Blind Tiger Ale House uses a unique cooking method to ensure a one of a kind wing experience

The Bad

Getting the unworthy wings out of the way to prevent you from making mistakes.

Lansdowne Road

Once upon a time, my favorite wings were at Scruffy Duffy’s on 8th Avenue b/t 46th & 47th. It was a big Steelers bar right off Times Square but all was forgiven because the Buffalo wings rocked. A thin, crispy skin encased meaty wings always covered in a fiery, hot pepper-flake studded sauce. Unfortunately the Disney-ification of Times Square eradicated this Hell’s Kitchen landmark leaving us only with sister bar Lansdowne Road where the Scruffy Duffy name is being tarnished, literally.

Landsdowne Road actually advertises “Scruffy Duffy’s World Famous Wings” on their menu (12 for $7.50, 24 for $12.50). But the similarities end at the name. The sauce was bitter and cakey and the wings were over-fried and brittle. An inedible excuse for the Scruffy Duffy name.

St. Mark’s Ale House

St. Mark’s Ale House is one of the few NYC relics remaining on a street that’s slowly turning into little Tokyo. Fortunately for the Ale House, they’re not staking their repuation on their wings. A tangy, slightly spicy sauce covers tiny low quality wings devoid of any crispy skin. Forget the fact that a dozen is under $10, these wings should be given away. Stick to the beer at St. Mark’s Ale House and if you’re hungry, go get a falafel.

SideWalk Bar & Restaurant

Food Served Until 4AM Sun – Wed, 24 Hours Fri – Sat.

Despite being open 24 hours on Friday & Saturday, there’s only one day worth going to SideWalk for wings: Wednesday. That’s because Wednesday (6PM – 4AM) features 25 cent buffalo style wings. I haven’t tried them, but for that price, how bad can they be? Every other day of the week the wings are called “Alitas de Diablo” (seen below) and they’re not very good. Grilled wings in a honey glazed ginger sauce arrived undercooked and lacking flavor, a surprise considering the unique sauce. After another trip through the fire, the wings returned with a smokey char but the flavor remained underwhelming. SideWalks’ main draw is their ever changing menu of live music acts featured in the back room. Check their website, listen to some music, drink a $3 PBR and order the sweet potatoe fries, which are actually quite good.

The Decent

Don’t run, don’t flock, these wings are good but not great.

One and One

Food Served Until 1AM

These wings were so close to being great. Thin, crispy skin encased high quality chicken and the largest wings featuered in this post. But bigger wings demand more sauce, more spice and more flavor, something these lacked in all three areas. Big wings also mean smaller portions. $7 gets you 7 wings. 20 Cent Wing Madness is Monday nights from 7pm to 1AM; you can order 10 wings at a time with a $4 drink minimum for every 20 wings (no doggie bags). The wings are complemented by a quality bleu cheese dressing and a healthy serving of carrot and celery sticks.

One and One features two other quality food specials: Sundays from 7PM to 1AM is 2-for-1 Fish & Chips, which also features the $4 drink minimum. Tuesdays from 7PM to 1AM is $1 Mini Burgers. Orders are placed in multiples of 3 and it’s a $4 drink minimum for every 2 orders.

RUB BBQ

Food Served Until 11PM Mon – Thurs, 12AM Fri – Sat, 10PM Sun.

All ready home to the best brisket chili cheese fries I’ve ever had, I couldn’t imagine the wings would fall far behind. And they didn’t, but they didn’t really impress either. These are BBQ style wings; seasoned with the same rub as the ribs, smoked and then fried. For $7.50 the result is a dozen good sized, lean and quality wings which are smokey and sweet with a residual spiciness which lingers after you finish eating. They can be served with bleu cheese, which brought out the sweetness, or the better suited buttermilk ranch. Neither truly enhanced the eating experience. Next time I’m at RUB, I’m passing on the wings and sticking with my go to $40 for 2 BBQ feast.

