The Big Easy

332-334, Kings Road, London

 I’m gonna let you in on a secret that will probably make you stop reading my blog. It wasn’t until a recent saturday night in chelsea that I first tried the delicacy that is lobster. I know that sounds incredibly pretentious, ‘ohhh look at me dining on lobster in chelsea, I’m so upper class’, it wasn’t as pretentious as it sounds though I promise, it was merely coincidental and the fact I constantly pick my nose and sit with my hands down my pants means I couldn’t possibly be accepted by the upper class even If I was forced through Eton for boys.

Back to the point, I suppose I’m a food blogger, I’m assuming people would brand me as that and I guess you’re right. So you’re probably thinking why the hell would I listen to a quote on quote food blogger who’s never dined on the oceans prized crustacean, the lobster. Well I just never got round to it ok, I’m from the northwest or a landlocked segment of the northwest should I say. Therefore the red little fellas aren’t particularly accessible in the area so I’ve never got round to eating them ok. Yes I understand that if you’re from Newcastle, or somewhere by the sea, that there’s loads of lobsters. That many that they probably even deliver the milk to your door, pick up litter off the streets and provide a dog walking service for you when you’re at work. I’ve not been blessed with this luxury. Plus until a couple of years ago when I decided to man up I was never really a lover seafood.

After one of my classic longwinded introductions that I feel optimises my writing style to it’s useless core, I didn’t even order the lobster. I did try a bit though and then realised I probably should have ordered it.

On this particular night I ate at The Big Easy Bar. BQ and Crabshack. Since always having an unhealthy obsession with the unhealthy food that is BBQ food, I’d known about this place and had wanted to eat there for a long time. So I was pretty excited. The vibe in this place was unreal, the transformation from being outside some posh club where prince harry is an apparent regular to walking 1 minute down the street into the big easy and being transported into what feels like a beach side bar in San Diego is pretty special. We were seated downstairs with a birds eye view of the live band that were smashing out some cheerful rock and blues covers throughout the night, could have been potentially annoying but it complimented the atmosphere perfectly. 

When it came to ordering i realised that this place was more focussed on the sea food than the BBQ, the ocean part of the menu is slightly larger. Despite this I wanted to test their BBQ meats out against the greats and went for the sharing platter which consisted of ribs, chicken, BBQ beans, cornbread and chips. I’d heard tales of men keeling over in defeat whilst trying to tackle this mountain of food. They also swore that there was pulled pork with this feast which I found confusing as there was no pulled pork on the menu (turns out the covent garden branch has a slightly different menu). Still I was there to eat what I ordered, however when it came it was less mount everest more mount snowdon. Don’t get me wrong, a quarter chicken, full rack of ribs and a bunch of sides is definitely enough, I’d just let the mythical meat tales I’d heard get to my head. 

Despite this I was impressed. Everything was drenched in a beautiful BBQ sauce, BBQ sauce is a dangerous one as it’s can easily taste very boring. Thankfully the big easy do it well, sweet, smoky, sticky; pretty much any positive adjective beginning with an S you can think of. The BBQ beans were decent but I’ve had better. The same can be said for the fries and the cornbread, which were to a high enough standard that no-one would turn up there nose at them. It has to be said though that after allowing my indecisive father to join in on the platter, it was quite clear that a two person portion of sides was brought out and blagged as being suitable for three. That was a bit of a blow, they might want to sort that out. While the men chowed down on the low and slow meats the lobsters went down excellently with the ladies. At the end of the day this place has great food, is reasonably priced and  has an amazing atmosphere. So if you’re looking for a mountain of meat or some succulent crustacean in London then look no further than The Big Easy. 

 Bunnychow, Soho 

Bunny chow? What the fuck is Bunny chow you say. Well that’s exactly the question I was asking myself when I heard about this mysterious delicacy that has recently made it’s way to London. My first thought was of my families pet rabbit atticus, and that bunny chow sounds like some sick sort of revenge pie my that dad would threaten to shove him in when he finally comes to the end of his tether with my mum requesting ‘tea in a china cup with a splash of sterilised milk’. Fortunately that hasn’t happened yet and upon visiting the restaurant on wardour street in Soho I saw no evidence of his furry species being used in any of the food. 

Bunny chow is a South African fast food dish consisting of a hollowed out loaf of bread filled with a  curry stew. It instantly registered with me as something that sounds right up my street, so discovering that a place specialising in it had recently opened up just down the road led to me pretending that I had lunch plans, cancelling my lunch plans and making new lunch plans to go and eat some bunnys. 

I’ve been twice, whether that’s an acceptable amount of visits to come to a conclusion on the food is up to you but at the end of the day I’m making zero money and also constantly finding excuses as to why I can’t exercise, so I can’t go everyday or I’d be fat and more broke than I already am.

Upon my first visit I was greeted by a girl holding a bucket in some strange bunny mask. As my eyes scanned the menu I could see her staring at me, therefore absolutely nothing I was reading was being registered to my brain; instead I was just thinking ‘why is she staring at me’. She said ‘can I help you’, not putting together the bunny mask and the fact we were in a place called bunny chow, I didn’t realise she was working there. I just saw the bucket and heard her question and assumed she was aggressively pursuing charity donations for some sort of ‘save the rabbit’ foundation. I nervously muttered back ‘im just deciding what I want’ to which she replied ‘you should get the pork’, this spurred on someone from behind the counter to join in and reassure me that I should ‘get the pork’ . I’d looked at the menu before coming and had previously decided that I definitely didn’t want the pork, however I was desperate to remove myself from this situation that was making the back of my neck sweat profusely so I went to the counter and ordered the ‘Pork N Pickle’ . 

This was a combination of pulled pork, slaw, homemade pickles and BBQ sauce. I didn’t really want to try this the first time i went because It’s a very predictable combination that so many places do very well meaning it’s often hard to compete. Unfortunately on this occasion Bunnychow didn’t deliver. The flavours were just not strong enough and were further masked by the wholemeal bread in which they were contained.

I really wanted to like this place, so I went again and this time tried the ‘Bangcluck Bunny’. This combination of Molasses bakes beans, spinach, chilli and smoked cheese’ sounded a lot closer to the authentic African bunny chow delicacy I’d read about and so, I was excited to try it. Again it just didn’t really do anything for me, I’ll admit I was manflued up on this occasion so my taste buds might not have been on point; yet to me it really just tasted like beans on toast with an occasional spinach leaf thrown in. 

It’s clear Bunnychow are keen to reel in some new customers, both times I’ve been they’ve had drink samples on display and offer food samples as well. Additionally they offer a 20% off voucher and a free coffee before 12 if you bring in your old receipt. Each time I’ve been in it’s been fairly empty, which is really unfortunate especially for a venue of their location in the middle of Soho with such attractive offers. 

I’m genuinely gutted that It didn’t impress me, I’d never heard of the delicacy before, I loved the concept but I think Bunnychow would benefit from making their food more authentic and less seemingly accessible. Take away the idea of filling up a hollowed out piece of bread and the menu is rather uninspiring. Meatballs, peppers and BBQ sauce? Sausage, Gravy, blue cheese and mustard? It’s all very predictable yet desperately random at the same time and sounds like something only someone small enough to fit in a high chair would put cite as their favourite dish. This place must have a core fan base as they’ve built themselves up from selling their product out of a van around various locations in London, to a pop up location to a permanent restaurant and therefore I encourage you to go and try it for yourself and make your own verdict.

As for me the only bunny i’ll be paying attention to is this guy.