Madera

It’s funny how you guys sort of know where I live—as soon as this place opened, I started getting messages about whether I had been there. And yes, it is really close to my house so we were excited by a new non-chain to visit.

It’s a “tex-mex” menu which apparently means lots of smoked meats—some on buns and some as tacos. Most of the toppings are pretty much the same across the board and there isn’t a ton of variation. There are also four different barbecue sauces on the table to use—original, sweet, hot, and chipotle mustard.  But I am ahead of myself.

First, we ordered chips and queso ($7) and we were impressed with the fresh fried tortilla chips. They were hot and really crisp and you could tell had just been made. The queso was tasty, but nothing that really made it stand out—white queso with some green peppers mixed in. But the chips made it worth ordering for sure. They also served it with some soft flour tortillas as well if that’s your thing. 

The rest of my family ordered tacos with various forms of meats inside ($6-$8) and most with pickled onions and guac on top. I ordered the pulled chicken sandwich ($8) which was according to the menu also supposed to come with red onions and guac but only showed up with the pickled onions. I think the sandwiches are the way to go here—or even maybe just the meat by the pound. It was the exact same meat in the tacos, but it felt weird to put barbecue sauce on tacos, but you really need it I think. I tried all the sauces and they were good—I appreciate that they are slightly unique from other places. My favorite sauce by far was the chipotle mustard sauce—I typically like mustard sauces but I really liked this one because it had a little heat that mustard sauces don’t usually have. I also thought the pulled chicken was really good on its own. There was a fair amount of the more tender dark meat mixed in. When I saw it, I worried it would be dry, but it was very tender. The bun and the tortilla were sort of unnecessary. And they were kind of unexciting—nothing really adding to the meat. Next time I would just split the pulled chicken by the pound and eat it with sauce. I feel like the main ingredients of the meat and sauces have been thought out, but the rest was sort of just ok. The mac and cheese and fries we all shared were just sort of average and standard, as were the buns and the guac on top. I would recommend a nice dipping sauce with the fries to jazz them up a bit.

The other meats were decent too, although hubby thought the brisket was a little dry, likely because it was chopped up so small. He agreed with me that probably just getting the meat on its own was probably the way to go. 

We ended with some churros ($5). They didn’t taste bad (I mean, churros!). But the sauce tasted pretty much like Hershey’s and there was nothing to make them really stand out., Would love to see a fancier tasting sauce—maybe something with dark chocolate and cinnamon or dulce du leche. And even if they don’t want to make it themselves, there’s plenty of local folks they could ask to help.

Atmosphere-wise there are a lot of TVs showing sports, but I liked that the sound was off on the TVs so it didn’t become impossible to have a conversation. The server was efficient and the staff was friendly. I look forward to seeing how they evolve—I would love to see more effort put into sides, desserts etc. that it seems like they are putting into the meats and sauces (and the house fried chips). And I really enjoyed that mustard sauce. And the proximity to my house.

What do you guys think? Have you been? 

Madera

5711 E. 71^st Street

Indianapolis, IN 46220

317/845-1336

http://maderatexmexbbq.com/

Half Liter

The newest addition to the Sahm’s empire is Half Liter, which is a Texas-style BBQ place that is in the back of Liter House on the Monon. It’s an impressive huge high-ceilinged place with vary casual picnic style tables. Downstairs there are only the benches and tables, but I think upstairs has some regular tables with chairs with backs. The one weird thing is I still don't know where the "front" door is on this place. I ended up going in through the patio because the door by the parking lot that said enter here was locked. 

It’s a cool place though and it was packed for a midday lunch (but not so packed we didn’t get a table right away). The concept is Texas dry rub BBQ and they serve several different BBQ sauces on the table. They have a Carolina-style mustard sauce, a traditional Texas style red sauce and a sweet, Dr. Pepper-based sauce. I ordered a quarter chicken leg for my lunch ($7) and it came with 2 sides. I went with potato salad (because I always try potato salad whenever I try a BBQ place) and a green salad because I was feeling peckish for something green.  The chicken was really, really good. I always worry that it will be horribly dry, but this chicken was anything but. It was so, so good. Super moist and with a ton of smoky flavor. It was a big leg/thigh quarter and it was a great lunch portion for me. I would be hard-pressed not to order the exact same thing again. Seriously, really good. As for the sides, the potato salad was a no-go for me. I am weird about potato salad and when I like it, I really like it. And if I don’t like it, I just don’t. There’s no middle ground. This one had celery in it, which isn’t my favorite, but it also had a certain sweet flavor I didn’t care for. Like I said, I am super weird about potato salad. Although my green salad was simple—just fresh lettuce, red onion and tomatoes. They only have like 3 choices for dressing (again one of the choices is Dr. Pepper flavored). I went with ranch and was happy I did—it was really tasty—not just ranch but ranch with some spicy kick to it that went well with the BBQ. 