Pete’s Tavern

Food Served Until 12AM Sun – Tues, 12:45AM Wed – Sat.

129 East 18th Street at Irving Pl

Opened in 1864, Pete’s is New York’s oldest bar and it’s also the birthplace of the O. Henry story “The Gift of the Magi”, supposedly penned in a front booth. And as history changes time, time can change the deliciousness of Pete’s wings. If they’re brought to you immediately, you’re in for a sweet, smokey, mildly spicy, crispy-battered wing feast. But if the wings arrive after their prime, you’re left with a sticky mess of slighlty crispy, mainly oversauced wings. It’s a fine line, but when done right, they’re worth the $7.95 price tag. The heavily battered wings are small and drowned in the smokey, sweet, slightly spicy sauce. The bleu cheese is watery and uncesssary. The rest of the menu features Italian food and standard continental fare. If the overcooked burger is any sign, I’d steer clear of the menu and grab an 1864 Original House Ale and take my chance with the wings.

The Old Reliable

Getting it done every time without knocking your socks off.

Croxley Ales

Food Served Until 1AM

Croxley Ales is the place that’s right around the corner that isn’t amazing but is so consistent, it’s hard for you to break away and risk disappointment with something new. They’ve got the blocking and tackling down, thin-skinned crispy wings covered in a Buffalo-style hot sauce that’s actually hot. At $8.95 for a dozen, they’re not the best because the sauce, although studded with hot pepper flakes, is a little too buttery, not really sticking to the wings and the chicken is middle of the line in quality and size. Great deals abound, however, reinforcing why you really can’t go wrong at Croxley’s. 10 cent wings on Monday & Wednesday from 5PM to 1AM plus free wings at the bar from 5PM to 7PM on Fridays.

The Best of This Bunch

Blind Tiger Ale House

Food served until 2AM

The best wings I’ve had in the city are at Dinosaur BBQ. Why? Because they’re tender, spicy, uniquely sauced, and grilled. Blind Tiger Ale House delivers the same four qualities without making us trek up to Harlem. The main differences between Blind Tiger and Dinosaur are size and sauce. Dinosaur’s wings are full size and doused in spicy, sweet BBQ sauce. Blind Tiger’s wings are smaller and doused in a spicy and tangy Buffalo style sauce with strong peppery undertones. What they lack in size, they make up for in fall off the bone tenderness, the result of a baked then grilled cooking process. They taste even better with the delicious homemade bleu cheese dressing. The rest of Blind Tiger’s menu is nothing to scoff at: Cheese plates from Murray’s, a monster-sized chicken quesadilla, three types of grilled cheese sandwiches, and a revolving menu of mini sandwiches featuring a Vietnames Bahn Mi and a roast pork Cuban. And did I mention cask ales and 28 varieties of high quality draught beer? What are you waiting for?

• What: The star at Hill Country’s carnivore castle is the Jalapeno Cheese pork sausage shipped from Kreuz Market in Lockhart, Texas. The best sausage NYC Food Guy has ever had, it’s smoky, garlicky and filled with spicy chopped jalapeno and bits of cheddar which ooze out when hot.
• Cost: $6.50 for 1 ($6 for regular sausage), Pricey but worth it
• Where: 20 West 26^th Street b/t Broadway and 6^th Avenue NY, NY 10010 212-255-4544
• Website: http://www.hillcountryny.com/home.php
• Inside info: Bring some sausage home to use in your eggs or just snack on with crackers. Prime Rib and the special short ribs are not to be missed. Hill Country serves a special late night menu (PDF link) until 1AM Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

It all started when Danny at Food In Mouth.com posted his Daisy May’s Half Pig Gig. King of Ketchup and I were amazed. Never had we seen so much delicious, glistening pork in one place. That was the only motivation KoK needed. He rounded up 11 friends and family members and before I knew it I was face to face with a smoked whole pig.

