This time round, I loved the pork scratchings which were a real highlight, lots of them and they kept me coming back for more long after the main food had arrived. As for real starters, the winner here was 'pit-smoked baby back ribs' which for a starter was a generous size and really ticked the box for a BBQ/grill. My order of Bourbon Chicken WIngs was so so, the chicken stringy at times, the glaze sticky with some traces of bourbon but never more-ish; I finished them but indifferently. Overall, they were not a patch on wings at MEATliquor, monkey fingers at MEATmission or the confit wings at Patty & Bun.
On the mains, my pulled pork shoulder was quite nice but I had to remove connective tissue from some early mouthfuls. Not sure what was going on with the waffles either as they are very different to what's shown on every other blog post and were more cake like than waffle like, a substitute product I'm guessing. And while the rest of the table enjoyed either the pit-beef, or the day's special, the cod, my friends found their meals to be warm, not hot, leaving all a little disappointed. Chips were ordered for the table to share, but sadly undercooked and a table of five failed to finish just two bowls of them. No one around the table was so fussed about ordering dessert. Service at the table was professional but never friendly, just a job you know.
At the end of the meal, we did the tally: how many points out of 10 would you give today's meal at Barbecoa. Universally it scored 6-7 out of 10 with most at 6. My feeling is that this might be good enough if it were slightly cheaper, but Barbecoa is not, as already noted, a cheap option, with three courses likely to set you back £35-£50 before drinks and service. And herein lies the problem in our view, while in this post we have name checked a few places, and some will inevitably accuse us of something bad for that, these other restaurants are typical of the competition, and if Barbecoa is not doing it better, or not doing it cheaper, then outside of fan adoration, we struggle to think why we should return.