We’ve been hoping for another venue to join the Leyton Midland railway arches for a while now, and the good news is the latest arrival is smokin’. Literally.
New BBQ restaurant Burnt, which opened on Wednesday after a soft launch, specializes in all things cooked with “smoke – fire – passion”.
Step inside and its interior is refreshingly unpretentious, simply decked out with sharing benches, limited counter seating (the best spots in the house) and bare bulbs. The focus is purely on the dangling meats smoking away in the open kitchen.
It’s the baby of couple Suf and Abz, who have no prior restaurant experience but were desperate to open their own smokehouse, plus brilliantly named Texan chef Tiberius Tudor. Suf, who took our order, even works by day for the NHS, she told us. Impressive.
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There’s a changing chalkboard menu, with meat listed at cost per 100g: expect 12-hour brisket, 12-hour ribs, 7-hour birch-roasted spring lamb and 4-hour corn-fed chicken. Jeepers. Meanwhile plant-based peeps can plump for a smoked celeriac sandwich with coleslaw and rocket.
And as you can see our plate above for two people, it’s mouthwatering stuff: we chose 200g melt-in-the-mouth brisket, 100g smoky butter-soft ribs, crisp fries, house BBQ sauce and a tangy coleslaw – with a couple of tacos to scoop up the meat. These were so good we went up and ordered two more.
Even better, it’s BYOB with no corkage (woop!) so we lingered over a glass or two of red. Other punters had brought in cans of Gravity Well from the ace taproom a couple of doors down.
“Burnt is an authentic central Texas bbq joint, where we serve everything by the gram,” says Tiberius on his Instagram @tiberius.tudor. “That just benefits you and obviously the waste which we all should be careful with. And so, if quality is what you after, all you have to do is pay us a visit. Usually I don’t disappoint.”
Fear not, Tiberius, you didn’t. And hopefully you won’t next time, either.
Our meal for two was around £40. Burnt Smokehouse, Leyton Midland Arches, Midland Road E10, follow @burnt.london, open 5-10pm, Wed-Sun, no bookings.
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