Big Easy Covent Garden

You know you won't be disappointed here if what you're looking for is a fun, comforting meal filled with all good things bbq'ed. The portions are generally big and they now have quick lunch deals including a main and a drink.This place is great for big groups and fun parties.

If it wouldn’t make me morbidly obese I would eat here every day.Not only is the Big Easy super fun but it has some of the most indulgent and guilty food you can find.I always go for a lobster platter or lobster mac and cheese.I wouldn’t come here on a diet, I think that is just impossible.It is the kind of place where it doesn’t matter if it’s super busy and you can’t get a proper table as sitting at the bar or along the side gives you a great view of all the food going up and down the stairs.I wouldn’t recommend having too many plans after a trip here, waddling back on to the tube will be difficult enough.I wouldn’t say the food is particularly gourmet but it is homely and tasty, I always think it’s a great location to take friends visiting from out of London. 

Big Easy is definitely a diner that also encourages drinking. They do an unlimited boozy brunch at the weekend that ends at 4pm and some of the meals even come with a free alcoholic slushie. I had a mojito, it just tasted of chemicals tbh! There's a choice of lobster, slow cooked meats and chicken and the portions are big so you won't go hungry. The bar's also quite cool with a brick and wood feel and a lot of bottles of liquor on the shelves. The staff seem a little over-worked as they forgot to bring our drinks and one of our sides, but fortunately they forgot to charge us for it when we eventually go it so a big win there. I left feeling tired after too much mac n cheese with chewy lobster on top. I wasn't blown away, but maybe after a few unlimited glasses or prosecco my opinion would change.

Visited here back in January

One of my all time favourite American restaurants. When I first started going here they had a brisket that made me want to never eat anything but that again. Sadly, when I went back a few months later I was told they had lost the supplier so it wasn't on the menu. However, there is much more to love about this restaurant! Everything is big and filling and tasty. The shrimp are my current favourite. I don't drink very often but the bar looks impressive. It is always one of the places I take my American friends who are a bit homesick!! I think the lunch menu is a far better value.

Came here for the pre-theater menu. What a deal! Starter + Main or Main + Dessert for £10, and includes a beer! Not a pint mind you, but for its location this was quite a steal and was happy regardless. I started with chicken wings which were a good portion, maybe about 6 wings, and included celery for spreading blue cheese-- WIN. My main was jumbo shirmp, and boy it was exactly as it said on the tin. JUMBO. Deliciously juicy and required a fork for eating. 

They had a ton of specials, including endless hog roast. Music to my ears!! 

It might sound stupid to most of you but until very recently, I wasn’t familiar with the concept of ‘Surf and Turf’. Oh, how amazed and surprised I was when I found out! Seriously, I think we should all take a minute to sit back and think about this: a steak AND a lobster. One single meal. Who came up with this? But I digress. I got to taste this beauty at the Big Easy for the first time in my life and it was prodigious! You’re sitting in a room lit up by red neon lights, rough rock music playing, and you’re all given a beautiful bib to protect you from yourself. I recommend!

Delicious food and a great atmosphere makes Big Easy one of my favorite places to chow down. 

Admittedly, it's a little on the small side and I did feel a little cramped especially now that there's more and more people as the restaurant is becoming more widely known, so unless you book a table, you can expect to wait queue for a table. I went on a Wednesday which meant limitless Hog Roast with a brew...and the servings are enormous. With it comes, pit-smoked beans, 'slaw, chips and buns. I was pretty famished when I came in and thought I'd going for seconds. But that never happened. The hog was delicious and you can definitely taste that delicious smoky oak flavor on the meat. If a hog roast  isn't your thing, each day has a different offer. Monday is the 'Big Pig Gig' and Tuesday is limitless fried shrimp. Alternatively, if you're looking for lobster, Big Easy does that too on any day of the week. Quite a lot of choice I feel. 

I really like Big Easy for it's great choices, delicious food and in my opinion, good value deals. Definitely give this a visit if you want a taste of the American deep south.

Delicious food and a great ambience. They really do pack people inside, and if you haven't booked, you'll probably have a 90min-2 hour wait to get in. 

The food is delicious - I had the Taste o Rama platter, which has lots of different meats, with a side of chips and mac and cheese.

That sorted me out with meals for the next two days as well... The mac and cheese is delicious, the meat is very tender. The service can be a little slow, they should employ more staff, but the staff are usually friendly.

You also get to wear a plastic bib as you eat, which is fun, and a great photo opportunity!

After many failed attempts at walking into The Big Easy's Covent Garden location, I had the foresight to make a reservation in advance to take the carnivore in my life to indulge in a protein-fueled feast for his Birthday. We were time constrained because we were eating before a show on the West End and this caused some confusion- I made the reservation for 18:15 after seeing that they had a pre-theatre menu available on their website; however, when they rang to confirm the booking that afternoon, I was advised  that items from the pre-theatre menu must be ordered before 17:45. As it seemed too risky to reconfigure our plans, I explained that we had exactly one hour to order, eat and settle our bill. The woman who sat us enthusiastically noted this would be possible- I also advised her that it was my boyfriend's Birthday and she indicated that a cupcake would be arranged and sent over to us- sadly, this surprise never came into fruition in the haste of us paying and leaving!

