Pitt Cue Co, W1F 7RB
- 1 Newburgh Street
Pitt Cue Co was a tiny corner restaurant in Soho focusing primarily on ribs and other American bbq-style meat dishes. This location has now closed. The company behind it opened another, larger restaurant at 1 The Avenue, Devonshire Square, EC2M 4YP (near Liverpool Street Station), but this has now closed too.
The information below is retained for historical purposes.
Inside, there's a zinc-topped bar at the ground level, with stool seating around the edge of the room for perhaps 6-8 people to eat. The main restaurant area is downstairs, with covers for around 20, very squashed in and dimly lit in the evenings.
On Ewan's first visit shortly after they opened, a small queue had formed at 6pm, and it took about five minutes after opening for the first ten people to be seated. There wasn't even enough space to fit the 15-20 people outside into the upstairs bar while people were seated, so they were only letting in customers incrementally.
The upstairs bar has one draught tap (entitled 'Whatever', featuring a rotating keg beer; you have to ask what this is), but specialises in a short range of cocktails. On Ewan's most recent visit in March 2012, the draught tap was dispensing Meantime Helles (£2/half).
Downstairs the restaurant is very tightly packed together in a tiny square space. The menu sticks to a few basic dishes photo of the menu in Jan 2012, and specials are listed on a board as well as scrawled on the menu. Food is served on rectangular tin trays, going for a sort of prison-chic theme. Ewan tried the St Louis Ribs (£9) photo which were fantastic, sticky and slightly sweet but with plenty of tender meat falling off the bone. A side of burnt-end mash (£3) was also excellent, creamy mash topped with the burnt ends.
On a return visit at the tail end of a Thursday lunchtime (around 2:15pm), there was no queue and only a few people upstairs. Ewan ordered the pulled pork bun (£6.50) photo, which was delivered quickly in a bag for takeaway. The soft bun was filled generously with tender pulled pork, as well as other pickled vegetables and a sweet sauce, eaten all too quickly and definitely worth a visit on its own.
See also:
- Photos of the menu as of January 2015: drinks p1 and p2, drinks p3 and food (also bill)
- Observer review (Jay Rayner)
- Time Out review (Guy Dimond)
- Chowhound thread
- Andy Hayler's review
- Boo In London review
- Essex Eating review
- Gourmet Traveller review
- Live To Eat review
- London Stuff review
- Picky Glutton review
- Rocket & Squash review
- Skinny Bib review
- Tamarind And Thyme review