Food Review: Slims Pork Chop Express

If you have had a night out in Liverpool in the past five years, at least a a good one, chances are you've stumbled upon either the brines and steins delight of Salt Dog Slims, or Santa Chupitos and their infamous five dollar shakes. 

It's equally as likely you've loved the pair of them - both are institutions in the city and both benefit from a satellite venue loosely incorporated within, the speakeasy and cocktail haven 81 above Slims, and El Bandito's tequila and mezcal flavoured hedonism ensconced in the basement below Santas.

The four venues are all the brains of the same people, and earlier in 2014 they revealed that their next move would be to open a restaurant, an Instagram account ratcheting up the anticipation from April onwards. Cue four months of mouth watering images of meats, ovens and sneak previews of what the place would look like becoming crueller on the saliva glands that Pavlov and his misleading bells.

A few weeks after opening, we took ourselves to the restaurant, located next to Salt Dogs right at the very top of Seel St, to see if the wait had been worthwhile. There's an opening bar downstairs where you can slurp cocktails till your table is ready, adorned with a pretty spectacular mural and homage to eighties classic Big Trouble in Little China (main image and trailer below).

Straight away we're immediately endeared to one characteristic that, pun intended, quite literally casts this new venture in a different light. Darkness is a pretty integral component of nearly all the other venues (Salt Dogs lets a little sun in the day, but that's it), so it's refreshing to see a venue with the same personality completely lit up. It's also a natty spatial trick, making the slight narrowness of the venue feel intimate and welcoming as opposed to being packed in.

 There's further John Carpenter film posters adorning the walls and the vibe is of a slightly posher vision of late 20th Century Americana, almost like endowing Tarrantino diner sleaze with a bit of gloss. We start with a couple of Moritz beers and ponder our food choices, poring over the smoked meat selections across the menu.

Decisions made, we're then given a portion of spiced crackers (complimentary for every customer) before a portion of Chicken Wings arrives. Drenched in BBQ sauce made on the premises, it's finger food of the highest order, full of flavour, tender and gloriously messy.

The small plates quickly follow, our fingers quickly slipping into the Corn Dogs and the Coach Bombay Fries (below) as they arrive. The dogs are great, and don't last long when poured into the accompanying mustard and ketchup - always a good sign.

The fries though are a revelation, generously covered in shredded duck confit, Monterrey Jack cheese and a fried duck egg over the top, the yolk seeping into it all for a gloriously moreish dish. There's also a pot of duck gravy to lash all over, and whilst the fatty bird isn't to everyone's tastes this is duck heaven, and probably the standout choice from our visit.

Mains wise we decided to stay close to the heart of what the restaurant is about, opting for the Short Ribs and, what else, but the Pork Chop Express. You can't rock up at a new gaff and not try the dish named after the place now can you?

With the former we go for the smaller option of just 300g, and it's more than enough to satiate. Part of the problem with ribs is that the effort of eating, all that pulling bones and fiddling around, sometimes outweighs the end result. Not here.

The meat easily falls off the bone and has been marinaded to perfection, and tastes even better when we improvise with the duck gravy. It's proper meat porn, and playing it safe with the smaller option means we weren't ready to throw up after over gorging - always a bonus when greeted with so much food.

The pig overload that is the Pork Chop Express is also well worthy of our bellies, swine dining of the highest order with bacon, pulled pork and, best of all, smoked sausage crammed into a brioche. Like the fries it's heavily reliant on you being well into a specific meat, but it's a great choice and well worthy of taking the name of the restaurant.

We just about finished everything that was sent over without straying too far into, two mains, a pair of sides and a starter satisfying two ravenous men, but it could be quite easy to lose yourself into a meat abyss here and go overboard. In fact, part of us feels a little bit cheated we didn't do so.

Liverpool's carnivorous population is already well served, but this makes a welcome addition to the litany of options within the city by successfully bringing that late night hedonistic lustre from their affiliated bars to the culinary table. The best eateries always rely on a heady mix of culinary class and personality, and on this evidence Slims has them both in abundance.

For more info on Slim's Pork Chop Express head here.