BARBECOA, ST PAUL'S

Barbecoa is a Jamie Oliver restaurant in the city with phenomenal views of St Paul's. On the website it describes itself as a "cathedral to fire and food" - personally I would describe it as a steakhouse, and a good one at that. I went yesterday with my lovely friend Katie and despite the grey, miserable cold weather, just sitting in the restaurant brings a smile to your face as you look out over one of London's most iconic buildings. Arabella and I had climbed to the top of St Paul's during the summer which was one scary experience!!!

Obviously I had been online looking at the menu beforehand and I had also checked out the 101 posts of food on foodspotting - clearly a popular venue.

I wanted to be adventurous with my eating and order the short rib or the smoked ribs three ways but as there was a burger on the menu, I had to try that!

Katie and I started off by sharing the crispy calamari - it was on a bed of something but I am not sure what!! According to the menu it was guacamole with chipotle hot sauce however it wasn't spicy at all (thank goodness). It was delicious though, the calamari tasted perfect, I could have eaten a lot more!

Katie is a very inspiring runner - I always see her runs on Facebook and they put me to shame as she can easily do a 10km whilst I am struggling with half of that. As she'd had a good run that morning she decided to eat the fillet steak with béarnaise sauce. It also came with bone marrow which she declined.

I obviously went for the burger which was 8oz Wagu beef with truffled short rib, porcini mushrooms, onions and cheddar cheese. It was impressive just to look at!

Even though my mouth isn't exactly small, there was no way I could get that in, so I had to cut it up. It was delicious, especially the porcini mushrooms, they were so flavoursome. I enjoyed the rib part about couldn't taste the truffle. The burger itself literally melted in your mouth, my only complaint was that there wasn't enough cheese but that seems to be a problem for me in lots of places. I really enjoyed it though and ate every last morsel. Surprisingly they would only cook the burger medium, I thought this extremely strange for a restaurant which specialises in meat….and I would be interested to know why. Unfortunately I was too busy stuffing my face to ask!

Katie and I also shared some fries which tasted like roast potatoes as they were cooked in beef dripping and were deliciously crispy.

All in all, a great lunch - fabulous company, mesmerising views and divine food. My only gripe would be the prices - £26 for a burger - pretty steep - but then I guess you are paying for the view, plus the service was extremely attentive and hospitable. Would I go back, yes I would and to be honest, despite the price I would probably have the burger all over again, although maybe with extra cheese this time!!

The restaurant also has a private dining room and does butchery classes.

Barbecoa

20 New Change Passage,
London
EC4M 9AG
Tel: 020 3005 8555