A visit to Longhorns Barbecue Smokehouse

I love living in Newcastle, there is so much to see and do and always something new to discover. From interesting museums like the Great North Musueum, fabulous art galleries like the Baltic and the Laing and quirky historic features like the Vampire Rabbit. Millennium hotels have created a guide of the best places to go in Newcastle. When they got in touch and asked me to recommend a favourite place I knew I wanted to visit Longhorns Barbecue Smokehouse.

Newcastle has seen a spate of new restaurants opening recently, from the Coop Chicken House to the Botanist. Longhorns Barbecue Smokehouse can be found on Mosley Street. It promises meat, Texas style, rubbed with herbs and spices and smoked over hickory for 24 hours. Having seen the Longhorns in action at the Boiler Shop Steamer I was looking forward to finding out more.
It is not possible to reserve a table at Longhorns, you need to turn up and wait. The place is not large and you do need to stand while you wait. We had to wait twenty minutes for a table, which would be a problem if you were infirm. It would have been nice if there was a row of stools against the wall for us to perch on. This would not have taken up much space. You are able to place your order while you wait and get a drink from the bar. This means that when you do get sat down your food arrives quickly. The staff are efficient making sure you get sat down as fast as possible. The food is worth the wait.

The interior of Longhorns is full of wood, a wooden bar, wooden tables and stools and the menu is written on wall on a large blackboard in chalk. Over the bar is a pair of Texas longhorns and there is a row of shotgun casings. The music is some sort of American folk which adds to the atmosphere. It all works together to give you the feeling of a cattle ranch. You almost expect some cowboys to come walking in having tied up their horses outside.

The menu contains meat, lots of it. For the daring there are Man vs Food type challenges. You can take on the Breaking Badass Challenge which consists of 7lb of meat and sides which has to be consumed within an hour. Alternatively there is the Tex-Ass Torture Challenge made up of 12 chicken wings soused in a very hot Tex-Ass torture sauce. Finishing these challenges earns you a t-shirt and a picture on the wall of fame. We decided to forgo the challenge and just eat from the main menu.

The main menu is simple, choose from ribs n wings, sandwiches or bbq boards featuring meats in different ways.   Ribs N wings gives you the choice of a full or half rack of pork or beef ribs or six or twelve chicken wings. My son chose a full rack of Badass beef rib which came with a side (£10). I am sure the ribs are actually from a dinosaur.

I chose to have a BBQ board. This gives you a choice of either three meats and two sides (£12) or two meats and two sides (£10). The meat selection gives you a choice of pork ribs, wings, badass brisket, spicy sausage and memphis hog butt. The sides are fries, slaw, 3 bean chilli, hog rind and pit beans. I went for three meats choosing the brisket, sausage and hog with fries and slaws.

The meals are served on a wooden board and wooden forks and knives are provided to eat them with. The table has a couple of bottles of sauce, one was labelled hot and the other was not labelled. It tasted like some sort of barbecue sauce with a sweet and smoky tang

The meal was delicious and really filling. You could taste a nice subtle smoky taste in the meat. The sausage was smoky and spicy with a taste of garlic in the background. The coleslaw was lovely and the fries were crispy. The meal was good value as well, for a main for the three of us and drinks it came to just under £40.

There are two desserts available, key lime pie and salted caramel brownie but we were too full to try them. We enjoyed our meal when we finally sat down and Longhorns is definitely worth a visit.

I received a meal in return for an honest review but my opinions are my own.