Have you ever wondered where you can find the best BBQ restaurants in London? Well, here you have our compilation of the places where you’ll eat the best barbecue grill. You’ll know what we’re talking about; massive slabs of juicy meat, mouth-watering vegetables, or sweet fruit, plus the amazing flavour of smokey charcoal covering it. Here’s a rundown of the best BBQ restaurants in London for you to discover this Summer.
1. Acme Fire Cult
Acme Fire Cult takes the first spot as London’s best barbecue and it’s hard to argue with that given the stunning array of roasted smokey stuff they have to offer. The live-fire concept from chefs Andrew Clarke and Daniel Watkins is dare I say, straight fire. Dishes include the likes of Tamworth pork belly, hake wrapped in hispi cabbage, beef rump, mutton merguez, vadouvan spiced chicken skewers, and the absolute must-order Coal Roast Leeks with pistachio romesco that reinvents the flavour profile of the vegetable completely. As a plus, it’s mere steps away from a London craft brewery, so there’s plenty of fresh beer to go with the BBQ’d goods. With sunnier times coming along, gather your hungry pals and tuck in!
📍 You’ll find Acme Fire Cult at Abbot St, London E8 3DP.
🚇Nearest stations is Dalston Junction and Dalston Kingsland.
2. Berber & Q
Bringing together smokey barbeque and culinary influences from North Africa and the Middle East, ex-Ottolenghi chef Josh Katz’s Haggerston railway arch haunts Berber & Q nails two major food trends.
This restaurant offers dishes including Grilled chicken with preserved lemon, black olive, saffron and an orange glaze and honey-roasted aubergine with fermented kohlrabi, tahini dressing and hazelnut dukkah.
📍 You’ll find Berber & Q at Arch 338, Acton Mews, E8 4EA.
🚇 Nearest station is Haggerston.
3. From The Ashes
Another beer-adjacent offering, the BBQ maestros at From The Ashes have built a name for themselves by blending the worlds of smoke, fat, and flavour with their delectable dishes. Sustainability is at the heart of what founders Martin Anderson and Curtis Bell are all about. As such, they use a variety of different techniques and inspiration from all sorts of cuisines and focus on one animal at a time. This allows them to explore unique cuts and special BBQ offerings that you won’t get anywhere else.
They were once a pop-up at Five Points’ brewery taproom, but now they’ve settled into a more permanent position in the brewery’s courtyard. Five Points is set to become the go-to hotspot for BBQ fans and beer-heads thanks to the award-winning tank-fresh beer, and ultra-smokey BBQ. When it comes to BBQ restaurants in London, it doesn’t get much better than this!
📍 You’ll find From The Ashes at The Five Points Brewery & Courtyard, 61 Mare Street, E8 4RG.
🚇 Nearest stations are London Fields and Cambridge Heath.
4. Big Easy
The Big Easy is quite popular among the best BBQ restaurants in London, and is packed with the guests wearing bibs tucked into their collars – which depicts a real good-time restaurant if you ask us!
Diners can relish a variety of specials that honour the restaurant’s namesake city in all its sinful splendour, such as unlimited shrimps on Tuesdays, boundless Wednesdays – which may include infinite chicken wings or fajitas varying depending on the location and steak – and lobster on Fridays.
📍 You’ll find Big Easy at multiple locations across London. You can find out more here.
5. Parrillan
Parrillan is a must-try restaurant if you’re craving grilling in its truest sense, because you’ll be required to make your own meal here on the tabletop parrilla. There’s a sizable assortment of grillable foods, including meat, seafood, and vegetables.
For example, the fat scallops and prawns here are all of excellent quality – therefore don’t ruin the meal by burning them! And slices of dry-aged beef and duck breast are equally appetising. Additional benefits include the trendy Coal Drops Yard location and the outdoor terrace’s views of the Regent’s Canal.
đź“Ť You’ll find Parrillan at Coal Drops Yard, King’s Cross, N1C 4AB.
🚇 Nearest station is King’s Cross St. Pancras.
6. Hotbox
Hotbox, which started as a thriving street food business and has since grown into a full-fledged restaurant, offers succulently flavoured smoky meats. Before digging into heavy mains like the piggy burger or pork ribs of St. Louis, composed of pulled pork collar, beef, cheese, and pickled onion, choose a starter like buffalo wings or crab sliders.
