1950s-style diner with red and white booths serving American classics

Big Moe's Diner & Smokehouse Ilford

Fun looking place  but seriously good food. 14 hour brisket was amazing. Double loaded burger was too. Sides are decent too. Far too much to try desserts. Great addition to Ilfors food scene. We will be back.

What can I say...this is what Ilford has been missing!! A truly Americanised experience but absolutely perfect. Took my son here for my birthday lunch and the food...oh my days the food!! I had the beef rib which was immense and he had a chicken burger. We ordered wings too and basically had wayyyyy too much food! Don't be fooled by the fact that the meals seem to come qith very little in the way of sides, they really don't need it. This is a meat-eaters heaven! We had the restaurant to ourselves as it was a Monday lunchtime so we got to sit at the table in the car which is at the front of the restaurant, needless to say my 4 year old loved that aspect! You order on your phone at the table then they take payment before bringing the meal. Staff were friendly, restaurant very aesthetically impressive and the food is in a league of its own. Not cheap but worth every penny!

So we had an great meal but a very bad experience! But it did not stop me from giving them 5 stars.. let me explain

My son is T1 diabetic so we order a Coke Zero for him. However since we have a blood glucose monitor on him, we noticed  his blood sugar began to sky rocket! We found that he was given a full fat coke. In fairness, it is an easy mistake to make, but quite detrimental for his health.

The manager Farhan was extremely apologetic and did whatever means to help us. I can see he felt genuinely bad for his staff’s mistake. He did everything he could to make us feel compensated

But that aside, Food wise? Great! We ordered the fully loaded burger, buttermilk chicken burger, a sharing BBQ tray and everything tasted great! Atmosphere is brilliant and the Airtable was a great touch. Little bit on the pricey side but I would definitely come back again!

I was really disappointed with the food and service. It’s a shame because the atmosphere is really nice. The drinks tasted of nothing. We ordered two different burgers, one was dripping in fat and the other had more fat than meat. I have reduced my star rating from two to one, as this morning my son is suffering from food poisoning.

Highly over priced menu, 12.5% obligatory service charge for non existent service. The interior looks great, food and service well below par. A lot better restaurants in the area.

All our food is 100% halal, all our meat and poultry is un-stunned.

Halal Status for Big Moe's Diner Ilford