[REVIEW] Ribs, Pulled Pork Sliders and Burgers / Duke’s Brew and Que / Haggerston, London
We wanted a huge bowl of the pulled pork
From the outside, Dukes Brew and Que wouldn’t look out of place in an episode of Jeeves & Wooster, squeezed between a building wrapped in scaffolding and a council estate in Hackney-but-still-the-rough-bit Haggerston. The juxtaposition is evident inside as a throng of well dressed 9-to-5ers mob the bar, leaving the local drunk looking bewildered. Poor bloke, he only wants a pint of fucking bitter. Later, when he bowls up to bar for another scoop, the front of house will try and give his tiny table by the window away to a trendy young couple, and he will not be best pleased.
That’s the thing - it is a boozer, with most of the crowd queuing at the bar for one of the impressive selection of beers here solely for that reason (our pale ale loving compadre was ecstatic). But it’s also a restaurant. An arguably good balance. And yet, we are still a bit disconcerted since the FOH lady chooses to ignore us and we find our pre-booked table on our own and wait a good ten minutes before the waitress decides to give us the time of day. In short, it looks like a pub, but it’s definitely a restaurant. Not much space for those just there for the sauce.
The menu is a bit odd for somewhere touting itself as a barbecue place - there is a lot of steak going on, and a burger. And the only pulled pork available is housed within in ‘sliders’. They’ve also committed the cardinal “mission statement” sin as you can see from the picture above.
We ordered everything vaguely barbecue, and a burger.
Let’s start with that burger. The patty was thick, moist and packed a distinctly barbecue flavour, almost as if it had been smoked itself, which was quite novel. The sauce with it was fresh and spicy sweet, and the bun did a stand up job housing the lot. Yep, it was a barbecue burger, of sorts, and whilst not mind-blowing, it wasn’t bad. It did taste a bit like a frankfurter though, which some of you might find some disconcerting.
On to the ribs. The pork were pleasingly big, pink and chewy. The beef ribs were heavier on the gristle and didn’t quite have enough fat to keep them as palatable, or enough sauce to keep them moist.
Both of them however were criminally sweet, and we have a theory about it. Duke’s clearly have some kind of Memphis-style house rub they’re applying to all their ribs, be they cow or pig. We think that once they’ve been smoked, they’re re-dunked into the rub and flash-grilled so the sugar caramelises just before they’re sent out. Now, this is a problem. The dark sugary bark does indeed look really good, but there is an overwhelming caramel taste and smell to both types of rib.
Worse than that, the flash-nature of that grilling means you get the odd grain of sugar stuck between your teeth, which gives it that shuddering granulated sugar crunch that is far from pleasant. We’re fine with sweetness in ‘cue, but the sugar itself should not be identifiable by texture.
Gross.
All is not lost though. The best thing by a country fried mile were the pulled pork sliders - dinky little gems of moist pulled pork topped with a zingy slaw, served in a brilliant dinky brioche bun. We all agreed a big daddy version of one of these would have been epic. Unfortunately, the fact that you only get three of them in a mains serving is ultimately too stingy.
We wanted a huge bowl of the pulled pork and it’s just not an option on the menu.
The sides were fine, the only disappointment being the mac ‘n cheese. The pasta was topped with lots of rubbery grilled cheese without any real evidence of a proper cheese sauce. Macaroni with cheese if you will. Amateurish.
They’ve clearly done their USA BBQ research too, they’ve got the rolls of greaseproof paper right, but the menu feels focus-grouped to death (steak, steak, steak). Duke’s guys - do what you know you can do.
Duke’s is going to draw inevitable comparisons with Pitt Cue Co (which we will be reviewing soon): everything is served similarly, on similar trays, with a similar slaw side, with that familiar New/Old Filament Lightbulb Aesthetic.
But we’re not going to bother - the subtlety and complexity of Pitt Cue’s flavours, crossed with its significantly lower cost and more convenient location really doesn’t warrant one.
- Rob & Simon.
[REVIEW] Fattrilogy / Fattburger / Dalston, London
“It’s got two dart boards. TWO fucking dart boards!”
The self conscious nerve centre of Hackditchston (Shoredalney? Dalsneyditch?) is making a name for itself springing up some noteworthy food-based events in the last few months. Well now another one has popped up, the three month burger residency of Fattburger at The 3 Compasses.
It’s getting harder and harder to find a proper boozer-looking boozer in London, but the 3 Compasses is one of them, channelling the character of a sparse Working Man’s club, complete with rudimentary furniture, but run by some very friendly Dalstonites. It’s got two dart boards. TWO fucking dart boards! Do you know how hard it is to find a pub that has one? We’re sold. It’s also got Oranjeboom on tap. Double sold.
We ordered the three meaty offerings at the bar; the Fattburger, the Fatt Pig and the special of the night, the Fatty Korean. Our wait seemed to be a lot longer than others, and when my comrade questioned it at the bar we found out why: someone had taken our order to the wrong table by mistake, and that table (who hadn’t ordered any food) had happily accepted, and preceded to eat it all.
I know, fucking scumbags right? Apologies abound, our order was placed again and arrived quick smart complimentary skinny fries in all their salty goodness.
These are classically American-looking burgers - the cheese is impressively melty and the lettuce and tomato pop out. Apart from one sandwich arriving with a bottom bun on top, first impressions are good.
Ironically, the name of this residency doesn’t describe the offering. The patties aren’t fat(t). In fact, they are actuall anorexic. Or thin(n). This makes the meat hard to taste in the mix, as it’s lost by everything else. It’s palpably overwhelmed by the bun, which is dense, quite hard and crumbly, possibly a tad stale. They are pretty big as well, resulting in the last couple of bites being a salad sandwich.
The composition of the burger is good. The cheese threw out a pleasant après- -tang. It had plenty of tomato, lettuce and onion. And the sauces, whilst not brilliantly distinctive, were abundant. The combination lead to an agreeable, standard burger. The winner of the trio was the Fatty Korean - the kimchi added a mild kick, warm flavour and crazy amounts of saucy moisture that soaked into the dry bun and made it more-satisfyingly sloppy.
The ethos of Fattburger, and enthusiasm of the chef that serves up his wares, housed in such no-nonsense surroundings is cool as hell; all it needs is for the burgers to improve a bit and it’ll be a surefire East London go-to.
It’s early days, and we’ve got a feeling a return visit is on the cards.
- Rob.
- The Lucky Chip T-bone steak at the Sebright Arms, Hackney
“Everyone is so busy buying ‘organic artisan’ food from Broadway Market that the pie ‘n mash shop is empty. This is a TRAVESTY people.”
- Rob, a few weeks after the Superette popup.
Reviewing a popup is pointless and annoying. We went. You might have gone. You probably didn’t. You certainly can’t go now. So here’s a few pictures instead.
We enjoyed ourselves. The golden buns were fun, but serving burgers in boxes doesn’t help them maintain their shape very well.
A messy, busy, noisy night. We were there early, so didn’t suffer the wait that others did.
And London, don’t forget your pie ‘n mash shops.
Some wonderful wood-fired win from @homesliceldn
A bacon and pickle dog from Lucky Chip.
