Wood X Coal

You're walking along Madeira Drive towards the seafront when the smell hits you—proper woodsmoke, the kind that means someone's been tending a pit since dawn. Wood X Coal takes their BBQ seriously, which is refreshing when most places are just throwing meat under a grill and calling it a day. The stripped-back dining room gets properly busy on weekends, packed with people who know the difference between brisket done right and brisket done lazy. It's the sort of place where sides matter—proper cornbread, beans that taste like they've got history—and you're ordering by the pound without apologising for it.