hospitalitytoday.com | 5
On 8th February Jamie Oliver held a pre-launch party for his
new West End mega-steakhouse restaurant Barbecoa, at 196
Piccadilly. The Hemsley sisters, Tanya Burr, Jim Chapman, Phillip
Schofield, Ronan Keating and others celebrated the opening.
Berry Bros. & Rudd house champagne,
along with the new restaurant’s
signature ‘Berkeley Blazer’ cocktail
were served, and wines from the
restaurant’s 2,500-bottle strong
collection, alongside Barbecoa’s
‘signature’ dishes including scallop
ceviche and pit beef.
Barbecoa Piccadilly opened to the public
on 13 February, and in its scale, location
and all-day concept, clearly has ambitions
to rival the legendarily successful Wolseley,
Corbin & King’s flagship just 36 doors
down Piccadilly. HT visited post-opening.
“The classic steakhouse experience is
reimagined with an elegant twist” is
the theme. Barbecoa designed to be a
showcase for all-day dining: fabulous
breakfasts, decadent afternoon teas, a
signature lunch and dinner menu and a
big, panelled bar in a renovated, historic
building that is much bigger inside than
its entrance on Piccadilly implies.
The first thing diners see on entering is the
glass-fronted, salt-lined meat ageing cabinet,
with cuts curing for up to 56 days. Reflecting
Oliver’s dedication to sourcing from farmers
and producers who share his food ethos, the
meat at Barbecoa all comes from free-range,
grass-fed animals. It is carefully selected by
cut and chosen from the breed that gives the
correct marbling content, shape and quality,
then dry-aged between 35-55 days, to deliver
“true depth of flavor”.
Jay Rayner in his Guardian review said:
“The real action is downstairs in a basement
space which laughs in the face of economic cold
winds and tight accounting. There are gorgeous
jade green and ivory porcelain floor-to-ceiling
wall panels. There’s parquet flooring and
marble, art deco chandeliers you could ride in
and, at the back end, a show kitchen boxed off
with copper and glass. It’s full of clanking metal
machinery for introducing bits of animal to fire.”
The open kitchen lets diners see a range
of traditional cooking techniques “to give
each dish its own personality”. What must
have been a massive investment by Oliver’s
group sees a Japanese robata grill for slow
cooking over charcoal, French vines and
oak, a Spanish Mibrasa charcoal oven, an
Argentinian grill, a Tandoor oven and a Texan
smoker (which uses apple, oak and cherry
wood to infuse the meat with extra flavour),
making Barbecoa’s kitchen one of the best
equipped in London for meat cookery.