By Jonathan Hatchman
Perhaps most renowned for his rapid take upon classic meals, prepared and presented with extreme simplicity, constricted to a budget of time and money: Jamie Oliver has become a household name over the past fifteen years, as well as one of the globe’s most celebrated celebrity chefs. However, with his more recent penchant for managing to compress the preparation of four sustainable meals into the space of just sixty minutes, the food on offer at Oliver’s home of traditional fire-based cooking is a far-cry from the naked chef’s affair with simplicity.
Set within the City of London’s One New Change shopping centre, overlooking the astonishing St. Paul’s cathedral, Barbecoa offers a meat-eater’s dream, with some of the country’s finest meat on offer, all supplied by the restaurant’s in-house butchers. Also featuring a vast array of quality beef dishes as well as the UK’s largest range of American whiskies.
Opting for a starter in contrast to the meat heavy main course selections, one of the menu’s only fish dishes, the Tandoori wild prawns were nothing less than exquisite. Charred to perfection and served with a tangy lime pickle yoghurt beneath subtle scatterings of garlic crisps, meanwhile the beef short rib main embodied a rich, smoky flavour, having been slow roasted, obtaining a slightly fatty, albeit incredibly tender texture, served with a delicious Worcestershire glaze, cherry tomatoes and Bermondsey beer bread, topped with the restaurant’s speciality Bourbon peppercorn sauce. Also joined by sides of chip-shop style beef dripping fries, and a true standout dish, navajo ranch styled BBQ beans, spiked with the most tender, melt-in-the-mouth burnt ends. All rounded off with an extraordinary peanut butter cheesecake, topped with blackberry sorbet and peanut brittle.
Although Barbecoa has received some less than positive media attention over the past year, based on tonight’s performance, it would seem that Jamie Oliver’s premier steak-house is one of the city’s finest eating establishments for the capital’s carnivore class.
Barbecoa can be found at20 New Change Passage City of London, Greater London EC4M 9AG