Big Feast at Big Easy (Covent Garden, London)

Big Easy is a 'bar.b.q & crabshack' restaurant in Covent Garden, London, serving great food within a lively atmosphere.

As the description of the restaurant suggests, Big Easy's menu focuses on barbecued meat and seafood. The majority of our eight-strong party opted for the 'Lobster Fest'; for £20, you get either a lobster roll or grilled whole lobster, which is served with fries and house salad, plus a drink (cocktail or craft lager or ale).

Lobster roll

Grilled whole lobster 

Both the lobster roll and grilled lobster tasted great. Along with a decent portion of chips, this was a satisfying meal.  

At £20, the Lobster Fest is the same price as the meals at Burger and Lobster (see previous blog entry).  However, I felt that Big Easy is better because:

• The lobster is at least as good.
• You get a drink with your meal for the same price.
• The side salad is better quality.

I went as part of a group of eight and I thought the restaurant was great for a gathering of friends. We were celebrating a birthday and they were very accommodating; although the kitchen was no doubt busy, they looked after our birthday cake for us until our main meal was finished.

Thumbs up from me!

Burger and Lobster: simple concept, great for lobster lovers

Burger and Lobster is a chain of five restaurants in London focussing on - you guessed it - burgers and lobsters.

Choosing your food at Burger and Lobster is pretty simple and there are just three things on the mains menu: [1] lobster in a brioche roll (lobster roll), [2] cooked whole lobster (grilled or boiled) and [3] beef burger.  All dishes come with fries and mixed salad.  So the concept is pretty simple.

Seeing as everything is £20, I felt the obvious choice was to order one of the two lobster dishes. I went with the lobster roll, while the girlfriend ordered the grilled lobster.

The lobster roll was excellent. Cool (as in not hot) and tasty chunks of lobster were neatly tucked into a soft yet robust brioche roll - the slight sweetness of the brioche working well in tandem with the lobster.

Lobster roll.

The fries were very crispy and nicely seasoned with salt, while the mixed salad was simple and lightly covered with parmesan.

The girlfriend's grilled lobster came complete with shell cracker and pick, plus a plastic bib! Extracting all the meat from a lobster is always enjoyable - much easier than crab meat.  The girlfriend really enjoyed it.

Grilled lobster.

As the restaurant does not actually have a menu, we had not realised desserts were available. Again, it's a simple choice. You can either get cheesecake topped with what appears to be broken Oreo biscuits, or an Eton Mess.

I really enjoyed the simple concept of Burger and Lobster and I'll certainly want to go back to try the grilled lobster. While the restaurant is extremely busy - even on a weekday - service and arrival of food is pretty quick, no doubt helped by the simple menu.

Nearest Tube: Bank or St Paul's