Why sweat over a hot barbecue when someone is willing to do most of the grunt work for you? We're rounding up some of the best smoked foods and prepped BBQ dishes that are being delivered across London right now... 

Smokestak are already smoking up a storm for north and east Londoners every Friday and Saturday - but if you've been missing out, then news of their new DIY boxes, delivering across London (and the UK) will be very welcome. 

Everything will be smoked in Shoreditch, for up to 15 hours over kiln-dried English oak in Smokestak owner David Carter's Ole Hickory wood-fired smoker. Then everything

While we wait for info on just how pubs and restaurants will reopen, some have been pretty inventive on making money during the lockdown.

Over in Fulham, we were alerted to the existence of Bus Stop BBQ by a reader. It's the brainchild of head chef Martyn Young and head pastry chef Olivia Hudson at Brook House pub on Eel Brook Common. Running Thursday to Sunday, it serves up a succinct menu of 'cue treats, allowing the pub to enter its

If you've been wanting to have a barbecue but are - like a lot of city folk - short on space, then the Lotus Grill could be the perfect summer accessory.

They may not be back completely, but Smokestak will be returning every Saturday for the next few weeks and they're doing it in style. After a trial run last Saturday, they'll be back every week with a menu that sees them going back to basics with old-school barbecue action.  

Here's what's on the menu. The first four meats are by the 100g and we want all of it, frankly. 

• Smoked

Peckham's Coal Rooms are back - but not quite as they were before the lockdown. While the main restaurant is closed, they've just launched a new spin-off called Fat Boy BBQ. As you might imagine, it's all about American-style BBQ food. On the menu they're promising:

• Dirty South Short Rib (Korean BBQ glaze and red chilli pickles) 
• The Peckham In & Out Burger (Single

They closed after a fire last year, but Red Dog Soho is making a return - and they've had something of a change in their absence. Upon their return, they'll be all about Austin Barbeque, American craft beers and whiskey.

The first restaurant to open up in the new Wood Lane railway arches development by White City, Prairie Fire are bringing their low and slow ethos of barbecued foods to West Londoners. 

You might have tried their food at Market Hall Victoria or Old Spitalfields Market, but Flank's next move is to take on a long term residency in East London at The Print House in Stratford.

Flank is all about nose-to-tail eating and cooking over fire and Flank OG, which will be in Stratford, expands their offering to more of a small plates game. From a quick look at what's on their launch menu, it definitely sounds worth checking out.

Things kick

Once again, London is getting ready for another great-sounding Meatopia festival over in Tobacco Dock. Every year (this will be its seventh), a great selection of top chefs get together to create some truly excellent dishes - all created specifically for the festival. You won't see any of these dishes elsewhere. Oh, and a lot of meat is involved. 

Everyone's favourite festival of meat and fire, Meatopia, is coming back to London for its sixth outing and this year's line-up looks pretty amazing.

Chefs cooking at Meatopia for the first time include Jeremy Chan of Ikoyi, Sam Bryant of Coal Rooms, Rok Shoreditch’s Matt Young and Aaron Webster & Remi Williams of Smoke & Salt. But the list of returning chefs is pretty bloody A-list ranging from Yotam Ottolenghi, David Carter of Smokestak through to Meatopia

We do love putting our April Fools together here at Hot Dinners, but even we don't expect for them to come true. However that's exactly what appears to have happened today. Alerted by a reader who spotted a similarity between a story in The Standard and our 2017 April Fool we discovered that what we thought was too crazy to become true actually appears to be

“We want to keep pushing boundaries,” said Mr Lyan about his new concept bar and restaurant. No problem there then - his new restaurant uses very (and we do mean *very*) creative ingredients in a special all-in-one kitchen and bar, reducing waste and keeping guests on their toes. Expect ambergris, Japanese knotweed and smoked compost carrot on the weekly changing menu.

One of Soho's most popular and successful restaurants, The Smoking Goat, is coming to Shoreditch. They're taking over a big place that - ahem - used to be a "strip-pub" (yes exactly what it sounds like) so expect

If you’re the sort of Londoner who thinks browsing vinyls and watching a film with your BBQ’d dinner sounds just great, then you’ll be wanting to head to Hackney Fields hipster hub the Institute of Light, which is just about to launch a residency with Billy Smokes.

Operating out of what IOL dubs “one of the coolest terraces in London Fields”, Billy Smokes will be dishing up all the usually summery BBQ