Review of Bodean’s BBQ Tower Hill

Bodeans, a London based restaurant, is a BBQ smokehouse famous for it’s large servings of food at reasonable prices. It’s specialty food is ribs, pulled pork, burnt ends and a extensive selection of cocktails and whiskeys.

I’ve been to Bodeans a number of times over the years, it’s provided a suitable choice for making up on lost meat consumption as well as for solving work blues with a meat high (and meat sweats) while sitting under the eyeless glare of bull skeletons. There was always something that stopped me from selecting the steaks (I always opted for sharing platters or ribs over the steaks) but I finally decided to give the steak a chance).

I chose nachos to start, the USDA Rib Eye steak cooked rare and a maple syrup old fashioned to help it go down. The nachos were substantial and tasted good, they were stacked and covered with cheese, salsa, sour cream and some pretty strange tasting guacamole. The steak eventually arrived and was long and wide but only about half an inch thick. The steak was served medium (rather than rare) and had a significant amount of gristle. The texture was a chewier than expected but that was compensated by a decent taste.

The experience at Bodeans was largely marked by frustration. They had a shortage of the drinks menu meaning we did not get one, when we did eventual make our order our drinks arrived after we finished our starters and one of the sides (fries) was cold. While these factors along with the quality of food served do not constitute a crisis, it does feel like Bodeans is no longer at the top of its game.

The USDA Rib Eye at Bodeans is disappointing, I recommend sticking to the ribs.