Smoke and Fire Festival Ascot – Great Food and Music

[Ad- gifted experience] Last year, we went to the Smoke and Fire Festival in Maldon, which was such a fun vibe! This year, they invited us to the Smoke and fire Festival Ascot, which has very similar vibes, but different showcases and focuses. Dann and I primarily go to food festivals to eat as much different food as we possibly can, which was our goal at the Smoke and Fire Festival Ascot as well.

Before we get to the food, I should tell you about the activities. At The Smoke and Fire Festival Ascot, there was a lot of timed entertainment and events. They have a live music stage, with some local musicians and some more known ones like Dodgy. We enjoyed sitting around the stage and listening, and there was plenty of food near it too. There are also demos that can be watched at the festival, from foraging demos, to how to use charcoal, to grill masters sharing how to BBQ hanging meat to breaking down different meets. The line up this year had a lot of variety between the two stages, which is fantastic entertainment for those interested in cooking and BBQ. As with last year, they did have a few extreme eating competitions; hot wings, tortillas, and chilli, which anyone can sign up for!

When it came to the food, there was a Tacotakeover zone, as well as the main BBQ area by the stage. Then, there was the artisan market and BBQ alley, which primarily had items for sale, both used in cooking artisanal ingredients. Some of BBQ alley was just watching grill masters cook, and there was axe throwing there too! A dog park was featured, which made sense as there were lots of dogs, and the kids zone had a few fun rides, perfect to keep little ones entertained. Smoke and Fire Festival Ascot makes for a great family day out! Now, let’s get into the food.

Wagyu Beef Boti Kebab and Pamosa at Farzi London

One of the first things that caught our eye was the Wagyu Beef Boti Kebab at Farzi London, which sounded fantastic. As we were waiting for our order, they gave us two of their Pamosa, for being patient, and then gave us our huge beef Boti Kebab. The Pamosa was flavorful and came with two sauces. I liked the more BBQ-ish one, thought it did have an Indian twist. The Wagyu Beef Boti Kebab came out far different than Dann and I expected. It had lots of refreshing sauces, pickled cabbage, and crunchy thin bits of potato. It was so delicious, a great start to the festival.

Buffalo Wings from The Wings Are Good Here

If we see a wings place, we gotta try a wings place. It’s just something we always do! So, we tried the wings at The Wings Are Good Here. We went with a classic buffalo, and they were just OK. The wings seemed to be coated in baking soda or something similar, which gave them a crunchy but weird texture, and the sauce was sort of default. They did have a blue cheese sauce, which I didn’t get on my wings, but maybe that would have helped it taste better?

Double Smash Burger at Not Vegan Friendly

Not a lot of places are going out there overly marketing a burger. It’s something that everywhere kind of has; burgers. So, we were interested in the Double Smash Burger at Not Vegan Friendly, which has been mentioned on TV shows like Clarkson’s Farm, so they sounded interesting! Their burgers were well seasoned and well smashed. The toppings were good, and their homemade burger sauce, which almost looked like a cheese sauce, was pretty outstanding too! Their entire vibe is a little bit intense, but they do make for good burgers.

A Taco from Taco Dave

Dann picked out this taco from Taco Dave, got too, and I met up with him after I had gotten the burger from Not Vegan Friendly. Neither of us can remember the name of the taco, if I am honest, and this is also why we don’t have many pictures of either of us trying food! We were both doing that thing where one of us waits in line at a place, then the other goes off and finds something fun to wait in line for next, meeting up in the middle to try things and eat them. The taco was Dann’s absolute favorite of the night, and it was a stand out to me too. We probably should have gone back for more tacos, as it was well seasoned, juicy and just delicious.

Unpulled Pork from Cut the Mustard

Looking for some BBQ pork, we tried the Unpulled Pork from Cut the Mustard, which was a bunch of chunks of pork in a smoky, sweet BBQ sauce, over some corn bread. I do wish the corn bread wasn’t as dense, but the sauce helped that quite a bit! The pork was in good chunks and the sauce was pretty good too.

Tropical Grove Coconut Cocktails

We were looking for a fun drink at this point and the Smoke and Fire Festival Ascot, and came across Tropical Grove. The person behind the stand literally carved down and opened our coconut in front of us, had us drink some, and then made a drink inside of it. I have never had someone open a fresh coconut and make a drink for me! All of the drinks were rum-based (though they did have mocktails without rum), but they were fruity and delicious.

Grilled Pineapple

Heading towards dessert, we wanted to try some grilled pineapple! This stand didn’t have a name that we could see, it just said “BBQ Experience The Winner of Topchef Brazil Luciana Berry cooking with Jack’s Creek winner of the world’s best Steak 2023 & 2024” – but they had grilled pineapple, so we tried some. These were very cinnamon, very smoky, and a great way to end your evening with something still fitting the BBQ theme.

We had a really fantastic time at the Smoke and Fire Festival Ascot, and hope to be back again next year! There is always so many good foods to try and great vibes to just soak up, in the sun.

You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!