Restaurants / Reviews
My Mate’s Barbecue at the Three Tuns
Queues once formed on College Green to nowhere, starting on the corner of grass nearest the statue of Queen Victoria and finishing on the concrete where skateboarders annoy everybody and pupils from the nearby Cathedral School try to impress members of the opposite sex.
Then you realised what the queue was for as a portly chap with a scraggly beard huffed and puffed into view pushing his New York-style cart, distinguished by a red and yellow umbrella unfurled to signify its arrival.
Ben Warren of Meat & Bread built up quite a following and then became a trailblazer by moving his food business inside a pub, retiring his cart from College Green and making his hefty sandwiches from the kitchen of the Three Tuns, only a few hundred yards away from his original outdoor spot.
is needed now More than ever
Sadly having to depart due to ill health, Warren’s place in the kitchen was first taken by Hickory Pig and now by My Mate’s Barbecue – which began life as a festival trader.
Has pulled pork seen its day now that even Burger King have it on the menu? Well not here, where there is “low and slow” pulled pork (£6) from Dave Giles butchers on the Gloucester Road in a toasted Hobbs House bun, and even pulled pork popcorn (£4) among the side dishes and bar snacks.
Vegetarians are still catered for with a Mediterranean halloumi salad (£5.50), but this is resolutely a place for carnivores.
Chips as a main course was a new concept for me. Dirty fries at My Mate’s Barbecue consists of a pile of pulled pork, barbecue sauce, sliced gherkins and coleslaw on top of chips.
Even running to the top of nearby Brandon Hill wouldn’t be enough to burn this lot off. It was just a shame that the thin and insipid French fries seemed to be almost an afterthought, a bland disappointment especially as what was promised on the menu were handcut, skin on and triple-cooked.
My Mate’s Barbecue, The Three Tuns, 78 St George’s Rd, Bristol, BS1 5UR
Open Monday, midday-2.30pm; and Tuesday-Saturday, 12.30pm-2.30pm and 5pm-9pm
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