T-REX BBQ, BERKELEY

A few weeks ago Huong was once again visiting the Bay Area. (I swear I see her more often than I see my parents). At any rate, knowing what a meat lover she is, I chose a bbq restaurant that seems to be a local favorite - a place called T-Rex BBQ. I knew it was sort of a fancy bbq restaurant and not all that cheap, but felt it was worth checking out.

Located on a corner in West Berkeley, I'd driven by T-Rex plenty of times before, but had never really noticed it. When we entered, we found a really slick, beautiful room with high a lot of open space (it was two floors), big windows and lots of wood accents. Though the place seemed pretty full, they were able to find a table for us right away.

As we waited for Huong to arrived, I ordered a basket of homemade bbq chips and Tom got a ginger beer. Meanwhile, we perused the menu. Rather than ordering an entree, I decided to get an appetizer and a couple of sides so I'd get a try a number of different things. At some point Huong arrived, our orders were taken and we waited for our food to arrive. (We never got those bbq chips - the waitress forgot about them and I can only hope that we weren't charged for them).

As I said, I got a number of different things to eat. I started off with some chicken mushroom spring rolls.

They were allright. The filling wasn't all that flavorful and I found the dipping sauce to be too vinegary.

Meanwhile, the rest of our food come out all at once, shortly after we'd ordered. I love corn bread, so ordered a side of cornbread with maple butter. Here it is below:

What I hadn't expected was that the cornbread would actually be soaked in maple butter. I would've preferred it on the side so I could spread it on myself, but this version of it made it really more like a dessert. I only had a small nibble of it. Finally, I ordered a side of mac and cheese:

It was allright. Kinda runny, very heavy. I had a few bites of it and that was enough.

Overall, our experience at T-Rex was very much like many of our experiences at restaurants in Berkeley - namely, what's all the hype about? My experience was a bit better than Tom's. He said the sauce for his ribs tasted more like a spicy marinara sauce than BBQ sauce. I guess we just really prefer our hole in the walls and more authentic restaurants. All these fancy versions of whatever just aren't doing it for us.

FIREFLY'S BBQ, QUINCY

We ate out a lot last weekend (we're making up by mostly eating at home this week). Friends were in town, some friends were leaving town. You know how it is. That's what summer in Boston is like. This time, we were going out to eat because Evan, Tom's friend, was leaving to join the Border Patrol, so I suggested the we got to Firefly's all you can eat Sunday BBQ brunch.

We'd never been to Firefly's before. They have 3 locations, with the closest in Quincy (a 20 minute drive from Boston with no traffic), so we headed down there on a Sunday morning. We got there a little before they opened. I'd heard that there were long lines, so we wanted to get there early. Plus, by going early, it insured that the food would be fresh, and not dried out, after sitting on the hot table for hours. I snapped this pic as we sat outside, waiting for Evan and Stephanie to arrive. And no, we weren't the first ones there.

When we entered the restaurant, we realized that it's quite large. After Evan bantered with the hostess(saying he liked space and large tables), we were seated at a large empty room by ourselves. The room was off the bar, and was usually used as a performance space. We were given a big table and had the room to ourselves most of the meal. Unfortunately, the buffet was in the other room, but we ended up being quite lucky, cause our room seemed to be the only one with air conditioning. It was a sweltering, humid day, and you could feel the temperature rise every time we stepped out of our dining area.

After we were shown to our table, we immediately took off for the buffet. As I mentioned earlier, because we went right as they opened, a lot of the food was freshly cooked. Even the veggies were crisp, and those are usually the first things to go bad. I overheard a waiter mention that 90% of Firefly's menu was on the buffet, so this is a great way to try out their stuff. Here's a shot of the sides: mashed potatoes, veggies, mac and cheese, corn, beans, etc....

And here's a shot of meat: brisket, grilled pork, ribs, friend and bbq chicken, etc...It really was a generous spread.

Here's my first plate. As you can see, I picked a lot of sides. The veggies, garlic mashed potatoes and corn were all really good. The mac and cheese was dry and bland. I also got a couple of pieces of bbq chicken. The white meat was dried out, but the dark meat was quite flavorful and tasty.

They also have a nice condiment and BBQ sauce bar. Here's the one in our room. You can try 6 different types of homemade sauce (which are all served warm). And the condiments including things like pickled veggies, beets and peppers. In another part of the restaurant they also have a hot sauce bar with all different types of hot sauce. I thought Evan would appreciate that feature, but I think he was too busy eating to try them out.
And here's Tom's first plate. You'll notice it's all brown because he wanted to try a little bit of EVERY type of meat on the buffet. Sigh. For the pork and beef eaters, they all agreed that the brisket was very good.

