Bodean's BBQ

BBQ meat feast

Bodean's is an American smoke house chain serving the good old traditional Kansas City BBQ in London, I was on a business trip at Kansas City a while back and I failed to visit any BBQ smoke house at all! So to get a quick fix on what is Kansas City BBQ is all about I visited Bodean's to seek experience some good old American flavours.

Bodean's Soho

I visited the Soho branch and settled for eating at the bar upstairs in a self service setting which is more or less McDonald's style. They also had a restaurant downstairs with sitting and full service but it was a Thursday night and was really busy, I just didn't have the time to wait as they don't take bookings in advance unless you are a group of eight plus. For starters we had some classic Buffalo chicken wings, hot and served with blue cheese sauce and onion rings. The wings were well marinated and packed with great flavours on the skin. But the onion wings were very average, too much batter was used which made it far too oily.

Buffalo chicken wings &
onion wings

For main we had the house special slowed smoked chunk of beef brisket in BBQ sauce. The beef was far too thin for my liking and I wonder if they went for the very low quality one as fine beef brisket should have a percentage of fat and jellying off the joint to give it a much rounder taste. The brisket here had a really dry texture and was a real shame as the BBQ sauce was at a pretty decent level. Pulled pork had a similar level and without the sauce it was rather weak on its own. However the ribs were a star, great smoky aroma, tender meat with lovely BBQ sauce. Fries were also done well with great seasoning of salt and spices.  

pulled pork and ribs

 beef brisket and ribs

I never had any BBQ in America so I can not compare, but judging from the food quality alone I found Bodean's was bit of a mixed bag, some great elements with good seasoning and dressing but their signature dishes really failed to deliver. It is not a bad place by all means and if you need a quick fix in the area Bodean's wouldn't be a bad place at all but definitely not a place worth a special visit.

Food 3.5
Service 3
Ambience 5
Value 5

£20 per head

10 Poland St, London, Greater London W1F 8PZ

http://www.bodeansbbq.com