You cannot miss the mesmerizing cocktails offered by Hotbox like the bourbon-based Mint and Lavender Julep or the gin-based Basil Brush.
đź“Ť You’ll find Hotbox at two locations – HotBox Market Hall Fulham, 472 Fulham Road, London, SW6 1BY and HotBox Market Victoria, 191 Terminus Place, London, SW1E 5NE.
🚇 Nearest station is Fulham Broadway and Victoria.
7. Jin Go Gae
Chef Cho, a former chef located in Seoul, established the genuine Korean restaurant Jin Go Gae, and when he couldn’t find any authentic Korean BBQ in London, he became motivated to create his own restaurant.
Jin Go Gae provides a small yet lively atmosphere while striving to produce some of the greatest Korean BBQs in London. You can spend a fun evening dining in style with friends and family – sounds pretty good to us!
📍 You’ll find Jin Go Gae at 272 Burlington Road, New Malden, KT3 4NL.
🚇 Nearest station is Motspur Park.
8. Gogi
Gogi is a central London Korean BBQ restaurant that serves fresh seafood and marinated meats. But most significantly, this cutting-edge, industrial restaurant serves some of London’s top Korean barbecue. At Gogi, you can taste your tableside barbecue while overlooking the Little Venice Canal. Gogi features a covered patio with tables if you’re interested in relaxing outside and enjoying fine views of West London. Sounds good to us!
📍 You’ll find Gogi at 451 Edgware Road, London, W2 1TH.
🚇 Nearest station is Edgware Road.
9. Pitt Cue
After moving from a Soho shoebox to an open Spitalfields dining area, this BBQ Mecca has garnered a large following owing to its smoky slices of premium meat. Pitt Cue presents alternatives from the grill and the smoker, roasting its meat on a big, shining grill arranged right at back of the room.
If your appetite requires further whetting after you’ve finished the smoky beef neck with black forest mushrooms, choose the barbecued monkfish with blood orange and fennel.
📍 You’ll find Pitt Cue at 1 The Avenue, Devonshire Square, EC2M 4YP.
🚇 Nearest station is Liverpool Street.
10. Bodean’s BBQ
In the British capital, Bodean’s BBQ has now been operating for over ten years. The restaurant serves you a delicious plate of Americana and was designed by Kansan native, Andre Blais, who was designing his restaurant after the best traditions of American barbecue establishments. The tastiest ribs and sandwiches this side of the Atlantic have been awarded to Bodean’s; if you like the cuisine you can also purchase a cap, t-shirt, or bottle of secret sauce to duplicate the experience at home.
A specialty is slow-smoked ribs with sticky sauce on top. Along with homemade coleslaw, briskets, burgers, pastrami on rye, burnt ends, pulled pork, and chicken are also prevalent.
📍 You’ll find Bodean’s BBQ at 10 Poland Street, London, W1F 8PZ.
🚇 Nearest station is Oxford Circus.
11. The Blues Kitchen
At The Blues Kitchen, you’ll discover a whole range of American food and music. It’s most definitely one of the best BBQ restaurants in London that takes great satisfaction in serving up real Southern BBQ cuisine. The in-house slow roasting of meat is done using a barbecue pit, and the music here is pretty bloody great too!
Ribs, pork belly, and chicken are all slow-cooked for minimum eight hours over fruit woods. After that, the meat is rubbed with a blend of spices and secret BBQ sauce too. Along with the ribs, pulled pork, and chops, which are served in Southern American style, you can enjoy a burger, a cup of fries, and some homemade slaw too. In addition to serving jambalaya and gumbo soups, they also provide thick shakes, cheesecake, and pecan pies for dessert.
📍 You’ll find The Blues Kitchen at various different locations across London. You can find out more here.
12. Smoking Goat
Smoking Goat is another smokey BBQ favourite,but this one specialises in Thai barbeque food. The menu changes constantly, but all of it is kissed on the open fire and the grill at the centre of the restaurant. But be warned – they serve up some SERIOUSLY SPICY food here. So order with caution if you’re spice-averse…
📍 You’ll find Smoking Goat at 64 Shoreditch High Street, E1 6JJ.
🚇 Nearest station is Shoreditch High Street.
13. Smokestak
This BBQ smokehouse (owned by David Carter, a prior front-of-house manager) serves dishes that live up to its name. At Smokestak, patrons may savor grilled meats and vegetables that have been roasted over coals thanks to the menu’s abundance of small plates and sharing meals.
