LP's Quality Meats

Overview

UPDATE MARCH 23, 2018: If you like smoked meats and good deals, you're going to like LP's latest offering. The Chippendale eatery has just launched a happy hour running from 5–6pm, Tuesday to Friday. The drinks on offer include the usual suspects — $10 glasses of wine, $5 Peroni Reds — and creative concoctions like the Lynchburg Lemonade ($10) made from PS40's smoked lemonade. For food, there's a rotating menu of $10 snacks. Expect smoked and cured delights such as 'nduja toast, Basque anchovies and croquettes stuffed with house-made jamon. Find more info here.

If you're not addicted to smoking, then you haven't tried LP's Quality Meats, a European beer hall which carves up the city's best smoked and cured delicacies.

Located in a leafy pocket of Chippendale lies LP's secret smokehouse, and you're bound to find it quicker by nose than sight. The venue still retains the charm of its former life as a mechanics — it's one expansive warehouse space with polished concrete floors, tiled walls and high ceilings. Communal tables create aisles across the room and the atmosphere just sings with happy patrons, intoxicated by the promising smells of smoky goodness.

The LP in question stands for Luke Powell, the ex-Tetsuya's chef and mastermind behind Mary's famous burgers. He's joined by James Audas of Noma and Tetsuya fame as sommelier and front of house. Don't judge the waiters by their butcher-style tees; this casually clad team are a well-trained, knowledgeable bunch and professional from top to tail.

The menu is short and sweet, and particularly short on the sweet items with just one dessert listed. The cured and cold cuts of bierwurst ($14), salami cotto ($14), and mortadella ($14) make a great charcuterie, served on a silver platter with mustard and house-made grissini. There are a host of main-sized menu items, including smoked chicken ($24/$42), lamb belly stuffed with merguez ($36), beef short rib ($48) and smoked sausage ($14), and they all rely on the same tried and true recipe of salt and smoke, a winning combination.

At this point of the night even the Young Henrys cider tastes of smoke, but there's no complaining here. The bar has interesting brews on tap — including the Nomad Pale Ale and American Brown Ale BrewCult — and depending on where you sit, you get a great view of the open kitchen and the meat-slicer in motion.

Does the single dessert stack up? The proof is in the pudding. While the sad-sounding pouding chômeur (or poor man's pudding) is made from day-old pancake batter, it's surprisingly top-notch. The delicious, crispy, pie-tin pancake soaked in a sticky, jammy sauce is an absolute sensation.

With so many first-class elements, LP's Quality Meats is sure to rise to the top. You know what they say: where there's smoke...