Smok’d at the Candlemaker

The Candlemaker is a rather nice pub buried at the far end of Battersea high street, that I hadn’t visited since before Covid became fashionable. It falls into that group of places that I was always intending go back to, but never actually managed it. Quite often I’ve found that such places have gone bust, changed hands or become unrecognisable by the time you manage to stage your return and that was certainly the case here. To be fair I could not remember much about my previous visits other than that they were positive, but nothing had prepared me for the current set up.

It being mid-month, I was looking for a cheap night out and had been perusing the Battersea options on First Table. For those unaware of the service, this is the site that identifies restaurants offering substantial discounts for early dinners (https://www.firsttable.co.uk/). Looking for options in Battersea I came across a BBQ restaurant called Smok’d at the Candlemaker. The menu was right up my street, appearing to have come from about 12 years ago when barbeque and dirty burgers reigned supreme, and dining at Meat Liquor was the definition of on trend.

Arriving at the pub, it transpired that rather that the Smok’d experience rather than being confined to a dining room like I’d first supposed, it had taken over the entire pub. This now resembled a Hoxton haunt from the coalition era, and I half expected to bump into Jessie J wearing a London 2012 T-Shirt.

As well as the dedication to smoked meats, the Candlemaker now appears to have developed an obsession with whisky, with the walls decorated with lists and prices of whiskies in stock. For me this was nearly as appealing as the carnivorous feasts on offer within the food menu.

For a meat lead restaurant, I’d put this towards the lower end of the price range with most main courses in the late teens, with the most expensive a steak at £32. We chose to start, not with a starter but sharing 6 chicken wings, a mix of BBQ and Buffalo for £8.00. This was enough, and both sauces were good, especially the Buffalo that had an unexpected slow burn.

For the main courses, I had the house speciality of a Jacob’s ladder beef rib, and my companion the pork belly rib at £24 and £18 respectively. To accompany, there were just a couple of side dishes, skinny fries and onion rings. Well, what can I say the beef rib was so tender it almost fell off the bone, whilst the pork rib was both large and flavoursome. Skinny fries are pretty much the same anywhere, but the onion rings were exceptionally nice.

To keep the price down we’d drunk only a couple of pints each rather than the usual wine, and the final bill with 50% discount on food was a mere £66 between us, one of the best value meals I’ve had for years.

It was one of those meals that I felt it was best to try and walk some of it off as my insides now felt as if I’d ingested my boiler insulation. And so, we did until some minutes later (about 4,) we found out way to the Latchmere pub.

Looking to make up for our earlier abstention from grape based beverages I ordered a bottle of house white. The barman obviously a good judge of character did not offer an ice bucket as in his words it was unlikely to be around long enough to get warm. A prediction that proved to be accurate.

Smok’d at the Candlemaker

136 Battersea High St, London SW11 3JR

Phone: 020 7223 6532

Menu: candlemaker.smokd.co.uk