ribs themselves, 3 and a generous portion were really tender, I mean falling off the bone tender, but with enough bite in there not to be mush. Good job. The taste was ok, but I never really got a strong smoky flavour that I was hoping for. The beans were cooked well, seasoned ok, but again they were lacking in any strong barbecue flavouring.

The pulled pork again was cooked very well, soft and fork shredded, it had a little spicy kick, but was lacking a little in barbecue taste. The coleslaw was a tad disappointing, it wasn’t really spicy at all, or are my taste buds just needing more these days.

The pickles and bread were good accompaniments, but even though it was a large chunk of bread, I wanted more to mop up the sauces. I’m never satisfied.

The meal was finished off with a Snickers Mess, which I never tried, but was reliably informed it was top notch, and served in a water glass.

We also had a couple of glasses of Pikesville Rye, which being 40% proof, it was remarkably mellow on the throat.

All in all I’m not sure whether I prefer this shop or their wagon under Hungerford Bridge. Downstairs in the shop is a little gloomy with the low lighting, and the tables are really pushed together, so they can fit in as many people as possible. We were in between two sets of chatty folk, so having a conversation got harder as the liquor was consumed.

There still is room for improvement at Pitt Cue Co. but apart form Bodeans this is really the only dedicated barbecue joint in town, and as I love barbecue, I’ll be back.