Daisy May’s Carolina sauce (pictured) was provided for the pork. A sauce of their creation mixed with honey, it’s what Daisy May’s pulled pork is typically drenched in. Sweet with a hint of vinegar, I didn’t love it, but it definitely enhanced the pork.

In addition to cole slaw, Daisy May’s website offers 2 Large Fixins’. If you request to get smaller servings of the fixins’, you can get three different ones. Before the pig came, I loaded up on sides. This was going to be a feast for the ages. Clockwise from left to right: Texas Toast, cole slaw, Cajun dirty rice and beans, baked beans with burnt ends, and mashed sweet potatoes with brown sugar.

• The airy, buttered and grilled Texas Toast came in handy when I had some over-sauced bites of pork.
• The cole slaw was tasty, striking a balance between sweet and tart. The Cajun dirty rice and beans, flavored with Cajun spices, pepper, onion, garlic and bacon were mediocre
• The baked beans with beef rib burnt ends were great.
• It was the sweet potatoes, however, which stole the show: Mashed sweet potato with brown sugar, banana, and some heavy cream. By far the best sweet potatoes I’ve ever had. They could be eaten on their own as dessert. Unreal. I’ll be picking some of these up to bring home for Thanksgiving.

But everything paled in comparison to the pig. After being sliced down the middle, the skin was sectioned and peeled back revealing the glory you see below:

Junior, the manager, broke down which part of the pig was which.

• The shoulder, aka the pork butt, is where pulled pork comes from.
• The ribs are in the middle, underneath the loin.
• The fatty meat on the sides of the pig is what eventually becomes bacon.

There’s only one way to get at all the goodness: Use your hands. Rubber gloves are provided but they don’t protect you from the burning hot pork, which was around 190 degrees when placed on the table. I went to grab a piece of skin but it was too leathery to eat.

I cleared some space on my plate and went right for the shoulder meat. It was hot, moist and tender. Unlike most barbecued pork, I didn’t really taste the smoke. Instead, you taste a hint of smoke and a lot of pork. It was an overwhelmingly meaty flavor. A little bit of sauce went a long way towards counteracting this, so be careful not to over sauce.

Once we cleared most of the pork from the easily accessible areas, we had the waiter slice the cheeks so we could get a taste of the moist, fatty pork inside. This wasn’t my favorite section of the pig so I moved onto the legs which were surprisingly as tender and flavorful as the shoulder.

I personally enjoyed the pork most when I mixed it with some sauce, a bite of the Texas Toast and then a little bit of the sweet potato; the confluence of sweet and savory was the best part of the meal. Most BBQ pork is smoked twice as long as Daisy May’s whole pig, so don’t go in expecting it to taste like BBQ you’ve had before. The best pork I’ve ever had came from Big Bob Gibson’s stand at the Big Apple BBQ Block Party. It was handed to me freshly pulled, 2 minutes out of the smoker, so I’m a little biased but you’ll see a difference in flavor between Daisy May’s whole pig and their standard pulled pork as well. The Big Pig Gig wins as far as experience but if you’re going for straight flavor and deliciousness, consider the $150+ tax Whole Pork Butt for up to 6 people.

In the end Daisy May’s Big Pig Gig was a delicious experience that I will never forget and I heartily recommend it to anyone who considers themselves a carnivore or a BBQ lover.

Special thanks to King of Ketchup and family for providing NYC Food Guy with a meal that can only be described as “awesome”.

BBQ Chili Cheese Fries $8.50

More of NYC’s Best French Fries Here

Arguably the best chili cheese fries I’ve ever had. The decadence you’re looking at above doesn’t do justice to the sloppy deliciousness below. A bed of crispy and fresh skin-on fries supports a copious mound of tender brisket-filled chili. I usually avoid melted cheddar cheese sauce because it tends to take over any dish it covers but in this case it actually melds well with the hearty fries and mildly spicy chili.