We did go back for seconds and after that, there was a small dessert selection- brownies, red velvet cake and watermelon. This ended up being perfect because we were stuffed. I actually had too much watermelon and ended up groaning the whole way home. (We didn't eat dinner that night).

Overall, the Firefly all you can eat brunch is a fantastic deal. It's just $13/person and the food is quite good and plentiful. I think we'll be back so. Maybe I'll organize a group trip down...

A MEAL FOR MEAT LOVERS

Tom's friend, Evan, had been asking about Churrascurrias in Boston. I'd only been to one, Greenfield's, and it wasn't that great. But Suemin had recently gone to the Midwest Grill for a friend's birthday and had said it was quite good, so I suggested to Tom that we invite Evan and try it out. I did my normal research and found that I would be able to find things to eat. They reportedly served chicken breast on skewers, so I'd be fine with that. There was also a buffet involved, so I figured I'd find things on that, too.

The Midwest Grill is located in Inman Square, so parking can be kinda tough. It's got some funny decor and goes for a rustic look. (Looks of wood). Here's Jayna posing with one of the plastic cows outside. The place doesn't take reservations, but it's a pretty big restaurant, and as we were quick to find out, the perfect place for a large group dinner. (There are 3 dining rooms). While we were there, there was a wedding party taking place, and another dinner party of at least 20 people. Suffice it to say, it doesn't lend itself to a quiet meal. We were seated in the smallest back room, which was also the location of the bar. As we sat back there, we were able to watch concert footage from Carnival in Brazil on two very very big screens. (I assume this would also be perfect for watching football).

Once we everyone arrived, we were off to the buffet. Here's one shot of it.There were both hot and cold entrees. And I picked some from both. Here you see chicken stew, fried fish and some salad items. Both the chicken stew and fried fish were surprisingly good. We'd figure out that the hot buffet was best when the food had just come out of the kitchen. Then it was delicious. But if it'd been sitting out for a while, it was not so good. I tried to be moderate and hold out for some chicken to arrive.
The rest of the table was occupied eating a variety of roasted meats. I think the sausages were a big winner, but there were like 6 other cuts of meet. I waited patiently for the chicken breast to arrive. In the meantime, I had some of the chicken hearts. (which I usually love, but as reported on a different website, they aren't exactly a popular item, so they tend to get overcooked and tough. That assessment was right on. I ate them anyway). I also had some delicious grilled garlic rolls.As the dinner kept going, I felt that I would never see the chicken breast. Everyone was filling up, and when we finally asked for it, I found out that the chicken breast was wrapped in bacon. Sigh. It was time for me to return to the buffet and fill up on things I'd actually eat. I did enjoy the all you can eat ice cream on the buffet and did fill up by the end of the meal. The rest of the dinner party seemed to have enjoyed the meal and as for me, the next time I'll do a little more research before heading out to another Brazilian bbq.

SOULFIRE AND ALL STAR SANDWICH BAR

I know, I've been a terrible blogger of late. I have been trying to make an effort to eat more at home (which lasted about 3 days-It really is hard to eat at home when you have friends visiting, friend's coming home, friends moving, etc....) and I've forgotten to take my camera out during all the meals I've had lately, so this will be another pictureless post. I'm sorry. I'll make it up to all of you at some point. And thanks for those who have been using my meebo widget to chat with me. It keeps me entertained during my long boring days at work.


Allright, so in the last week I visited two new places. The first is SoulFire BBQ in Allston. I'd read about this place in the Globe and had wanted to check it out. But Tom went first. He came back with a lukewarm review. Which was basically, eat the ribs and stay away from everything else. Now Soulfire isn't like Blue Ribbon up in Arlington. Blue Ribbon serves wet bbq (where the sauce is applied during cooking) while Soulfire serves dry rub bbq. And I think I'm more of a fan of the wet bbq. At any rate, Leah, Jayna and I decided to head over to Soulfire. Leah and Jayna stuck with Tom's advice and shared an order of ribs (but not the baby back, Leah read reviews on Chowhound that said those weren't good). Meanwhile, I got the only option available to me- the hickory smoked chicken.

The places was pretty empty when we arrived, so our orders came up super fast. Because this is dry rub style bbq, we had a choice of 5 different sauces. I picked like 3 of them and ended up liking the yellow mustard sauce. However, my chicken was pretty dry and basically tasteless. You had to add sauce just to make it palatable. I did like the corn bread with my dinner and the potato salad was ok. I think Jayna and Leah were ok with their ribs. Leah felt that all the sauces basically tasted the same, while Jayna felt that everything was too sweet (the sauces, the pickles, etc.) I think this place will be pretty popular because of it's fairly reasonable prices, quick eats and ideal location. But if I want bbq, I'll be heading to Blue Ribbon while Leah still favors Redbones.

