This American barbecue in Soho has dining on two levels of which downstairs is a little more formal and a little more expensive so we opted for upstairs. Upstairs is very informal, with ordering at the bar and then eating the food with your hands from trays. But, there is a great atmosphere, its not too noisy to think but there is certainly a buzz with people coming and going and American sports on the TVs. On our visit it was college American football, which seemed very authentic and was enjoyable to watch.

I ordered a mixed platter, which consisted of pulled pork, spare ribs and a quarter chicken. The pulled pork was a little cold, to me it tasted ok, but was oddly stringy and was really nothing special. I have no idea if its meant to be like that or if this was a bad example. Spare ribs on the other hand were good, with plenty of very tender meat. This had been marinaded and had a nice hint of smokiness. For me, the star of the show was a quarter of chicken. This was tasty but almost as importantly, extremely succulent and dripping with juices. My flatmate had a meal platter of baby back ribs. There were a lot of them and they were also very tender but I don't really see why so many people apparently prefer them to spare ribs, and there's a lot more meat on spare ribs.

For those wanting a more intense flavour, there are plenty of sauces on the table to slather on all the meats. Bizarrely the smoky sauce was hotter than the hot chippotle sauce, but both were classic gooey barbecue sauces. These were good fun, but a little sweet and confected for my taste. A less appealing option was horrible French's mustard, but to make up for it there was a good habanero sauce for those who wanted more heat.

The platters as meal deals came with coleslaw and a handful of 'fries'. The coleslaw was mediocre, and really I was expecting it to be more impressive. The ingredients looked a little tired and they seemed to be in bought mayonnaise. More positively, the chips were very good, with a very crispy exterior and a smooth interior. I have seen other people criticising the size of the chip portion, but honestly, with all that meat anyone who thought they needed more food must be aiming to take the American eating experience too far.

As mentioned above I don't have much experience of American Barbecue so can't comment on authenticity. I'm not sure if that would help much anyway, as the multi-review websites are evenly divided between comments that say “Hi, this place is great, and I'm Texan so I should know” and those that say “This wouldn't even be rated as mediocre barbecue in the US of A.” What I can say is that in my view some of the food was only OK, but some was delicious. Its also a bargain given the location, with a mass of food and a couple of beers each coming in at just over £20 a head.

Most importantly, with friendly staff and a good vibe the whole experience was very enjoyable. In fact I could cheerfully have stayed there drinking beer and watching the sport were it not for the biggest downside of Bodean's. So the bad news- the draft beer is reasonably priced but is Coors light, which is possibly the most tasteless beer ever. There are some good bottled beers such as Gambrinus, but these are expensive and also it seems odd that if they are going to have expensive foreign bottled beers not to at least have American boutique examples.

That said I would definitely go back, especially as they do “burnt ends” a slow smoked brisket which is only available on Monday and Wednesday. Brisket cooked slowly is one of my favourite meats and I like the idea of it having a barbecued smokiness. I'll let you know what I think once I've tried it...[Edit: tried the burned ends, the very end bit was suprisingly dry but the centre was so melt in the mouth. Not perfect though, not all the fat had rendered so it needed a littel longer, and as the end was dry a little slower. But still, very tasty]

NB There are other branches in Clapham and, Fulham. I haven't tried them but there seems to be a consensus on review sites (in as much as there ever is), that they are markedly inferior to the Soho branch, something to bear in mind if you fancy giving Bodean's a go.