Individual Side of Onion Strings $3.75

Mixing the flavors of fried onions with smoked pork is one of my favorite combinations and these onion strings are topped with a little bit of RUB’s rub so the flavor is doubly delicious. An individual side of these thinly sliced fried yellow onion strings is more than enough for two people. Ask for them cooked well done to avoid a greasy pile of sog.

Pork Spare Ribs – $12.75 (”Bony End” 6 Meaty Ribs)

More of NYC’s best BBQ & Ribs here

The ribs below are pork spare ribs that are nothing like the ones you’ve had at a Chinese restaurant. They’re the meatier first 6 ribs on the slab aka “The Bony End”. For $12.75 you get 6 meaty ribs that are tender enough to make you forget they’re spare ribs. Covered with a spicy dry rub, I like to mix some hot sauce with RUB’s BBQ sauce and spread that on top. If you like a little less meat and fat, you can also get the “Short End”, 7 leaner ribs, for $13.75.

Deep Fried Oreos – $4.75 for an order of 4

They’re deep fried Oreos, they speak for themselves. Think funnel cake with melted oreos in the middle. Sugar bombs of deliciousness, the perfect serving size (2 each) and ending to a savory meal.

Photo complements of Jadeblade at Flickr.com

What I’m getting next time…

Friends have not been impressed with the Baby Back Ribs ($24.75 full/$13.75 half) so I won’t be going in that direction. In their huge competition quality smokers seen below, RUB smokes turkey, ham, brisket, pulled pork, pulled chicken, and sausage, all of which are delicious. NYC Food Guy, however, will be going for the pastrami! A manager told me her favorite menu item is the BBQ Reuben Crusher ($11.75 – pastrami, swiss, sauerkraut and Russian on grilled rye). Her recommendation is to order a small side of mayo slaw ($3.50), open up the Crusher, and smush the order of slaw between the two halves of smokey goodness.

$40 Feast for Two

Stick with water as your beverage and my highlighted menu items (Bony End Ribs, Chili Cheese Fries, Onion Strings, Fried Oreos) and your total should end up in the $30-33 range. That means if you have a heart and tip 20 percent, your meal should be around $40. Thank me later. Get to RUB now and tell me how good it is.

RUB BBQ

Above you’ll see how the best pulled pork I’ve ever had was created, from smoker to cutting board to plate. Read on for a more in depth look at the process, The Salt Lick BBQ’s beef brisket (also the best I’ve ever had), plus serious sausage and whole smoked 120 pound hogs.

The Salt Lick Bar-B-Que – Driftwood, Texas

Instant condensation appeared on my Poland Spring Bottle as I walked through sweltering heat towards the Fast Pass line of The Salt Lick. My brother Craig and I were greeted by a paltry platter of barbecue beef brisket, smoked sausage, and cole slaw.

A weak first offering for two hungry carnivores. The brisket was cold, the sausage provided just a tiny taste, and the slaw was standard. We walked away disappointed but there was still hope: A Salt Lick employee called Miriam was resting on a bench next to the stand and I voiced my lackluster review. A look of astonishment and embarrassment appeared on her face and she scurried away only to return with two platters of meat 3 times the size of the original offering. Thank God for Miriam.

Now that we had brisket and sausage both straight from the smoker, we could give Salt Lick a real review.

Beef Brisket

• The thick slices were a little tough but the thinner slices were magical, delivering the perfect balance of beef and smoke, tempered with a thin layer of fat beneath the outer bark. This is how beef should taste.
• Craig urged me to eat just the bark. “So good” is what I wrote in my notes. Slightly crisp and smoky, it had a light sweetness to it, a result of constant basting with The Salt Lick’s tangy sauce. The absence of tomato in the sauce allows The Salt Lick to continually baste its meats throughout the smoking process. The result is a flavor and texture which all barbecue beef should aspire to possess.

