I have spent enough evenings chasing the scent of woodsmoke across London to know when a new opening feels like proper momentum rather than another flash in the pan. Hon's BBQ, opening this month in Hackney Wick, lands squarely in the first camp. Private enterprise at its most appetising: a founder who learnt his craft in Austin, a head chef poached from respected kitchens, and a Kickstarter that turned pop-up dreams into bricks and mortar. No grants, no fanfare from the council, just the quiet logic of demand meeting supply in a corner of east London that has quietly become one of the city's more interesting places to eat.
The restaurant takes over Unit 7 in Queen's Yard at The White Building, the old Silo site perched above Crate Brewery with a view over the canal that will make summer evenings feel properly earned. Eighty covers, weekend music with DJs and live acts, a late-night menu of grilled things for the post-pint crowd. It is the sort of setup that understands how people actually want to spend their time rather than how planners think they should.
Man Hon Luk is the man behind it all. He picked up proper low-and-slow technique in Texas before folding in the tastes of his Hong Kong childhood. The result is a menu that refuses to choose between cultures and is all the better for it. Snacks arrive sharp and snackable: pork and cuttlefish meatballs, those addictive curry fishballs, smoked duck breast tucked into pancakes. Mains lean into the smoke: short ribs bathed in Sichuan peppercorn sauce, Taiwanese pork belly, Iberico ribs with a Texas rub that respects both traditions, Asian-spiced ox cheek, and a Xi'an-style lamb shoulder that sounds like it will linger in the memory long after the plate is cleared. Sides refuse to be afterthoughts, especially the Lap Cheong smoked mac and cheese, which I suspect will cause queues at the bar.
Norine Chu runs the kitchen, fresh from stints at Singburi and Tempo, while Oliver Dibben from Brat looks after the drinks. Between them they have serious pedigree without the pretension that sometimes tags along. The place has already proved itself through pop-ups and a lengthy residency at All My Friends in the same neighbourhood from August 2023 right through to December 2025. That is not a flash of hype. That is two years of people voting with their stomachs.
As Hot Dinners reported, the doors swing open on 17 July. A Kickstarter helped get the permanent site over the line, another reminder that when diners want something enough they will reach into their own pockets rather than wait for someone else to subsidise it. In an era when so much of the conversation around food seems to involve bureaucracy and virtue signalling, there is something refreshingly direct about a restaurant that simply sets out to cook excellent meat, pair it with interesting flavours, and let the punters decide.
I have no doubt the sceptics will mutter about yet another Asian-Texan hybrid, as if fusion were some terrible modern affliction rather than the natural outcome of cooks travelling, tasting and stealing good ideas. The truth is simpler. Good barbecue is about patience, fire and seasoning. East Asian cooking has understood balance and heat for centuries. Put the two together under people who know what they are doing and the results tend to be worth the journey east.
