d e c a d e n t f oodegg was terrible
at hide-and-seek

crab immediately regrettedordering the biggest
steak on the menu

Cheeseburger
Hash

Bad Egg, City Point, London;badegg.london
Stay with us on this one. It may
sound wrong but it’s also a dishthat, when Instagrammed,
prompts cries of “I want my facein that immediately”. The man
behind Islington’s Smokehouse– barbecue don Neil Rankin –has paid his respects to the egg
in his latest venture, and the foodfeatures in most dishes on themenu. The cheeseburger hash(£8.50) is a deconstructedburger: a patty, pickles, cheese(no bun) smashed together
in a pan, with an egg on top.

Norwegiancrab andNebraskan
steak

Beast, 3 Chapel Place,London; beastrestaurant.
co.uk
With an interior thatlooks suspiciously like
Dumbledore might pop out
any minute with his Sorting
Hat, reviews that describe it
as “hilariously silly” and thelofty price, you may havealready dismissed Beast.
We’d recommend you
reconsider because of thistable-toppling board ofsurf’n’turf (£75 a head).
Gorge yourself on the best
Norwegian king crab andNebraskan rib-eye available
in London while enjoying adining experience you won’t
find anywhere else in the UK.
This is proper decadence.

Full rack ofpork ribs

Dark Horse, 145 Alcester Rd,
Birmingham; facebook.com/
darkhorsemoseley
Birmingham’s newest
smokehouse has alreadybecome a rib joint that President
Frank Underwood himself would
be proud to frequent, if only it
opened at 8am. The owners
embarked on an epic tour of theUS to hone their methods, andthe results are glorious. The fullrack of pork ribs, smoked for
18 hours (£15), is good value,
but on a Monday you’ll geta beer and a pickleback shot
thrown in too.
“so this counts asa salad now, yeah?”

Donut Burger

f, like many men,
you are counting
down the days
until the end of
a dull month ofno alcohol, insipid salads andthe gym four times a week, it’stime to take your foot off thehealth-kick pedal. We unveil
the seven best dishes to seekout to end the month of miseryand start 2015 as you mean
to go on. Best not cancel thatgym membership just yet…

ithe Doughnut
buttieBird, 42 Kingsland Rd,London; birdrestaurants.com
It’s official – the doughnut islooking to usurp the waffle
as 2015’s so-wrong-it’s-rightaccompaniment to meat.
This Elvis-worthy item (£3.50)
on chicken shack Bird’s new
breakfast menu boasts doughdrizzled with maple cream andcrammed with crispy bacon.

photographs: Gaztronome

January health kickcoming to an end?
Howard Calvert
reveals the perfectdishes to annihilate
those goodintentions

Deep-fried
Oreos

additional words: tom cullen, jimi famurewa

Right.That’s
enough kale...

burger loved having
the electric blanket on

Hotbox, 46 Commercial St,London; hotboxlondon.com
Most of the menu of this new
Spitalfields restaurant’s inventive
barbecue dishes could be
comfortably filed under‘decadent’ (Dirty Swine
sandwich, Smokey Bandit burger
with short rib, ham hock pinto
beans), but it’s the dessert coursethat will see you improvisingsome extra belt notches withyour fork. Deep-fried Oreos (£6)
is four of the classic US cookies,
smothered in batter then dippedin hot fat: essentially a doughnut
with a gooey, biscuity centre.
The best way to toast the endof abstinence. Until 2016.

Red’s True Barbecue, various
locations in Leeds, Manchester
and Nottingham;
truebarbecue.com
A pair of 5oz steak patties, melted
cheese, smoked bacon, dirty sauce
and deep-fried onions layered
between two glazed doughnuts(£12.95). Not enough calories?
Thankfully it also comes witha bacon-wrapped jalapeno.

“hey, is the ketchup
poking its tongueout at me?”a rogue dessert
had gone on adrug binge again

The BigBombay

Dishoom, various locationsin London; dishoom.com
Look past one dementedly
indulgent item on Dishoom’s
menu: its famous baconnaan roll (it is possible if
you really try), and instead
go for the Big Bombay(£11.50). A traditional British
fry-up with a twist, the plate

will arrive loaded with
Ginger Pig smoked streaky
bacon, Shropshire porksausages, masala bakedbeans, akuri (spicy
scrambled eggs), grilledmushrooms and tomatoes,
plus buttered pau buns.
Wash it all down with a house
chai, and trust us, you’ll
be raving about it all fordays afterwards.

w w w . S h o r t L i s t . c o m

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