Sausage

• Crispy, smoky skin studded with specks of black pepper encased garlicky, salami-like pork. The black pepper appeared later in my bites with some surprising but welcomed spice. My brother’s reaction was just plain “wow”. I second the motion.

Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q – Decatur, Alabama

After a taste of Miriam’s Texas hospitality, Craig and I weren’t prepared for the Southern welcome we’d receive at Big Bob Gibson’s complements of Don McLemore and his wife Carolyn. As soon as our pulled pork sandwich with mustard slaw had arrived, Carolyn delivered fresh morsels of pulled pork straight from the smoker.

Big Bob Gibson’s was started by Don’s grandfather in 1925 and today Don and Carolyn run the business while Chris Lilly takes care of the barbecue. Don and his wife first implored us to try the deliciously crispy, tender, and smoky skin, better known as bark, mingling with the strands of pulled pork.

Notice the red-pink hue of the pork. It’s smoked for 16-hours at 225 degrees Fahrenheit. This is what barbecue refers to, meat smoked for long periods of time at low temperatures. What we do on Sundays in our backyards is grilling and it’s not nearly as much of an art as barbecuing.

But for Big Bob Gibson, sauce has played as much of a role in their success as delicious barbecue. In 1998 their Championship Red Sauce was named “Best Barbeque Sauce on the Planet” over 500 other commercial sauces at the American Royal Barbecue Sauce Contest. It was pretty damn tasty. A classic tomato-based sauce, it had a tangy flavor with vinegary undertones and a balanced consistency. You can buy it here.

However, with widespread success breeds competition and if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em. Opposing barbecue teams did just that, using Big Bob’s sauce against them on the barbecue circuit. It was time for a new sauce and Craig and I got to taste it at the Big Apple BBQ Block Party. Thinner and spicier than the original, I found it to be an even better complement to the pulled pork. It melded better with the pork’s natural juices and the spice was subtly delicious.

The Real Fun Begins: The Pulled Pork Process

Don and Carolyn led us to the smoker where 10-time barbecue world champ Chris Lilly, who also happens to be their son-in-law and Vice President of Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q, was pulling two freshly-smoked pork butts (the top of the shoulder) from the smoker.

The 16-hour smoking process results in a moist and tender mass of pork that doesn’t take much force to separate from the bone.

Mr. Lilly was joined by his brother Owen and their good friend and self-proclaimed “adopted” family member John Markus, a New Yorker and leader of the Central Pork West Barbecue team. Below Mr. Markus illustrates the first part of the two-part pull process, the ripping, smushing, and pulling by rubber-gloved hands.

Chris Lilly takes over for part two, the chopping, by what could only be called a meat machete, before it’s all doled out into big metal tins to be served.

My moment of clarity arrived as I ate a piece of pork handed to me directly from the cutting board. If you’ve never had true Southern pulled pork, you’ve never had pork as it’s meant to be eaten. This one measly morsel of pink, slightly smoky deliciousness made my entire afternoon.

The Pit – Ed Mitchell’s Whole Hog – Raleigh, North Carolina

As the afternoon melted away we found ourselves in front of five massive smokers, each fit for a 120 pound whole hog ready to serve 60 to 70 people. This is the specialty of Willie Mitchell, who with his son Ed and now his grandson Ryan, has been serving up “everything but the squeal” for 17 years.

You’re looking at a serving of one of the 20 smoked and chopped hogs consumed during the Block Party.

Dotted with chile flakes and doused in an apple cider vinegar marinade, the chopped whole hog didn’t really impress me. Maybe it was because it was the last serving of the weekend, but the various parts of the hog all mixed together made each bite an unwanted adventure; you didn’t know if you were getting tender or tough. The sweet, slightly tart flavor didn’t do much for me either, combining with the chile flakes to upstage the hog.

