Review: Red’s True Barbecue

Red’s True Barbecue

55-56 Great Eastern Street, Shoreditch

Meal for 2 inc. Drinks = £42 (service not included)

Red’s is a rare example of a restaurant coming down south to ‘try London out’. With solid followings in Leeds, Manchester and Nottingham, the northern barbecue warlords are cutting deep at the heart of London food culture in Shoreditch. It’s a big, saucy, spicy fight to pick.

Pomp and moxie apart, you could be forgiven for rolling your eyes at another American-styled barbecue and burger joint in East London (Granted, not as much as some have at another Pret in the area, but there you go.). They’re blooming like cherry trees in April with the Dinerama yard, Porky’s at the BoxPark and Red Dog Saloon all within a 5 minute walk; you might wonder why they chose their spot on Great Eastern street at all.

My visit came the day after their grand opening. Reds don’t take bookings at the weekend, so if you want a table and it’s not a school night you need to put some thought into it. The property is split into an upstairs dining room and a basement bar restaurant. Decked out in all the neon and shabby paintwork you’d expect of a True Detective set designer, it’s a restaurant entirely committed to its gaudy, southern theme. Each menu comes leather-bound, with a cruciform knife and fork embossed on the front and 10 barbecue commandments on the front page. A bit much perhaps, but then you remember their neighbours, and all of a sudden this commitment to the religious theatricality of the Deep South becomes respectable. It’s not enough to have authentic, appropriately smoked, well-sourced meat; you need to set it apart from all the other places that do it too. Anyone can put up a Brooklyn lager sign and talk about how they’ve been to the Carolinas; it’s something else to bring the Carolinas back with you.

A 10 minute wait in the bar, and we were led to our table, complete with rack of sauces. These range from the bright yellow ‘triple 6’ hot sauce, through smoky ketchup, to 3 different barbecue sauces from Kansas and North and South Carolina.

Front to back, the menu is massive. Those not set on glorious protein worship can opt for smaller plates – deep fried mac and cheese balls, jalapeno poppers and wings are all available in sensible portions. Our server points us squarely at the mains, which roughly divide into ribs, burgers, sandwiches and ‘meat plates’, where you pick your favourite cuts and sides. When our time comes, my partner ordered a full rack of ‘wet’ Kentucky baby-back ribs, and I settle on the ‘The Pit Burger’.

The ribs arrived trailing the sort of odour that leads dogs to forget themselves and turn on their owners. They’re a glossy, rich red-brown on the outside and pink from an extended stay in the smoker on the inside. The sauce clings pleasingly to all surfaces (face and fingers included), lingers in the mouth and nose long after the last bite.

The Pit Burger was a different beast entirely. In the heartland of the skinny hipster, that much protein in one dose could prove fatal. It is a monstrous creation, housed in two steak burgers, smoked brisket, pulled pork and house smoked bacon in a brioche bun. Maybe my senses were overcompensating from the panic at the size of the thing, but I could taste every bit of it in sharp relief. The brisket was tender and salty, the pork was heavily aromatic even though it was drenched in sauce, and the burgers were slightly chewy, juicy and deeply meaty. No corners have been cut in the preparation, nor in the presentation, as it arrives neatly stacked with a big knife stuck through the middle. In true Reds spirit, I commit entirely to the experience, fries (crispy and fluffy) and all. I stop short of eating the knife.

All thoughts of dessert are extinguished, and the idea that the tube station is more than a few feet from the door becomes instantly daunting. The bill arrives; we pay, and then spend five minutes talking through a few different ways to get ourselves out of our chairs.

Reds have not brought a knife to a gunfight, like northerners having a go at jumping on a London trend, it’s a demonstration in how authentic a place can really be. There’s theatricality to it, passion, and care going into the experience that other places seem to have missed. The hospitality of the South isn’t famous because it’s different, it’s famous because it’s so genuine, and Red’s have got that nailed.