My friend had the Eddie’s melt sandwich ($10) with one side. The sandwich was really interesting—it had pulled pork, collard greens, pimento cheese, and caramelized onions  It was something I am not sure I would have ordered before, but really enjoyed. His mac and cheese side was the superior of the two hot sides for sure. Not fancy or anything, but really good. 

We also got to try the cornbread and the waffle fries randomly, because I guess they made a serving of them on accident and because we were by the service window, they gave them to us. The waffle fries were good waffle fries—I liked that they made them a little unique with some extra seasoning. The cornbread was a nope for me. So dry and crumbly it bordered on sandy. But it was nice to have the opportunity to try them out.

All the meat I tried (which sadly wasn’t a ton) was spot on. Had a good deep smoky flavor and was very tender. The sides were kind of hit or miss—honestly, I would likely go for the mac and a salad again because I liked the dressing so much. There are several other options to try. And of course you can never go wrong with tots. 

I am looking forward to going back with more people and trying some more of the meats. Hubby can’t wait to try the brisket. Anyone had it?

Half Liter

5301 Winthrop Ave 

Indy 46220

463-212-8180

https://www.halfliterbbq.com/

Squealers- revisit

We were excited to learn we would be getting a Squealers location near our house—they have opened up in Castleton in what was a Max and Erma’s forever, and then for a short time, a Mexican place that was just okay. The interior is pretty similar in layout to the places before, but with a rustic BBQ kind of feel.

We were with friends on the night we decided to try it, and so we got an order of fried pickles ($6) to start. They were pretty solid fried pickles and you could tell they were making them in house. They were not all uniform and the pickles inside were still juicy. The breading had a nice seasoning, and as it turns out, was the same that was on the fried tenderloin sandwich (more on that later). I was curious about the dipping sauce they gave us and it turns out it’s a mix of ranch dressing and bbq sauce. That’s a pretty good combo—giving you the coolness of ranch but a bit of spice and heat from the BBQ sauce. We all enjoyed them and I would get them again.

For my main dish, hubby and I split the pick 3 sampler plate ($22) with pulled pork, pulled chicken and baby back ribs. For sides, I had a salad and mac and cheese. Both the pulled pork and chicken are good, although not my favorite in town. They are not quite as tender as is my personal preference, but once you load them up with sauce (I got half sweet/half hot combo for my sauce), it really doesn’t matter. I didn’t eat the ribs, but hubby keeps them on the top of his list for baby back ribs in Indy.

My salad was ok—I liked all the stuff on it—boiled egg, mushrooms, cheese and onion (not a fan of giant croutons). Strangely though, there wasn’t much lettuce underneath it all. It was almost like a garnish to the other stuff. The blue cheese dressing was tasty though—pretty thick with some nice hunks of cheese in it. The mac and cheese is good. Again, nothing mind blowing, but a good match with the bbq. Let’s face it, to me mac and cheese and BBQ are perfect partners.

AND FRIED BISCUITS. I will always like Squealers for the fried biscuits, even if the rest of the food isn’t my absolute favorite. Take one of those delicious, hot, crusty and slightly sweet (we had an extra order of them to share for $4) and load it with some of the pulled meat and some sauce, and you are good. I love those little fried biscuit sandwiches. I think next time I would just get the pulled pork (it was more tender than the chicken) and biscuits and be a happy camper. They also give you apple butter to go with them, which is also good and I happily make a dessert of the biscuits with it.

The surprise of the evening for me was my friend’s pork tenderloin sandwich ($10). It was one of those huge ones that hangs off the bun in every direction, but it was really, really delicious. And I wouldn’t have thought of ordering this at a BBQ joint (we kind of teased her about this), but they do designate it as one of the house specialties on the menu, and for good reason. It is really thin, but still amazingly tender and is breaded with that same slightly grainy, well-seasoned mix that was on the pickles. Also, she ordered cheese on it, which I have never done, and I can’t lie—it was pretty darn good as well. The fries that came along with it, well, they’re big steak fries and not my thing.  

