The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureFood & DrinksRestaurant & bar reviews

Q Grill in Camden

Q Grill in Camden | Restaurant review
1 April 2014
Joe Russell
Avatar
Joe Russell
1 April 2014

Walk through pretty much any corner of London, no matter how gastronomically blessed it is, and some vaguely American-inspired restaurant will stare back at you. The lure of “slaw”, a word now ubiquitously littered across all kinds of menus, and the promise of sticky, barbecued meats have for some time been drawing in the hoi polloi with disturbing ease. While many joints are dead behind the eyes, flogging a dead horse and distorting the joys of a good American restaurant, there are still gems to be found.

The recently opened Q Grill on Chalk Farm Road, owned by restaurateur Des McDonald, is a striking space. A didactic blackboard dissecting fish and meat towers over the room like an intimidating university lecturer. The open plan kitchen and its Josper grill, licking flames everywhere, draws wandering eyes away from quaint beer pumps and peculiar (go to the toilets) wall art. With a barnstorming playlist – start with Velvet Underground and carry on travelling deeper into the American psyche – an afternoon here could swiftly turn into a late-night session of good food and a severe exploration of the impressive drinks list (think Dark ‘n’ Stormies, local and American beers and a modestly priced wine collection).

The food is, though early days, already at a high level. Sea Bass, served ceviche and devilishly pretty, kicks and screams with chilli heat but melts away when balanced on deft, precision cut strokes of spiced, crisp plantain. A little Salad of Hickory Hot Smoked Salmon – fatty and generously flaked – is equally light. Jersey royals, oozing quail eggs and the hum of horseradish come with it and dance a restrained, affable jig of flavour.

Mains see the arrival of the American heavyweights and their raging depth of flavour. A Short Rib of Beef represents terrific bang for buck. Deep and sticky, rich and tender, its flesh seduces from the beginning and ends in spankingly clean bones. It is a shirts stripped, lights off, no talking kind of dish. Keeping things in check stand precisely prepared and handled cime di rapa, whose astringency is the perfect foil for the mesmeric beef.

A Pit–Smoked Beef Hash is equally serious stuff. The hash drips under the weight of a gushing duck egg yolk and punches you in the face with intense umami flavours: this is comfort food at its peak. If its presence at the advent of all raging hangovers was a guarantee, spirit cabinets across the land would be maniacally raided with prolific frequency.

On the side sit chips – glassy and crunchy and salty in equal measures – plus a bottle of Homemade BBQ Sauce that swiftly empties to be mopped up by anything smart enough to spot a good deal: smoky, sweet and spiced, it is American nectar.

Sure, there are dull points. Creamed Corn is a little gloomy and under seasoned while a Banoffee Cheesecake fails to reach the heights of a Pit-Grilled Pineapple (the accompaniments of which are a delight: faux iced-gem meringues, flecks of red chilli and tiny dots of white chocolate are a happy, orchestrated accident of colliding flavours, and a numbing lime sorbet provides a fairground sherbet sensation) but everything else is pitch-perfect. Think TGI Fridays after an intensive decade-long course of performance-enhancing drugs.

Q Grill has swiftly entered the rarefied atmosphere of near-faultless American restaurants in London. In such an inflated and cluttered market place, Q Grill is definitely worth the BBQ sauce-stained shirts and expanded waistlines.

Joe Russell

Food: 17/20
Drinks: 15/20
Service: 15/20
Q Grill: 47/60

To reserve a table at Q Grill, 29-33 Chalk Farm Road, NW1 8AJ, call 020 7267 2678 or for more information visit here. 

Related Itemsreview

More in Food & Drinks

World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2022: The new 51-100 list mapped out

Food Desk
Read More

Parisian bar Little Red Door to take over Adam Handling’s Eve Bar on 7 July

Food Desk
Read More

50 Next: London chef Santiago Lastra recognised in Bilbao as one of the 50 young people shaping the future of gastronomy

Food Desk
Read More

Taste of London 2022 at Regent’s Park: Creativity in gastronomy is alive and kicking

Ashiana Pradhan
Read More

Adam Handling’s Eve Bar launches new cocktail menu

Food Desk
Read More

Hotly anticipated Pan-African restaurant Tatale to open on 14 July

Food Desk
Read More

Taste of London returns to Regent’s Park next week

Food Desk
Read More

Paul Ivić takes vegetarian sensation Tian Bistro to Croatia for a summer-long pop-up

Filippo L'Astorina, the Editor
Read More

50 Best announce collaborative dinners in London: Where and how to book

Food Desk
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap
  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Beauty and the Beast: The Musical at London Palladium
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Paolo Nutini – Last Night in the Bittersweet
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • St Vincent at the Hammersmith Apollo
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • The Railway Children Return
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Netflix Walking Tour: From Bridgerton to The Crown, a free walking tour through the filming locations
    Cinema & Tv
  • The Throne at Charing Cross Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • “We really wanted to create a cabbage gun”: An interview with David Earl and Chris Hayward stars of Brian and Charles
    Cinema & Tv
  • Paolo Nutini – Last Night in the Bittersweet
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Viagra Boys – Cave World
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Ithaka
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Paolo Nutini – Last Night in the Bittersweet
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Viagra Boys – Cave World
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • The Railway Children Return
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Adele lights up Hyde Park for BST Festival
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Beauty and the Beast: The Musical at London Palladium
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Tom at the Farm | Movie review
Home at the Shed | Theatre review