The Big Easy boasts a lively, moody atmosphere and typifies everything you expect from an American barbeque joint- it's a guaranteed good night out and will satisfy any meat eater or seafood lover's cravings. The food is bombastic and messy, slathered in the house barbecue sauce or swimming in creamy or spicy stock. The meats come delivered on wooden blocks or, in my case, the seafood arrived in a bulky cast-iron skillet. The portion sizes also exemplify what you would expect from America: bordering on greedy, but you definitely feel like you are getting good value. The food isn't exactly cheap, especially for some of the steak options and the Nova Scotian lobster, but that is typical for London.

I can't neglect to mention the bottomless specials on offer throughout the week, as I imagine that these are extremely popular. We were there on a Tuesday, which was deemed unlimited jumbo shrimp night (or unlimited portions of a Southern shrimp broil) for a seemingly reasonable price of £19 per person. This included a selection of sides and a slushie cocktail or beer. They offer an unlimited hog roast on Wednesdays and other specials throughout the week.

My boyfriend ordered a Taste-O-Rama platter, a professed cornucopia of meats consisting of pit-smoked barbecued chicken, dry-rubbed St Louis pork ribs, Carolina pulled pork and smoked beans and coleslaw on the side. He opted to add the Texas brisket as well because- damn it- it was his Birthday. Everything arrived smothered and glazed and he happily tucked in, affirming that each item in turn was smoked to perfection. He even thoroughly enjoyed the barbecue beans on the side even if they were humble compared to his primary concerns. There were no carbs here to act as filler, so he managed to put away every last morsel without complaining of the type of sweats that often accompany such rich foods. 

As a seafood eater, I opted for the Crabshack Combo in a spicy soup, which arrived as a sample of giant shrimp (singular), several crab claws, mussels, calms and a handful of new potatoes bobbing in a spicy broth. This was a monster of a dish, requiring untold effort to tuck into- as a warning, do not order this if you are:

A) In a rush; or

B) Going to the theatre.

I was left frantically cracking away at my crab claws and fishing out the meat with various instruments right up to the wire- it was both ugly and messy. The food was delicious, but I had lingering remnants of the meal underneath my fingernails for at least a day afterwards. It was naïve on my part to be allured by this selection, but everything emerged from a wood burning oven in perfect condition; the mussels were plump, the crab was succulent and the shrimp was rich and meaty. I was not offered any wet wipes, however, which would have been appreciated.

The atmosphere is relaxed, the waiters were helpful and there was notes of the blues wafting across the restaurant. I hear that the live jazz band plays every evening and they are worth the trip alone. The cocktails are also supposed to be out of this world.

Our service was a bit staggered, but this is a very busy and buzzy restaurant that makes attentive service an impossibility- we could have used a bit more attention to clear the plates provided for discarded crab shells and the promise of a Birthday cupcake was never fulfilled (and that would have been a nice touch).

We will certainly return to this location of The Big Easy again, but I will order more prudently and we will pace ourselves and make sure to catch the live music. This is a great spot in central London for a boisterous night out in a group.

Beware that you will be offered a plastic bib- it's just that kind of joint.

I just want to take a minute to talk about how great of a deal the lunch offer is at The Big Easy - £10 for two courses and a drink in central London? And we’re not talking two measly portions either, we’re talking you’re probably going to need to take a doggy bag back to your desk with you because they’re so huge style portions. American size portions in fact! The iceberg lettuce with blue cheese and bacon is practically a whole lettuce! And the delicious half BBQ chicken with chips is enough to feel a small family. And when you consider the frozen cocktails would normally set you back £8 each and are included in this £10 offer, can you really afford to pass this deal up? Unless you’re on a diet, the answer is no.

When it comes to the all you can eat offers however (Monday,Tuesdays and Wednesdays - Fajitas, Shrimp and Pork) the deal isn’t quite so good. Its around the £16 mark and they’re mostly topped up with chips so you don’t really get much of a refill, especially when it comes to the shrimp which is so heavily ladened with batter, you’ll barely get your monies worth.

A great place for American deep south BBQ and the blitzed ice cocktails are great. Having eaten there now a few times and usually without a reservation, the sharing platter for two is the way to go, you get a mix of ribs, pulled pork, corn bread and other typical deep south BBQ. The surrounding are great and the bar is a stocked thing of beauty, but there are problems and that in the service. The place is so large and always packed but service is slow and it can be impossible to get a waiters attention to order of just get another round of drinks. In fact if you do manage to order drinks it will take even longer for them to arrive, food doesn't take quite so long, but clearly they need more staff behind the bar for the numbers they're serving and more waiting staff too. 

This isn't to say you shouldn't go, because your should if its the sort of food you fancy and don't have to rush, it's especially good for groups as you can all get stuck into lots of different sharing items on the menu.