Friday, February 15, 2008

Redbones

Boston seems to be obsessed with a BBQ eatery over in Somerville called Redbones. Over and over from many different sources Ive been told how fantastic this place is, by far the best in Boston and the surrounding areas. I can wholeheartedly say that I was on board for checking this place out. I am a BBQ fan, and to that degree I am a huge fan of ribs. So needless to say, I was excited to check this place out.



To be honest- I was disappointed. Starters for the evening were Hush Puppies (a cornmeal mixture deep fried and served with a vinegar sauce for dipping) and catfish fingers (basically fried pieces of catfish served with a tartar sauce). I found the Hush Puppies to be dry and mealy. And while the vinegar tried to solve the dry problem, it wasnt quite the right taste for them. The catfish fingers had an odd flavor to them. Now, this was my first experience with catfish so I cannot be sure if that was just the way it tastes, but there was something peculiar. To be honest- I was two for two with the appetizers.



The pulled chicken sandwich had been recommended to me so I thought that that may be my best bet, esp as my companion was getting texas ribs and I knew Id be able to steal a bite to see what they were like. The sandwich, available as just the sandwich, or as a "plate" with beans, cole slaw and potato salad, was tasty. The chicken was well seasoned, but not over powering. It was served on a hamburger roll with plenty of pickles which made me very happy. The cole slaw was fine, nothing outstanding, as was the potato salad. I am not a fan of beans at all, but it was my expectation for them to be baked beans. They were actually red beans. From what I had of them, they were rather flavorless.



I was able to snag a bite of the texas rib which I did not find to be outstanding either. The meat was not "fall off the bone", in fact from the one that I tried- that meat wanted to STAY on the bone. It did however have a nice smokey flavor, though even that could have been a bit more pungent. Finally, the meals came with dipping sauces, two types of bbq sauce, one far spicier than the other, molasses, and the vinegar again. All four were good, though I preferred the spicier bbq sauce to the milder version.



Boston is a difficult town to get BBQ in, as we are no where near the South and its become my impression that unless we're eating lobster, we dont prefer to get messy with food. So for Bostons standards, I would agree that this is good, and appeared authentic. However, it is my personal belief that there is better BBQ out there.

Redbones

3 comments:

Kim said...
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Boston Food Diary said...
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