Conclusion – Why Life is Better Below the Mason-Dixon Line

That barbecue is delicious is a standard truth in life. Being served barbecue by people who pour their heart and soul into it and take the time to make you feel equally passionate? That’s a rarity, especially at big house barbecue restaurants where an individual pitmaster’s M.O. is the bottom line. It’s why I love Georgia’s Eastside BBQ and it’s why Blue Smoke and Hill Country didn’t impress me. Miriam at The Salt Lick Bar-B-Que, Don and Carolyn McLemore, Chris and Owen Lilly, and John Markus at Big Bob Gibson’s and Ryan Mitchell at The Pit each provided the personal experience that I hope still exists at every reputable barbecue joint south of the Mason-Dixon.

The ribs- baked over beer between two cookie sheets before being tossed on the grill and sauced up- arrived hot, fall-off-the-bone, and very meaty.  The skin was drier than usual so we asked for extra sauce, a mandatory move, regardless of skin quality. The fries were spot on, crispy and cooked fresh.  Pass on the potato skins ($4), listed as a special, they arrived undercooked and underloaded.  The cabbagey cole slaw is sweet and light, a nice “palate cleanser” as King of Ketchup called it.  After the King and I polished off two racks of ribs each and paid our $64 bill, it was off to sugar Sweet sunshine for some of the city’s best Banana Pudding. 

The key to great Banana Pudding is simple: 1) Balanced ratio of ripe banana to Nilla wafer and 2) rich, creamy pudding.  sugar Sweet sunshine’s ratio favors the Nilla wafer, but it makes no difference, the pudding is so sweet and decadent, you’re forced to sit down in one of their comfy armchairs and enjoy the knee-buckling deliciousness. A $4 small cup is more than enough for two people. Their cupcakes are great as well, better than Magnolia’s. Go with the Ooey Goey (chocolate cake with dark chocolate almond buttercream frosting), it’s the co-owner Deb’s favorite. 

]]> http://nycfoodguy.com/2008/04/07/dinosaur-bbq-chicken-wing-redux/feed/ 0 http://nycfoodguy.com/2008/04/01/houstons-consistently-delicious-chain-never-disappoints/ http://nycfoodguy.com/2008/04/01/houstons-consistently-delicious-chain-never-disappoints/#comments Tue, 01 Apr 2008 05:46:20 +0000 The NYC Food Guy http://nyceats.wordpress.com/?p=628 I love Houston’s. There I said it. Go ahead, laugh. NYC Food Guy’s favorite restaurant is a chain and I have no problem with that. Why? Because Houston’s has never disappointed. Not once!

It’s the simplest way to carnivorous bliss.

1. One person orders the Baby Back Ribs ($28) and the other the Cheeseburger ($14).
2. Split everything down the middle and share.

Counting drinks (nonstop free refills, seriously, before you finish your drink, you’ll have a fresh one) and tip, this is the best $25 dollars you can spend.

I love BBQ & I love Ribs. Houston’s Ribs really aren’t BBQ though; they’re cooked in the oven, basted, and grilled. In the end, who cares? They’re delicious. The flavor from the spicy, smoky ribs combined with fries dipped in ketchup, is heavenly.

If that’s not enough, the ribs are always tender and falling off the bone.

 I’ve eaten the buttery cheeseburger below at least 50 times. 50 burgers, 50 lip smacking smiles. 50 thoughts of “I wish there was more”.

And the burger is equally tender. It’s served with lettuce, tomato, pickles, chopped onion, mustard, and mayo, but I skip all that. I stick to the classics.

Crumbly, tender, and moist beef always cooked to order and covered with melted cheddar. I recently found out that the patty is painted with a tiny bit of Hickory Sauce for some smoky flavor. Needless to say, I’m not complaining. A thin slice of cabbage rests below the burger patty so it doesn’t soak through the bun. Its presence goes undetected however, melding perfectly with the buttery egg bun and juicy burger.