Expect barbecue staples like thick-cut pig ribs and a brisket sandwich with besotted red chili, as well as a few surprising appetizers like fried ox cheek with anchovy mayo or padron tempura with aioli.
📍 You’ll find Smokestak at 35 Sclater Street, E1 6LB.
🚇 Nearest station is Shoreditch High Street.
14. Brigadiers
Brigadiers is an Indian barbecue restaurant and sports bar with innovative features including a whisky dispenser, Sky Sports-locked TVs, and hefty meat sizzling on the grills.
However, because it is supported by the JKS group, the food served is of the highest calibre; sizzlers, steak, kebabs, chops, and ribs are all served in a sumptuous fashion. Numerous draught drinks, lagers, and wines are available to wash it all down. Sounds dreamy to us!
📍 You’ll find Brigadiers at 1-5 Bloomberg Arcade, EC4N 8AR.
🚇 Nearest station is Cannon Street.
15. Kiln
Ben Chapman, the man behind Smoking Goat, established the smoking Thai BBQ restaurant Kiln, which is just as mouth-watering as, if not better than, its sibling. Sharing food makes a barbecue interactive and immersive, as it should be.
You’ll be so occupied digging in that you won’t even notice the smears of grease and marinade that run down the corners of your lips, from aged cull yaw and cumin skewers to clay pot baked glass noodles with Tamworth belly and brown crab meat.
📍 You’ll find Kiln at 58 Brewer Street, W1F 9TL.
🚇 Nearest station is Piccadilly Circus.
16. Zuma
The robata grill, a Japanese style of BBQ, is used widely at Zuma while serving Western BBQ. The restaurant is renowned for its Japanese salads, classic sushi, and black cod, pieces of beef and fish are grilled to perfection on the robata.
A filet of beef, for example, comes seasoned with red chilli and soy sauce – and it’s absolutely delicious.
📍 You’ll find Zuma at 5 Raphael Street, SW7 1DL.
🚇 Nearest station is Knightsbridge.
17. Peckham Arches
Following the highly successful launch of Peckham Arches early in 2023, the much-buzzed about alfresco hotspot is thrilled to have finalised their impactful new food concept, bringing open-fire middle Eastern inspired BBQ cooking to South East London. Adding to the bustling and ever-growing social food scene of Peckham, the BBQ grill will showcase open-fire cookery at its best, alongside two large cocktail bars, private events spaces, an art gallery with OHSH Projects and a monthly events calendar of live music, DJ’s and much, much more.
Bringing a strong neighbourhood and community feel to the area, the new menu will focus on having seasonal and local ingredients at the core. Leading on the menu development, Head Chef James Browne – who has drawn inspiration from his experience cooking on open fires in North Carolina – has produced a menu that exudes brash and bold flavours. Expect large cuts of meats, fish and vegetables that are seasoned to perfection and flame grilled on the open fire.
đź“Ť You’ll find Peckham Arches at Blenheim Grove, London, SE15 4QN.
🚇 Nearest station is Peckham Rye.
18. Mediterranean Grill by Assembly
For a more elevated grill dining experience, the Mediterranean Grill by Assembly at Harrods’ food hall is your best bet. The menu is split into three sections; grills, small plates and mezze, and sides and additions – all celebrating the best of Levantine and Eastern Mediterranean flavours in a stunning venue to boot. Grill-wise, expect dishes such as ox cheek with fregola, monkfish skewer with olive, anchovy, lemon and olive oil; fillet steak with a spiced herbed better; and a lamb kofte skewer in a pita with tahini sauce that are all made to share.
Standouts from the small plates are the hummus with spiced prawn and crab, and the grilled mushrooms with tarragon butter and cured yolk. Service is top-notch, as one would expect in Harrods, and the price does reflect that but the food certainly does not disappoint. And please, oh please, order the ice cream with walnut baklava, olive oil and sea salt for dessert – yes it does sound slightly bizarre but it truly may just change your life.
đź“Ť You’ll find Mediterranean Grill by Assembly at the Harrods Dining Hall, 135 Brompton Road, SW1X 7XL.
🚇 Nearest station is Knightsbridge.
So there you have it – London has a thriving BBQ scene, and the above-mentioned restaurants have something special to offer that sets them apart. Get out there and explore these incredible BBQ restaurants in London.