London's best barbecues

If you know, you know. Find Maureen's Brixton Kitchen at 52 Railton Road, a community hub serving up serious Jamaican jerk. Find oxtail, curry goat, rice and peas and all manner of incredible BBQ cooked on jerk pans and coal burners in Maureen's very own yard, as well as sides of mac and cheese and dumplings. An institution.  

Currently in permanent residency at Juju's at Ely's Yard off Brick Lane from Thursday to Saturday, Cue Point are the most consistent London bbq slingers about. Joshua Moroney and Mursal Saiq's British Afghan fusion smoked barbecue menu is fully halal, and encompasses the likes of smoked lamb ribs and beef short rib, as well as offering vegan options such as borani kadoo, where smoked pumpkin is braised in onions, garlic, coriander, ginger, turmeric and chilli peppers, then served up with garlic spiked vegan yogurt. Something for everyone. 

The Hackney Church Brewing Company is home to Lagom: chef Elliot Cunningham’s rustic, smoke-wafted paean to his dual Brit/Scandi heritage, operating from an infernal little counter kitchen behind the bar proper. He shows that unadorned ingredients can become majestic with a bit of alchemical char; think black and swamp-green sprouts, doused in chilli prawn oil and sweet vinegar; griddled king oyster mushrooms flecked with green sauce; and a rustling mound of cornmeal-fried baby squash. There's meat too, of course, but the things Lagom do with veg are unsurpassed. 

From The Ashes, the barbecue-cooking duo behind some sizzling pop-ups and festivals, have found a new, permanent home at Hackney’s Five Points Courtyard. Get down to the brewery for moreish, veggie-friendly starters and sides and all the delectable, smoky meats you can fit in your belly.

Seek out Duke's of Highgate, north London's only country music-themed US style honky tonk and dive bar, and be rewarded with mighty BBQ from Rack City Ribs. The Jamaican American fusion menu includes everything from smoked pork and beef short ribs straight from the applewood smoker, with a sweet and sticky bourbon glaze, to epic sides; mac and cheese, cornbread muffins, and loaded brisket hash fries. God bless the pitmaster.

A longstanding cult joint for smokehouse meats, a visit to this stygian, semi-industrial space with a hum of throbbing beats, is a bit like eating in a medieval nightclub. Beef brisket is a signature dish; moist, smoky, sweet and salty (the brisket is smoked overnight, for 12-14 hours, over English oak) snuggled inside a pillowy, slightly sweet bun, brushed with a lick of barbecue sauce and bone marrow butter. Outrageous. 

The big thing at this Texan BBQ joint is authenticity. It’s serious stuff, with a focus on hefty hunks of precision-cooked animal (and a sign announcing what wood they’re currently smoking with). Add in unusual sides like bone marrow or cheese-stuffed, bacon-wrapped jalapeños and, basically, it looks as Texan as rodeo dudes trying to sit on angry cows.

This no-bookings Greek-ish restaurant is run by chef and Manteca mastermind David Carter. Agora translates as ‘market’, and you can casually window shop as if you’re at one before you enter, with large hatches providing front-row viewing of the products of a two-metre charcoal rotisserie, such as lamb kebab skewer, chicken thigh and immaculate porchetta – all herby on the inside and crunchy on the outside, complete with gleaming golden crackling.

A live-fire restaurant in a dusty car park next to 40FT Brewery and Dusty Knuckle bakery. The live-fire concept idea is a simple, sustainable and collaborative one. The brewery and the restaurant work together to use beer by-products like yeast and grain that go into ferments and hot sauces, while leftover spices are used in the drinks. There’s actually not that much meat on the seasonal changing menu, and vegetables are the stars of this show, with charred leeks and grilled cauliflower just as impressive as seven day-aged red mullet with crab caramel and wild garlic.

A buzzy, constantly packed Korean barbecue palace in Chinatown. Interiors and aesthetics are modelled after trad barbecue joints in South Korea with retro neon lights, disco balls and splashy murals. Start with excellent picky bits like tofu kimchi, dak dong jib (chicken gizzards), osam-bulgogi (spicy squid and pork stir fry) and rabokki (ramen tteokbokki rice cakes). Then barbecue and bibimbab are your go-to options for a good time, alongside many rounds of Korean beers, makgeolli Korean rice wine and soju cocktails.

Humo (‘smoke’ in Spanish) received its first Michelin star at the start of 2024, a little over a year since Colombian-born chef Miller Prada – who was sous chef at Endo at the Rotunda – opened the restaurant down a Mayfair backstreet. Wood-firing the Mayfair way is methodical and calculated, with just a dash of dark ages energy; different woods and different temperatures impart different flavours on different dishes in a fittingly alchemistic fashion.

Kintan claims to be London’s first dedicated ‘yakiniku’ restaurant. Yakiniku is Japanese for barbecued grilled meat and it’s all DIY here: they bring you a small plate of lightly marinated fish or meat and you cook it on an electric grill sunk into table. Pick from prawns and chicken thighs, or go meatier with pork belly, beef skirt and short ribs among other things.