Hmmm….I wonder if it would be weird if I ordered a fried tenderloin sandwich with a side of fried biscuits…

Squealers

5899 East 86^th Street

Indy  46240

317/915-7777

www.squealersbarbeque.com  

The North End - Revisit

This is another revisit that I feel I need to update after going back after my first post. My son and I were both excited to try the chicken at the North End again because it was just so darn good that first time. We were with my in-laws too, so we got to try a few new things as well.

We had the salmon dip starter ($8) again, which we really enjoyed the first time. For some reason, I wasn’t feeling it as much this time—I realized later it was because I didn’t have the lemon wedges to squeeze on top that I had pilfered from the oysters last time. I would potentially get this again, but it needs the lemon to jazz it up. The thick cut house potato chips are great though—super crisp and well seasoned.

We also tried the pimento cheese spread with Johnnycakes and green tomato chow chow ($7). The portions for these starters are generous. The cheese spread was a big hit with my kids as were the Johnnycakes. Unfortunately, there aren’t really enough Johnnycakes to go along with the cheese. We used some of the potato chips when we ran out. The cheese spread is pretty mild, even borderline bland, but the Johnnycakes were tender and I appreciated the little bit of acid from the tomatoes. Again, this was a dish my kids really liked.

So I was psyched for ordering my perfect combo based on figuring out what I thought were the best things. I got the half chicken with two sides ($15). I had the fries and the mac and cheese. Sadly, the chicken really let me down this time. It was very dry and had none of that amazing juiciness that it had the first time. I guess it’s just a matter of luck and hopefully this time was the aberration rather than the first time. Luckily they give you all those different BBQ sauces to try with it. I decided after trying them all again that my favorite is the “classic” because it has a nice kick of vinegar to it, but still has the thickness of a good sauce (but not so thick that it’s gloppy). The mac and cheese was consistent with the first time—it’s good and I like the addition of the rib jam to jazz it up a bit. Nothing that knocks your socks off, but solid mac. I love the fries—they are hand cut fries and are coated in smoked bone marrow butter and topped with some sliced jalapenos. And even though they are coated in butter, they somehow stay sort of firm. The bone marrow flavor gives them an extra richness. I would say top to bottom, these fries are one of the best things on the menu.

A couple of us got the cornbread as well—it is also a favorite with my kids. It has a big hunk of maple Bourbon butter on top adding to its sweetness. Again, I like it for dessert. 

So there you go, I think the sides have stayed fairly consistent and I feel like I know which ones to order. I’m sad that the chicken was disappointing (my daughter had the sliced turkey, which she also described as dry). I didn’t love the pulled pork the first time so I am not sure whether I will be motivated to go back when I don’t feel confident that I can find meat that I will really like.

The North End

1250 E. 86^th Street

Indy  46240

317/614-7427

http://thenorthendbbq.com/ 

The North End

I have ventured over to Ryan Nelson’s new place, The North End, a couple of times since it opened—the first time for lunch and the second time for dinner. First of all, judging by the Monday night crowd at dinnertime, this neighborhood has been desperate for somewhere like this to go. It’s nice not to have Nora continue to be such a desert of independent, casual restaurants. So much fast food in this area.

At my lunch I had the Carolina pulled pork sandwich ($8), which came with 1 side. I went with potato salad because that is usually my go to with barbecue. The pork was okay. It’s the kind of pulled pork that has a lot of the crisp “bark” on it. So it kind of depends on whether you like that or not. They serve 4 sauces—a sweet molasses based sauce, a classic BBQ sauce, a spicier version and a vinegar/mustard-based sauce. You needed the sauce for sure to get the pork juicy. The sandwiches also come dressed with a house made cole slaw, which is a bit creamy and has a bit of vinegar. It was nice with the meat and sauce I thought.  Was it my favorite pulled pork? No, it’s a tad dry for me. The potato salad is a write off though, it was also super dry and bland. Just seemed liked chunks of potato with a bit of mustard. Needed some creaminess and some more zip.  I appreciated the wedge of boiled egg to mix in, but still could have used a little more pizazz. On both visits, I had the cornbread as a dessert ($3 as a separate side). It’s very sweet and topped with a nice mound of maple Bourbon butter. I really enjoyed it as a small dessert though (and so did my son). The first time they served it in a little iron skillet, which gave it a little more crisp edges, which I liked. They didn’t on the second visit. 

