Smoking Goat- Soho restaurant review

Never judge a book by its cover. Or a restaurant by its name. Judge it by its quality, reviews and the hype; also by what I say too. Smoking Goat on Denmark Street has generated a lot of hype recently and this coupled with the fact that it was around the corner from my office means that i had to go.

Fish sauce wings

Aubergine salad

Sharing is caring and we all were happy to do this as it meant we were able to sample all the delights of the menu. The menu has three starters and three main courses. There were three of us on this trip which seemed ideal. We were in a sharing mood so we ordered the three starters which were the fish sauce wings, aubergine salad and a chilli salad.

The wings were tender and crispy. I was being civil for lunch and used my knife and fork to prize the meat off the bone. This was easy enough to do and the crunch on the wings and the tangy fish sauce flavour made it scrumptious. It got to the stage where I didn't want to share, as I wanted more.

The aubergine salad had a egg on top and the garlic and chilli on the wood embered aubergine was delightful. At times the smokiness this provided was a bit too much and the char took over the end of one piece, which wasn't the most pleasant experience.

The food came at different times, so the chilli salad came soon after the mains. When thinking of Thai food, exotic flavours come to mind, as do fresh herbs and spice. The chilli salad provided exactly this and sent my mouth into a drooling mess and my tongue completely ruined. IT WAS SPICY.

Duck leg for main

Loin chop with mooping glaze

Shortrib

The main courses were a strong mix of meat. The crab on the menu was unavailable so we ordered the rendang Shortrib, roast duck and loin chop with a Mooping glaze.

What does it all mean? Well it means that you will have a party in your mouth. Rich, herby flavours, which with the wood barbecue means a smokey flavour clinging to your mouth. The duck and pork I felt were the strpnger of the two meats. The loin chop was a bit fatty and we were warned about this, however, the fat was cooked well and crisped up and was very tasty. Fat is GOOD.
The duck legs had a great Thai marinade and were meaty and flagrant which again made me wish I wasn't sharing. Ah well, at least I was able to sample all the delights of Smoking Goat.

I was looking forward to the Shortrib the most. When I think of Shortrib what comes to mind is juicy, tender, rich meat that pulls apart and melts in your mouth. This unfortunately didn't happen here, the flavours were present but the beef was the opposite of the pork and too fatty. FAT NOT SO GOOD here.

It was a fair amount to eat and it comes with a Papaya salad and some rice. We were neglected this visit however and received no rice. This meant we weren't really full up when finished. No rice meant less carbs, yet this didn't seem like a good thing it would have gone really well with all the food. The service here wasn't at its greatest, it was relaxed enough but with a quiet lunch service we were expecting a bit better.

Good food and at a reasonable price. The menu is simple enough and provides a depth of fresh flavours from the Far East. A lunch time feast is good, but give yourself some time as the food does come at irregular intervals.