Wait, mini break in between reviews. I'd just like you all to know that I GOT RESERVATIONS TO PER SE. For those who don't know, that's Thomas Keller's Restaurant in NY. It was a bit of an ordeal. They only take reservations 2 months in advance (which is pretty good considering that for the French Laundry that's 6 months in advance). I was looking for reservations on November 11 (I'll be in NYC for the Chocolate Show), so after looking for some tips on Chowhound, I prepared to make my call. So the first time, I called a bit too early and got voicemail. I redialed immediately and dammit! Got a busy signal. On my third call...I got lucky and it went through. I was now on hold. Where I sat for 30 minutes. The phone rang at the store, but I didn't pick it up. I couldn't give up my place in line. And finally, I got through to an actual person. They'd only take a reservation for 6:15 or 9:15, so I went for the 6:15, but I'm super excited. Finally! I get to eat at a Thomas Keller restaurant. I'll definitely take pics and let you all know how it goes.

Ok, back to the reviews. The other place I ate last week was at the All Star Sandwich Bar in Inman Square. Tom and I had been in Kendall and I wanted a slice from Emma's, but it was closed. So I said we should get ice cream for lunch and Tom suggested going to Christina's. That's when I remembered that the sandwich place was open, so we headed up there. This place has been highly anticipated. It's opened by Chris Schleshinger of East Coast Grill and the place had already had an article in the Globe before it'd even opened. But we were still surprised at how packed it was when we arrived. The line was basically out the door and there were a huge number of people loitering about, waiting for their sandwiches. It took nearly 20 minutes before we got to the front counter so we could order. But even with all the mayhem, the staff was super super nice. Tom ordered a Reuben while I got a Rachel. After ordering, we were told it'd be another 20 minutes for our sandwiches, so we decided to go outside to wait.

When we got outside, we figured out why the line behind us had shrunk. A staff member was turning away all the people who were trying to get in. Apparently, the place was so busy that they were running out of everything and a line cook had walked off in frustration. They were gonna close (it was about 2:30), regroup, and reopen at 4. When I stopped to talk to the guy, I found out that'd only been open for 6 days and had never expected such madness. But again, they were being super nice about it.

So even though it took forever to get our sandwiches, we both found them quite tasty. We ended up taking them home and having them at a park near my apt. It was true that they'd been running out of stuff. I think they kinda skimped on the toppings, but I was thrilled that the turkey in my Rachel had been roasted in house, and was moist and super flavorful. Tom also really liked his Reuben, though he would've preferred it with more sauerkraut. At any rate, my suggestion is look up their menu online, call in your order and pick it up. Don't even attempt to eat in or if you want to order in person, be prepared for a wait.

BBQ THAT DEFINITELY DESERVES A BLUE RIBBON

Last night my sister and I had dinner at Blue Ribbon BBQ in Arlington. Now, many of you may be thinking that Arlington is some suburb that's all the way out there, but really, it's just a 15 minute drive from Harvard. And this restaurant is certainly worth the trip.

There are a few famous bbq places in Boston. Red bones in Davis Sq. is the one that immediately comes to mind, but I didn't like that place. It reminded me of a restaurant that frat boys would love to eat at. And there were very few choices for the non-pork or beef eating public. Blue Ribbon BBQ not only has better food, but I found the atmosphere much more pleasant. Located on Mass Ave. (yes, the exact same Mass Ave. that runs through Boston and Cambridge), it evokes the feeling and look of a 1950s diner. Like the tile floors and cool old seats. There isn't a whole lot of seating at the location, they mainly focus on take out, and there were certainly many people doing that, but my sister and I were gonna be eating in.

We placed our orders at the counter. I opted for the half bbq chicken platter with 2 sides- black eyed corn(I didn't know that was, but was willing to try it out- turns out it's corn and black eyed peas) and mashed potatoes. (that was the smallest portion I could get) while my sister ordered the rib platter with sides of coleslaw and baked beans. With 2 lemonades, it came out to $27, which may seem like a lot for a dinner for 2, but wait until you see the size of the portions.

