Head to Bury St Edmunds market and you’ll spot one stretch that’s purely street food vendors. With burritos, Thai food and more, there’s something for everyone – and if you’re a meat lover, you’ll no doubt have sniffed out Meat & Greet with their BBQ setup.
As a result of their market success, the team have opened up a new restaurant on Bury’s Whiting Street, just a short walk from the market.
Billing themselves as a ‘live fire BBQ steakhouse’, they’re open six days a week (closed on Tuesdays). We booked a table during their soft launch weekend when food was 20% off and only the upstairs dining room was open.
As soon as you walk in, you’ll see the open flames behind the counter (and the massive extraction system above!) – a nice bit of theatre while you’re dining. To one side of the counter there’s a fridge displaying some beautiful dry-aged beef: while there are options on the menu for non-meat eaters, this could be a bit off-putting…
We’ve not yet seen the downstairs dining room, but upstairs offers a few smaller tables along with two long tables: we were seated at one of these along with three other groups of diners. We’re not massive fans of sharing tables with strangers, so it’s worth checking where you’ll be sitting if you’re the same…
Along with a small list of appetisers (the chicken wings served to the people to our left looked amazing), the menu offers a variety of burgers and steaks – including a vegetarian halloumi burger and a vegan steak option. There’s a kids’ menu, too, offering a choice of three mains with chips, plus an ice cream, for £8.
It came as no surprise that the child ordered the halloumi burger. Five decent slices of halloumi filled the toasted bun, along with a lettuce leaf and some thickly-sliced pickles. No sauce, which is a shame – it’s always annoying to have to pick apart a kids’ burger to add their chosen sauces. The portion of fries was generous, I’d just say they were a little on the salty side for a child’s palate. He seemed to enjoy it (although didn’t eat many of the chips) – and while he demolished his little tub of ice cream, it was sadly a low-quality “chocolate-flavoured” option rather than something more decent.
I was always going to order the GOAT burger (£13). Described as “an elevated, old school burger” on the Meat & Greet menu, it featured two 4oz steak patties, mild Cheddar, bacon, and Kansas BBQ smoked pulled pork. On the side, a portion of salted fries (£4) and a smoked mac and cheese (£6.50) to share. Overall, a great burger. The patties were juicy, nicely seasoned and had that beautiful wood-fired flavour. There was plenty of cheese and the bacon was nice and crisp around the edges, and the pulled pork on top was perfectly sweet and tender. The bun held together well, but the constant falling poppy seeds made it a very messy eat!
The chips were decent, but like my son’s portion, a bit over-salted. We loved the amount of melted cheese on top of the mac and cheese and the consistency was great, but we were disappointed that the promised smoked flavour didn’t come through very strongly.
Service was ok throughout, very varied depending on who came to our table but it’s always hard to gauge whether this is just teething issues with a new restaurant! Would we go back to Meat & Greet? Absolutely – we’re keen to try their starters and steaks next time around!