Review: My Meat Wagon

After my fourth visit within five weeks it is safe to say ‘My Meat Wagon’ is one of my favourite places to eat at the moment. It specialises in meat feasts, so vegetarians, you may want to avert your eyes! All the meat is smoked in their specially made ‘Ole Hickery’ smoker for up to 14 hours which gives the meat a beautiful smokey flavour but keeps the meat really tender and moist!

Although My Meat Wagon only opened its “flaps” on July 30^th this year, on each visit the place is heaving with customers waiting outside for a table, it is first come, first serve system. While you wait you get some freshly made popcorn which is tasty and perfect when you have a 6 year old with you.

Stripped and styled by their own hands and with a combination of up-cycled and hand crafted pieces they have turned 6B Block A Smithfield Market into a unique barbecue “smoke joint”. I particularly like the lights which were made from recycled glass bottles with the bottoms cut off and absolutely loved the table numbers on plastic farm animals

The menu is every meat lovers dream and every vegetarians worst nightmare with only a choice of beef, pork, chicken or a mix of all of them on the menu. On the dinner menu I opted for the meat board which consists of beef brisket, half a chicken, pulled pork, pickled veg, a big onion ring and I ordered a side of chorizo sausage and beans with meat mixed through (it was a meat feast indeed!). Usually not a huge fan of chorizo this is unreal, and a must in my book. I also had a homemade ‘Salt Lick Lemonade’ which was served in lovely jam jars with handles and lids. The whole meat board came to €16.95 which is fantastic value considering the amount of food on the board, I had to bring a ‘doggy bag’ home otherwise I might just have slipped into a food coma on the drive home! Although they have a good craft beer menu I had to abstain as I was driving.

When paying for the bill they soften the blow giving a ‘Stinger’ bar to person who drew the short straw to pay the bill.

To finish I had the homemade Crunchie ice-cream

The food is amazing and really good value. They do a lunch and a dinner menu. Open Tuesday – Sunday, lunch from 12.30pm – 4pm & dinner from 6pm – 10.30pm. Check out their Facebook page or Twitter 

A bit of background:

It was set up and run by two friends Donal Cahill and Cian McHugh who wanted to turn their passion for food, cooking and a beer into more. It started out as a small gourmet burger van but after three years on the road the ambition to open a bona fide “smoke joint” surfaced.

They set out to research barbecue, which took them to Chicago, Memphis, New York, New Orleans and Texas. They returned to Dublin and set up home in Smithfield with their take on barbecue. They set about turning their empty shell into a unique eclectic space.

Review by Sarah Carbery