At dinner, we were with another family, and took the opportunity to try a bunch of the appetizers, which all sounded very appealing. Probably my favorite was the smoked Alaskan salmon dip ($8)—it was a creamy dip with lots of salmon in it as well as capers and chives. It was seasoned well and was served with thick housemade potato chips. A great combination. And when I squeezed a couple of lemons from the broiled oysters on top, it was perfection.

The oysters  ($12 for 6) themselves weren’t bad. They were small oysters (my favorite) but were almost overwhelmed by the amount of broiled parmesan cheese on top. The cheese had sort of hardened into one large piece of cheese on top on some of them and a lot of the garlic butter had spilled out of the oysters before they were served. For the price point, I think I would just stick with the salmon dip.

Based on several recommendations, we also had the house battered onion rings with remoulade ($7). These were my biggest disappointment of the appetizers. These are the really big kind of onion rings, which don’t tend to be my favorite kind anyway, but if they have a really nice crunchy batter, I won’t care. Here, the batter wasn’t crunchy at all—very soft. I liked the drizzled remoulade that was on them (although didn’t help with the softness) and asked for some more on the side. I don’t know, maybe it was just an off night on these because like I said, a lot of people have recommended them to me.

For dinner, I wanted to try something new and went with the chicken ($15). It is a half roasted chicken and was spectacular. The smoked meat was so tender--it was amazing. The skin on the chicken was crisp and seasoned. Dipping the meat in the sauces was barely even necessary, but I enjoyed all of them. A bit of classic mixed with spicy is probably my favorite, but I went back and forth with the mustard sauce because I liked the acidity of it. After my son had eaten half his pulled pork sandwich, he tried my chicken and then proceeded to pick it to the bone. Every time we drive by now, he asks when we will go back and get more of the chicken.

For sides this time (the entrées come with 2 sides), I had the mac and cheese and the collard greens. The collards were good. Tender with the right amount of porky bits and vinegar. The mac and cheese is also very good (probably my favorite side if I were choosing). It was creamy and topped with a slightly sweet, slightly smoky, rib jam that gave it extra texture and depth. Although my son had the fries as his side, which were tossed in bone marrow butter and jalapenos and they were quite delicious as well. Decadent, but good. They were certainly hubby’s favorite side.

Speaking of, hubby decided to go with another of the appetizers as his main dish, the shrimp and grits ($10). He figured he would eat off our plates, and he did. The shrimp and grits were good as well. The shrimp wasn’t overcooked and the grits were cheesy with white cheddar mixed in. There were some hunks of tasso ham and some fresh tomatoes as well. It was a large appetizer for sure. 

All in all, I think now that I have been a few times and found a couple of things we all really like, it will be a nice family-friendly place to put in the rotation that is near us. I can tell you what my son and I will be splitting—that chicken. Delicious.

The North End

1250 E. 86^th Street

Indy  46240

317/614-7427

http://thenorthendbbq.com/ 

City Barbeque

While my daughter was still at camp, hubby and I took our son out for dinner at City Barbecue. We have wanted to go for a while, but driving to Carmel during rush hour always seems daunting (and the other locations are even further). But we sucked it up and made the drive one night. 

We had eaten at City BBQ in Columbus, Ohio once while visiting hubby’s parents and really liked it, but it had been quite awhile. We were excited when we heard this one was opening.  It hasn’t been open too long in Carmel, and I had heard there were pretty big crowds. On the night we were there (a Tuesday) it wasn’t too bad. You wait in line to place your order and they call your name when it’s ready (unfortunately hardly anyone there seems to be of age, so if you order a beer, you have to wait for a manager to bring it to you, which took longer than getting the food).

They have a pretty extensive menu and a ton of sides.  Hubby and I made negotiations and ended up with a pulled chicken sandwich (me) ($7.49+ $2.99 for 2 sides) and a sampler platter of a mini pulled pork sandwich, a mini brisket sandwich and smoked sausage (hubby) ($13.99+ $2.99 for 2 sides).  My son got the kids meal with mac and cheese, a side of baked beans and a drink ($3.99).