Here's my dinner. Isn't it huge?? The chicken was totally juicy and not dry at all. And the bbq sauce is great, with a hint of spice and heat. (i opted for the sweet bbq sauce, rather than the hot one). All platters also come with pickles and cornbread. I do love cornbread. and the mashed potatoes were totally packed with butter and absoloutely great!Here's my sister's rib dinner. And yes, there really are a lot of ribs.
Needless to say, neither of us finished our meals and ended up taking most of it home. I enjoyed sitting in front of the big window watching traffic go by while feasting on my bbq. There were desserts available like pies and cookies and brownies, but we were so full there was no way that either of us could eat any more. Oh also, the staff there is super friendly. Even though you don't really have much contact with them, they asked as twice how we were doing and that made the meal really pleasant.

Overall, this place was without a doubt worth the drive. And really, it's just an extra 10 minute drive from Redbone's. And if you're getting food to go, there's a very extensive take out menu. I look foward to my next visit there, but for now, I'm looking foward to eating my leftovers at home.

AN ORGY OF MEAT. DINNER AT GREEN FIELD.

A week ago, it was my friend Akash's birthday. Unfortunately, as you all know, I was in NY attending the Chocolate Show and Akash was out of town attending a conference. So we decided to celebrate this weekend by going to Green Field Churrascaria, a Brazilian BBQ place in Brighton. Here's a pic of the big steak knife and cute little logo on the napkin. (that's right, you're about to eat that logo).
I chose Green Field cause I had heard of it before. It's actually a pretty big chain of restaurants and they even have locations in CA. In addition, knowing my group of friends, I suspected that they would appreciate this type of restaurant. And what type of restaurant could that be? An all you can eat place where servers bring you hunks of meat on skewers and cut off slices for you. Here's a pic of three of the skewers with Ed in the background.
So here are my three tips. 1. Arrive very hungry. 2. Leave yourself a lot of time for dinner and 3. Don't waste stomach space on the sushi bar, cause the sushi is pretty crappy and you're there for the meat anyway. Oh right, I also picked Green Field because I knew that it is the largest restaurant in Brighton. Meaning that even if you arrive with a big group of friends on a Saturday night at 7:30, you're still likely to get a seat without making a reservation. So walking into Green Field, you'll immediately notice the decor. And this being a BBQ joint, that means cow hides, and the heads of deer and other such animals mounted on the wall. I was not thrilled. I sat as far away from the cowhide as possible, though Ed had a good time playing with the tail.

Next comment about service. It sucks, which is why I'm telling you to give yourself a lot of time for dinner. Maybe it was the size of the restaurant and the amount of ground she needed to cover, but our waitress was MIA the majority of our dinner. It was nearly impossible to track her down if we needed anything and at the end of dinner she took 15 minutes to run our credit cards. But back to dinner. So all Brazilian BBQ places have the obligatory buffet. And there is a myriad of rices, different Brazilian dishes, salads and this place had sushi. But really, all of that stuff is there to fill you up. Don't waste you're time eating french fries you can get from Mc Donald's. (Though I did enjoy these yummy cheese puff bread thingies and ate 3 of them). However, here's a pic of Akash's place after we returned from the buffet. Many of those pieces of sushi went uneaten as soon as the meat arrived.
And onto the meat. So at each table you're given these funny little wooden sticks that have a red side and a green side. If you want meat, you flip it over to the green side, and if you need to take a break or want to stop, you flip it to the red side. After succeeding at catching the attention of the servers, we started getting an endless supply of meat which included: various cuts of beef, pork, rabbit, chicken, lamb, sausage and duck. Now for those of you who read my duck post, you'll know that i don't eat red meat. or pork. or rabbit. (you get the idea) so that mainly left me with chicken and duck. Luckily, I also can't eat that much, so I was happy with a few portions of chicken and some chicken hearts. (that's right katie, chicken hearts. yummy!!) I did take a bite of Akash's duck (I was pretty full by the time it rolled around) and I found it too overcooked. That's the thing that I've found with duck. It's either got to be rare to be tasty, of cooked until super tender, like confit. Anyway, here's a pic of my plate. There are only some pics of chicken, but hey, that's what i eat!
We ate for about 2 hours straight. And believe me, there was a lot of food on our table. I think for a period of time, we were the epicenter of meat consumption in the restaurant. The entire dinner is very reasonably priced. It's just $16.95 for the buffet and meat. Drinks and dessert are extra. Most people at the table ordered some exotic fruit juices and at the end of the meal, they also got 2 different mousses- a coffee mousee and a passion fruit mousse. (both pictured below). Everyone at the table enjoyed the coffee mousse, though most people weren't fans of the passion fruit.So in conclusion, this restaurant is a great place to try if you have a big appetite, love meat and aren't afraid of cow hides of deer heads on the wall. I'm sure leah would've loved it, had she been in town, or Juliet, i promise to take on your next trip to Boston, and it was an excellent choice for dinner for Akash's 32nd bday.