The fries are amazing too. Thin, crisp, and amazingly addictive when served piping hot. If they taste like they haven’t been spiced, I implore you to add some salt and pepper because once you do you won’t want your supply of fries to end. Dip them in Houston’s ketchup, Heinz mixed with a touch of honey (surprising, I know), and you’re in business.

I would consider ordering fries as an appetizer if not for the Chicago Style Spinach/Artichoke Dip ($12).

Mounds of Monterey Jack & Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese combine with finely chopped artichoke hearts & spinach to create a molten mass of deliciousness. Served with a bowl of corn chips and two small sides of sour cream and salsa and you’re in for an amazing appetizer. I love alliteration.

I recommend a nice hearty dip in the spinach/artichoke followed by a spoonful of salsa and sour cream. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.

And since I’ve run this meal in reverse, entree to appetizer, it would only be fitting to end with on a sweet note with one of the best desserts I’ve ever had.

The Warm 5-Nut Brownie ($8) (previously reviewed by NYC Food Guy) features cashews, walnuts, macadmia nuts, pecans, and peanuts, encased within a warm, moist, and slightly fudgy brownie that strikes the perfect balance between sweet and dark chocolate.

The brownie rests in a pool of decadent champagne custard, the most expensive item in any dish in the entire restaurant. As you scoop through the Sedutto vanilla ice cream, drizzled with caramel espresso sauce, drag your whole bite along the plate, through the custard and just marvel at the knee-buckling harmony of flavors making your palate sing.

Houston’s

3 locations in New York

***Check out more great desserts here***

Read on to find out just how cheap all this delicious food is at lunchtime…

$15.95 at lunchtime ($19.95 at dinner), for your choice of 2 entrees and two sides. You can choose from….

• Quarter Rack of Baby Back Ribs
• Pulled Pork
• 3 BBQ Chicken Wings
• 2 Pieces of Fried Chicken of your choice

and for sides …

• Broccoli
• Asparagus
• Collard Greens
• String Beans
• Black Eyed Peas
• Lima Beans
• Baked Beans
• Cole Slaw
• Stewed Okra
• Macaroni and Cheese
• Candied Yams
• White Rice
• Mashed Potatoes
• French Fries
• Potato Salad
• Belgian Waffle

For help deciding, I’ll point you in the right direction. I went with the Ribs, a thigh, a drumstick, candied yams, and fries…

First, a closer look at the ribs and fried chicken and then the review…

The Ribs were good but not amazing. King of Ketchup begged to differ, he thought they were better than Georgia’s Eastside BBQ. I wholeheartedly disagree.

Here’s the NYC Food Guy rib review:

• The overall flavor was sweet and smoky but the flavor of the pork really shone through. If you like to taste the meat of the ribs, don’t add extra sauce, but if you want to unite the outer flavor with the pork, add some extra sauce.
• They were tender and moist but didn’t fall right off the bone
• The outer skin was a little tighter and crisper than I like

The Fried Chicken was good overall but while I admit my expectations were high, it was not a transcendent experience.

• The outer coating was crispy and light without being overly greasy.
• The coating, however, was nothing out of the ordinary. It didn’t seem to be a product of extra care or a unique process.
• The meat inside was moist, tender, and flavorful

Here’s the rest of the meal…

Sweet candied Yams – very sweet, soft, and delicious

Macaroni & Cheese – It really was this orange and it was pretty soggy and boring. Always an enticing option, it fell flat.

Waffle with Syrup – my first Waffle and chicken experience was boring at best. The waffle and syrup were generic and ordinary.

French Fries – Shoestring, crispy, and hot. I added some salt and pepper and found myself reaching onto King of Ketchup’s plate for more after I finished mine. Great fries.

Honey Buscuits – These are complementary and served upon arrival. They were warm and tasty. We asked for butter and dipped it in the sweet barbecue sauce. Good move.

Overall, I had a great meal at Rack and Soul. It was fresh, affordable, and big portioned. The service was attentive and I will definitely return to try the pulled pork.