Who in their right mind would participate in a meat crawl of three different venues? Sounds like something you’d see in Man vs. Food doesn’t it? Well the Google+ Local team made it happen and I am eternally grateful for the privilege of being invited along.
Our locale this time still remained to be East London (have to say these East adventures really agree with me) and first stop was Beard to Tail in Curtain Road – haven’t heard of it? Well neither had I til I looked it up. Beard to Tail opened their doors on 8th October 2012. I spent the first part of the evening questioning in my head “what did this place used to be?!!”. I still haven’t cracked it so BtT or Louise and Graham, if you’re reading this – please put me out of my misery!
The winning dishes for me were Eastside meaty beans, Double dipped fat daddy wedges (WOW) – I don’t think I got to sample the steak tartare – clearly spent too much time enjoying my amazing sloe gin cocktail garnished with rosemary. Beautiful.
The meaty beans were heavenly – make sure you try these. As I was writing this post I read that Beard to Tail is actually the handiwork of the crew behind Calloh Callay – makes sense as to why the cocktails were so FANTASTIC.
Beard to Tail Bar Menu – The winner for me was the Meaty Beans – Yum!
- I am in awe with this chandelier. – see it constructed here.
double dipped fat daddy chips
baked bone marrow and soft herbs with flat bread
pig’s trotter stuffed with bacon, sage and onion
baked bone marrow and soft herbs
Beard to Tail Pig
Next up was Mark Hix’s Tramshed on Rivington Street/Curtain Walk.
Ah Tramshed. We meet again. Last time I visited, you took £250 of my hosts hard earned cash (for three people) and for this we got a very rude waitress who quite frankly thought she should have been anywhere but serving us, and sub-standard chicken with salt – everywhere. How would this visit fare?
Well I’m pleased to report that we had a very lovely waiter – O.K maybe lovely is the wrong word, as he had heavy silver rings, I think he was tattooed, and his hair was slicked in that way that the gentlemen on Broadway market strumming guitars appear to favour so lovingly. He was very nice though – and the sour faced waitress was nowhere to be seen! As for the food – I’m sticking to my guns on the chicken, it’s – - – chicken. Rotisserie chicken, with skin. The feet don’t bother me. They appear to bother everyone else who saw my pics of them on my Facebook/Instagram feed (YUCK, THEY MAKE ME FEEL SICK, HOW COULD YOU…. blah de blah – GROW SOME). I don’t give a f*ck about feet facing me whilst I eat, I’m not squeamish when it comes to food – but the fact of the matter is, it’s chicken and it’s nothing special. The steak on the other hand… well – my my my… and the rosemary fries – amazing. Granted if you leave the fries to get cold, just don’t bother as they will score your mouth like Jamie Oliver scores pork belly. One thing I missed was the giant Yorkshire pudding with liver pate that I’d experienced in my first visit. YUMMY – that is my favourite. We didn’t get to have it on this visit though. The Sauvignon Blanc was also very very good.
Finally, in the rain (hence why there are no outside photos of these visits) and surprisingly with no meat sweats, we rocked up to our last venue for the night. DEATH BY BURRITO. Yessir… The long standing Catch Bar on Kingsland Road has manifested itself into serving a Mexican menu with DEADLY Tequila cocktails. The location and other plates looked very welcoming. Unfortunately we had spent just a little bit too much time feasting on our two previous meat menus as we had missed last orders and the kitchen had already closed off for the night! Kitchen closes at 21:30 and we got there around 21:50. Big shame as I know the boys had been saving a little of their stomachs to squeeze some burritos in. Never mind though – as we’d had an excellent evening with lovely Alexandra as our host. I met some amazing people – again! We finished our evening rather fittingly pouring Tequila cocktails over our meaty guts. If you ever visit, try a Pink Paloma…
Pink Paloma Cocktail at Death by Burrito
Death by Burrito Cocktail Menu
Death by Burrito at Catch
…and here’s the food we missed (got some snaps of the last orders to leave the kitchen – look away if you’re food envy partial).
Thanks Alexandra! xxxxxxx
Great blog post – you’ve inspired me to try all three of these. Thanks! (@rossb82)
Thanks Ross – glad you enjoyed!
Please let me know what you think – especially on Tramshed.
I seriously need to do a ‘meat crawl’ like this (possibly with a trip to a health farm right afterwards).
Yep in hindsight it may have been a good thing that we didn’t get to eat at Death by Burrito – I may have been suffering heart palpitations after it!
Overall the Beard to Tail is on par with, if not better than St. Johns. In my view the dishes are more interesting and they are a lot cheaper. I also preferred the ambience, as it is more relaxed. The only thing to watch out for is the service, which was patchy, although this could just be down to it being new staff in a new restaurant and will probably improve over time. I just hope they stop cutting your food up.London food blog
Thanks for your take Gary. Shame Jay Rayner doesn’t think the same. Scathing review he gave them a few weeks ago when he visited with Grace Dent! http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/nov/04/restaurant-review-beard-to-tail-jay-rayner