As someone who seeks out the cheapest cuts of meat, dumps them into my trusty Le Cruset with a handful of herbs and a slosh of something liquid, then leaves on a low heat until morphed into melting submission most weekends - Farringdon’s newest hot spot Lazybones sounded right up my slow-cooked street. Particularly when promised that the selection of gourmet hot dogs, afore-mentioned meat and selection of spicy wings would come with a side of ‘hard’ liquor.
Despite obvious effort to tap into the hearts of Farringdon’s
hip mix of media types, first impressions of Lazybones’ are not brilliant. Sat
next to a large and rather incongruous for the area Sports Bar, its exterior is
a bit of a let down and the interior (90s-looking graphics, loud bursts of loud
yellow, fly-posted pop culture images, fairy lights and cinema-style movie
screens listing the food and drinks offerings) feels unnecessarily hectic. Perhaps
I’ve been ruined by an influx of effortlessly nonchalant London interiors but,
for all its design quirks, it leaves me a little cold.
The same cannot be said for the staff however, who greet us like
old friends and immediately set about mixing us a Maple Old Fashioned each (a
interesting take on the classic which we enjoyed so much we had three).
The short menu is an enticing read of junk food classics, so we
quickly order more than we can possibly eat. Ironically as they probably
started cooking at the same time I ordered my first morning coffee, the dishes
come thick and fast and, it has to be said, are mostly excellent.
One should never be asked to choose between marinades, so we try
both the BBQ and Hot Wings – which come slathered in a sweet, sticky tangle of
perfect meat and tiny bone. They are sweet/smoky/fierce/tangy respectively –
and so addictive we’ve emptied both baskets without breaking a (meat) sweat.
Even better is the Chilli Dog, topped with tender beef brisket laced in cumin
and gentle heat. If you ever wondered why you’d slow-cook a hot dog this (a
frankfurter on pork steroids) is your answer.
The Pulled Pork & Slaw Sandwich suffered in comparison to
the other dishes, not to mention its own description (eight hour-cooked pork
shoulder in pale ale and served with cabbage, carrot, fennel, beetroot,
celeriac, radish and yoghurt slaw) The coleslaw had none of sharpness needed to
cut through pork and there was a distinct lack of sauce, leaving the bun and
meat to merge in a tasteless mush. Despite being loaded with cheese, skinny fries were
unexciting.
Lazybones is one of those restaurants that have it almost right and, if you lived in a town
other than London, you’d probably go back without giving it much though. The
food was pretty good (and in some cases great), the cocktails are delicious,
the bar staff are helpful without being annoying and, having said the interior
was hectic, at least two thirds of that hecticness was with actual people. Alas
this is London, and I fear for the lovely people behind Lazybones that it will
suffer in comparison to the other (slightly) finer examples of this kind of
Americanised junk food we are lucky enough to have in our capital. But, if I am
totally wrong and the place becomes a hotspot of hot sauce, then I’m perfectly
willing to eat my hat. As long as my hat is full of those rather sexy
slow-cooked hot dogs.
Lazybones
Unit 5
Cowcross Street
London
EC1M 6DQ
www.lazybones.uk.com
