There was a time in the not too distant past when Britain was the land of bad barbecue. Dry ribs, small portions, high prices – it wasn’t easy being a smokehouse addict. Rejoice then, at Bodean’s new chef director Richard H. Turner, who has re-launched the menu at the London barbecue institution and rectified the many sins of British imitation American cuisine.

Beef ribs are so big that it feels like you’re getting served an entire cow, and are cooked low and slow to ensure the meat is literally falling off the bone. Likewise, the pork ribs are deliciously rich and tender, more than holding their own against their bovine cousins. Want our advice? Do what we did and order the BBQ platter for a Bodean’s greatest hits experience. Just aim straight for the meat and don’t fill up on the ‘Texas toast’ that lines the plate and is, as far as we could tell, just regular bread.

So they’ve nailed the main event, but what about the menu’s edges? Well, we’re pleased to report that the BBQ beans are so thick you could stand a fork up in them, and packed with enough flavour to cut through the vinegary punch of the coleslaw, which you should definitely be ordering alongside whatever you choose from the menu.

Hot wings are a buffalo-adjacent experience, but aren’t so saucy that you ruin your shirt just trying to ferry them to your mouth – get them alongside your main to balance out the sweet sugary barbecue with a punchy tang every now and then. Likewise, the Texan link sausage is a masterclass in flavour; smokey without being obnoxious, while the skin has that perfect hot-dog-snap which seems so hard to come by in London for some reason.

If it all sounds good, that’s because it is, and both floors of the Soho branch of Bodean’s are jam-packed when we visit on a Wednesday evening. The vibe inside is very ‘sports bar’, but the TVs showing the football are easy to ignore if that isn’t your kind of thing, and there are plenty of fun cocktails to try alongside the obligatory pints of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Having said that, people wanting a candlelit experience should probably look elsewhere – it’s a casual, noisy place and, as the kitchen roll on every table might imply, things get quite messy, at least if you’re doing it properly.

Bodean’s is the kind of barbecue place London has been missing for too long. Great meat, cooked well and served in jean-stretching portions. What’s not to love?

For more information on Bodean’s, see here

Photo credit: John Knight