Proper American BBQ; it's one of those products that we typically don’t really see too much of here in the UK.  Eons ago, a place in Spinningfields called Southern Eleven got the BBQ ball rolling here in Manchester, but then sadly disappeared without a whimper.   The once excellent Red True BBQ then popped up, but tailed off into obscurity after a long period of letting standards slip beyond recognition from the early days.   And now you have Hickory's who have a few branches across the region and do an OK job.

But for me its one of the very greatest ways of cooking protein, and the sides, or 'fixins' as they say in the USA's deep south, are as important as the meats themselves.  It's just a love-filled way to cook, and we adore proper BBQ here at RoM HQ. So amidst the city's compact BBQ offering, when Brewski announced their plans to launch their own BBQ operation, we were thrilled.  Brewski's ethos of filling you to bursting point is in keeping with all things BBQ so it seemed like a well-pitched marriage. 

The doors soon opened and Manchester's food media were all over it like ravenous food bloggers.  Sadly we didn’t receive an invite to any press launch events despite being the city's oldest and biggest restaurant guide along with being loyal and regular paying Brewski customers, but hey ho.  A few months on from opening, it gives us the opportunity to pen this proper review. 

We headed over to Salford Quays, our once residence, and things have moved on so much since back in 2013 when we left, with food operators now all down the waterfront sitting atop elevated platforms which offer outdoor dining.  Brewski's Big Tray BBQ boasts a splendid waterside view in a massive unit, and once inside things are equally as cozy. 

The bench tables and communal vibe instantly reminded me of a place in Copenhagen, called Warpigs.  It's an institution for quality beer and also, genuinely great American BBQ.  We sensed that their influence had spread to Salford Quays.

We quickly had a gander over the online menu and picked out our choices without any delay at all, partially because we'd looked at the menu about 283 times during the week ahead of our visit.  Off we headed to the ordering counter which is actually in the kitchen; another Warpigs nod.  The wall based menu sitting next to the tills wasn’t needed due to that earlier research.

We popped our order in for 'The Bigger Tray', which was priced at £80 on the menu, but £84 at the tills as 5% service is added, even though the till then asks if you'd like to tip when payment is made and there's no table service.  We took our little buzzer, which kicks off royally when your order is ready to go, and returned to our table to wait for our turn.

It didn’t take long for the goods to be plated up in fairness, roughly around 5 minutes in total, so we popped back over to grab our massive tray  of smoked delights.  Chef has a few questions for you on collection, largely around which toppings and sauces you'd like, so we chose all of them because it felt in keeping with the general gluttony.

The tray contained almost everything that you could realistically hope for on any BBQ plate.  Some stunning pulled pork was the early favourite and will always be a crowd pleaser.    The Jalapeno and Cheddar sausage was superb too, and another clear table favourite.  A lovely snap to the casing with a great level of smoke, and a real treat coming from that oozy cheese.  Delightful.

Smoked Turkey is the platter's black sheep, and a brave addition based on most people's general dislike of the bird. But this was juicy, briny throughout, and smoked to perfection.  One member of our 3 strong group declared this his favourite cut from the whole platter, especially when paired up with the punchy buffalo sauce.

Peach Tea Glazed Pork Belly Rib also punched hard and paired well with all those various sauces.  More well cooked meat which had clearly been given hours of love and attention from that smoke.  Whilst this was good, I'd probably swap it out for proper ribs since this is BBQ after all.  Sadly, there's no rib racks anywhere on the menu as much as they are one of BBQ's holy trinity, which feels odd?

And the array of sides/sauces was wonderful.  Some lovely cornbread, a helping of refreshingly crunchy slaw, creamed corn, and some great meat-loaded pit beans. Some token al dente broccoli added a touch of greenery to things.

The Wagyu Brisket was clearly of quality beef sporting some great seasoning with a solid smoke ring and bark, but sadly had dried out a tad at some stage of the cooking/prep process.  We still enjoyed it and didn't leave a shred on the platter, but it wasn’t as top-tier as on a previous yet undocumented visit from one of table.  Such is life.

Also, side plates should be offered with the sharing platters in our view.  We nipped back to the kitchen and were happily given 3 trays, I assume the ones which house the menu's smallest platter?  But enamel side plates or something else BBQ friendly would work well here.  Whilst our team all happily tolerate each other's double dipping and cutting/eating from a shared tray, many customers may not want to so side plates would just make the experience a bit nicer.

As we sat and munched away we spotted something on the back wall; a painting showing various iconic BBQ hotspots from all other the world.  One of them was, you guessed it, Warpigs. So perhaps that sensed inspiration was correct?  And I absolutely promise you that this 'story' hasn’t been reverse engineered in the sake of creative writing.

We ended with a couple of portions of what the menu listed as Key Lime Pie but was actually more like a biscuit based lime cheesecake, topped with more biscuit crumb, a rocher of cream and some dehydrated lime.  It was undoubtedly delicious, but not really a pie.  I was expecting a slice of, well, pie.  Key Lime Crumble Pots would be a more apt name for these, but it was still a suitably tasty and refreshing way to top off all that rich, fatty BBQ excess.

Before heading off we popped back over to the kitchen for a nosey, as they were already prepping tomorrow's low and slow brisket in one of those bespoke smokers.  Chef let slip during a brief chat that another Brewski's BTBBQ is on the cusp of opening, down to Freight Island, so a bit of a mini scoop for you there! 

Based on this experience, we will 100% be calling in. And we shall also cross our now BBQ sauce covered fingers in the hope of an invitation to the press/media launch of that one this time around.