Dirty Bones has made its mark on London by bringing a small slice of the Big Apple to four areas of our beloved rainy city, and one in Oxford. Being part bar and part restaurant, it manages to bring to the table both a drinks and food list that equally deliver. We popped into the South Kensington location to check out what NYC has to offer London, and get our hands on some of those famous cheeseburger dumplings.
The venue is exactly what you’d expect of a New York dive bar, down some narrow stairs, filled with neon lights and bursting with character. Although the drinks menu is full of interesting original concoctions and classics with a Dirty Bones twist, we opted to go alcohol-free for the evening. The Drop It Like It’s Not menu houses a selection of innovative drinks minus the alcohol, so we went for the Pineapple Express. A tall drink made with pineapple, mango, cinnamon syrup, yuzu, lemon and soda, it was fresh, zesty and just a little bit sweet.
The first thing we ordered off the menu was, of course, the cheeseburger dumplings. Little fried gyoza, they’re stuffed with burger mince and melted cheese, and served alongside a burger sauce that tastes a little like Big Mac sauce. 12/10 definitely a must-order, even if you just go to Dirty Bones for drinks.
We also ordered the Mac Balls and the Mac & Cheese (because can you ever really have too much cheesy pasta?). Out of the two, we’d definitely recommend going the regular mac and cheese, as it was gooey and had a perfectly crispy top, easily one of the best macs we’ve had around London.
The Beef Short Rib and the Flat Iron Steak stood out to us the most from the Bones menu, and they certainly lived up to expectation. The short rib had been braised for 12-hours so the meat literally fell off the bone, and it was slathered in a deliciously sweet and sticky espresso-spiked BBQ sauce, and sprinkled with crispy shallots and spring onions. The steak was perfectly seared on the outside and rare on the inside, just the way we like it, and served with a smattering of salt flakes over the plate, and a roast bone marrow gremolata.
The food at Dirty Bones is ridiculously indulgent and rich, so we thought we’d better try and level it out by adding a salad to the mix. The Winter Kale Salad stood out to us, with a base of massaged kale, which after Googling we found out means to knead the kale before using in a dish to take some of the bitterness out of the flavour. It was tossed with spiced walnuts, apple slices, pomegranate and pumpkin seeds and topped with a grain mustard and maple dressing, for a dish that was fresh, sweet and salty all in one go.
We wish we had room for dessert after, but we were honestly stuffed to the brim, so we’ll definitely have to head back another time to find out if The Stickiest Toffee Pudding really is the stickiest. We really enjoyed our entire experience at Dirty Bones and will be heading back soon to consume our weight in mac and cheese, and we’d recommend you do so as well.