I had read about the pulled chicken online which is what inspired me to get it (that and the fact that I am pretty sure my in laws had it that time I ate it at their house).  They smoke the chicken and then pull it and simmer it in what they call their “white” BBQ sauce that has a bunch of things in it like cayenne, vinegar and horseradish.  This is easily one of the most tender pulled chicken sandwiches I have had. Honestly, you barely need BBQ sauce because the meat is so tender and flavorful, but they have a selection of sauces on the table for you to dress your BBQ as you wish. I tried the mustard sauce first because I tend to like mustard sauces, but this one was a little too pure yellow mustard for me. I ended up settling on their original sauce, which is your typical red BBQ sauce. It was nice and smoky with a hint of heat (they also have a pure sweet and a hot version).

Hubby’s pulled pork was also delicious—just as tender as the chicken, but with the richness you are only going to get from pork.  We both loved it.  I am not a huge fan of brisket—just a little dry to me, even with the sauce on top.  My son however was excited that his baked beans contained bits of the brisket and he really liked it. He ended up finishing up hubby’s mini brisket sandwich.  I didn’t try the sausage but hubby said it was good, just not as good as the pulled chicken and pork.

There are so many sides it is hard to decide which ones to get.  Since my son got the mac and cheese as his main dish, I knew I could try his and got something else. I remembered the potato salad being good and I also ordered the corn pudding.  I do like the potato salad even if it isn’t overly flavorful.  It is kind of an old school version with celery, egg, and mayo.  Reminds me of my Grandma’s.  I liked a bite of it with a bit of the BBQ. I also enjoyed the corn pudding—it was sort of like a softer, buttery cornbread with bits of whole corn in it. Sweet, but not sickly sweet.  The baked beans were good. There are pieces of the brisket cooked into it, which is what made my son decide he really liked the brisket.  We also had an order of the hush puppies—they are corn meal balls that are battered and deep-fried. The batter was decent, but the inside of the hushpuppies didn’t really have any seasoning. I would pass on these next time.

All in all, I quite liked this place—especially the pulled pork and chicken.  I would totally stop and get a pound of this carry out. I also liked their house bbq sauce and while none of the sides completely blew me away, I enjoyed the potato salad and the corn pudding. The mac and cheese, while pretty straightforward, was decent as well. Even though it’s a chain, it’s a darn good option.  And hubby is looking forward to trying the ribs next time.

City Barbecue

1356 Rangeline Road (and other Indy locations)

Carmel, IN 46032

317/660-8369

www.citybbq.com 

Garrett's Smokehouse Barbecue

I noticed this place while driving by it a few times—it isn’t too far from my house and of course, always on the quest for good barbecue, I was intrigued.  I asked around and no one had been there, so of course that just made me more intrigued.  So the other night we had some friends over and ordered carry out (no booze in the place).

turkey ribs

Naturally we had to get lots of different stuff—here’s what I tried: the pulled pork sandwich ($5.50), the half chicken ($5.50), the pulled chicken sandwich ($5.25), the ribs ($10 for half slab) and the turkey ribs ($7.00 for 3).  Also, we had several sides—I ate the mac and cheese and the potato salad ($2 for small, $5.50 for large).  And no, I didn’t order all that for me, I just tried a lot of other people’s food.

The best things were the bone-in smoked meats.  I really thought the flavor of the dark meat pieces of chicken was outstanding—the meat was pink with smoke and had a great smoky flavor.  The breast suffered a bit from being dried out though.  The spare ribs were good too—very smoky and tender—not fall off the bone and not so tough to get off that you had to gnaw on them.  The right amount of give.  The turkey was interesting—I have never had turkey ribs before.  They were good too—similar in their tenderness to the spare ribs and seemed to have been marinated in seasoning even more. Nice smoke flavor.

We got all our sauces on the side—they do sweet, mild and hot.  I started with the mild and stuck with it—it actually had a decent amount of heat to it which I appreciated. Usually I am torn about what sauce to get because the mild is too mild.  But maybe because they have the sweet, they do the mild with a little more spice.  It had a little vinegar taste to it too which I liked. Dipping that chicken thigh in the sauce was the best part of the meal.

