Hey everyone!
So this is our first actual food related post so please let us know what you think, and pass it to everyone you know!
Smoking bones cookshack is a restaurant that started out in Victoria a few years ago. It was the word of the town and had some pretty decent BBQ. For quite a while it was one of our favorite places to go and get a good rack of ribs, or a good burger, but something changed. Sometime last year, they moved to a new location, and it just hasn’t been the same, I can honestly say I’m really disappointed.
We have been back twice since they moved, and I think it will be our last.
So lets get to it!
When we first walked in, we waited! Earlier in the day I made my reservation for 7:30, but we had to wait for 2 other tables to be seated before us, so we stood around until 7:45. Not the greatest way to start a meal, but it wasn’t the end of the world! The ambiance is what you would expect from this type of restaurant, busy, bustling and a fun place to be! Maybe a bit pretentious for this type of establishment, but overall quite nice. The waiters and waitresses we friendly and we were quickly asked what we would like to to drink. And soon after that we were ready to order our food.
We ordered the BBQ taster for $50 and the Bacon ice cream for $6.50.
The BBQ platter includes pork ribs, beef ribs, pulled pork, brisket, and for sides we ordered hand-cut fries, yam fries and candied carrots. It is a huge plate of food! I mean massive, enough for at least 3 people (which we had) but maybe even 4 people. Now I apologise for not having any photos, but the food is just not that pretty! Its BBQ so I’m not expecting it to be pretty, just as long as it tastes darn good!
We started by grabbing a bunch of fries and pulled pork off of the plate, and to be honest the fries were great! Lots of flavor, just the right amount of crunch. And the pulled pork was pretty good as well, it had a good solid smokey flavour, and a sweet, tangy sauce, but a word of warning, this amazing tasting exterior leads to a dry and flavorless interior which leads us to believe that they only cover the pulled pork in sauce once it is plated and not mix it through.
Next we grabbed some yam fries, they were disappointing to say the least, no flavor, no crunch, just a baked yam. Don’t put yam fries on the menu if you can’t cook them, leave it to somebody who knows how!
The ribs, now the plate came with 2 different ribs, the beef and the pork, and they were on 2 totally different levels, so lets start with the pork ribs. One word for these ribs, DRY!!!!! I hate dry ribs, everything about them, why serve them if they are dry, dunk them in something, anything! The meat was to tough, didn’t fall of the bone, and they need to take a good look at how they make them, maybe mop them a little more while they are smoking to get the moisture back and maybe a few more hours in the smoker to really get a good bark on them. But this is all beside the fact that they were disappointing.
The Beef ribs on the other hand were pretty good, lots of flavour, moist, with lots of sauce, the only flaw was they were a little tough. Now some people like beef ribs that way and these sit right on the edge of being tough. But if I am to go back to Smokin bones, I would order these.
Now I have left brisket to last for a reason, it was gross. I like brisket, no I love brisket. When done right it can be amazing, but when done wrong it can be like eating blubber, and this was like eating blubber. There was no meat, just chunks of fat with no flavor or texture, disappointing.
Dessert! The highlight of our otherwise disappointing meal! The bacon ice cream was great, it was weird but great. Now you may have guessed by the name that we love bacon and this plate was one that we will remember. They take bacon chunks and coat them in a hard carmel and then grind the brittle of sorts up and coat a big ball of vanilla ice cream in it. This ice cream also has chunks of bacon in it and a whip cream with carmel sauce on top. This combo of the plain ice cream and the hint of bacon in the crispy coating were great! The bacon chunks may have been a little much since they took some chewing to get down, but they just added to the experience.
Overall Smokin Bones has changed. They started out strong, a place to go and get a good rack of ribs and not worry about anyone judging you as you pig down your rack of ribs and bacon ice cream. But these days are over, it has become a bit to pretentious.
2 out of 4 stars
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Thanks everyone!
Bacon is a veg 