Sadly, the meat that wasn’t on the bone (the pulled pork and the pulled chicken) were the weakest links I thought.  The pork was very dry and kind of stringy.  Sure, drown it in sauce, and it was ok, but I wouldn’t go this route here.  I like bigger chunks of pork in my pulled pork.  The chicken seemed to be the half chicken a day or two later and pulled off the bone.  Pretty dry.  The best of the sides I had was the potato salad—the adults universally seemed to like it.  It was old style with plenty of mustard and maybe some sweet pickles?  The mac and cheese wasn’t bad either—clearly homemade but not overly creamy—more dry than many, but I still enjoyed it.

Hubby picked up the food and said it was doing a decent pick up business when he went and that he really liked the people working there (apparently the lady packing the orders told him straight away that he was early and would have to wait—he enjoyed her attitude I think).

You know, it wasn’t blow your mind, but it was the best of what I have had around our house so far (not the best in Indy I have had, but the best within a 5 mile radius of my house).  I liked the sauce, and I liked some of the meat.  Worth another go anyhow.

Garrett’s Smokehouse Barbecue

5502 Emerson Way

Indy  IN 46226

317/722-0506

www.garrettssmokehousebbq.com

King Ribs

Hubby got in the mood for barbecue again (this happens every so often at our house).  It is one of the rare categories of restaurants that he seems to have an overwhelming desire to try all of, so I am always willing to indulge. I am not sure why he was so geared up for King Ribs other than I think he likes the fact that it is in an old car wash. Hubby is a car guy.

Anyway, they just do a carry out thing at King Ribs, so we got online and picked out what we wanted. We got the rib dinner (on Sundays it is on special for $7.78 with two sides), some barbecue chicken (half chicken is $4.50) and pulled chicken (1 pound is around $10, but not sure because it isn’t really on the menu).  (We wanted the pulled pork, but apparently they were out).  We had sides of mac and cheese,  potato salad and baked beans.

Here’s the thing. It wasn’t very good. I feel like I say this a lot about barbecue, but honestly I have had some good stuff, and this wasn’t it.  The best thing was the half chicken, the meat was not completely dried out and the skin tasted pretty good. But the thing about all of it (and you can tell from the pictures), is that it was completely drenched in the sauce, and the sauce was thin and runny and not the way I like barbecue sauce.  It almost seemed like a thin tomato sauce or something.  It didn’t have any smoky flavor or and depth at all. We did get the mild, and if I were getting it again, I would certainly get the hot (we got mild because the kids were eating it). 

The pulled chicken was dry, and again, just soaked in the sauce.  There was a lot of it though.  The ribs were actually the worst thing I think—they were the big spare rib type ribs, which don’t tend to be our favorite anyway, but these were exceptionally dry.  Literally, I think we each ate one, and then gave up completely.  It was sort of a bummer you couldn’t taste more smoke in the meat too—when you drive by you always see those big smokers going outside which has always intrigued me.

The sides were actually not bad.  Not amazing or anything, but better than a lot I have had around town.  The mac and cheese was probably my favorite.  It was made with real cheese, and it had some of those crisp edge bits in it which are my favorite part.  My next favorite was probably the potato salad—it had mustard in it and some peppers and pickles maybe?  It was at least something to balance the meat, which is what I like in my barbecue sides.  The baked beans were pretty standard, although they had some hunks of pork in them.

All in all I would give this place a pass, I have certainly had better barbecued meat elsewhere.  I am still on a quest for a place that can do it all well, although maybe that is just a pipe dream.

King Ribs BBQ

4130 N. Keystone Ave

Indy 46205

317/543-0841

G.T. South's Rib House

Back on the BBQ quest, we finally got around to trying GT South’s. It is literally like 5 minutes from our house, and we had actually eaten there once before, but it was years ago, pre-blog, so we thought it our duty to check it out again.  Instead of carrying out, like we often do with BBQ, we took the kids and ate there.  It is an extremely casual place (ok, it is a little low on atmosphere), and totally kid friendly.

On our current quest, we tend to order the same things in general, not just because they are the things we tend to like, but because it is sort of easier to compare places if you get similar things.  Hubby got the baby back rib dinner ($12.50) and I got a combo plate with pulled pork and pulled chicken ($11.50) (you don’t see that everywhere and I liked the idea of it).  Both dinners came with a cornbread muffin and 2 sides.

They have several sauces—basically mild, hot, 911 and a North Carolina vinegar sauce.  You can either get your food “smothered” with the sauce or you can do it yourself at the table.  I figured I would just get mine dry and try all the sauces.  And I asked for some of the vinegar sauce on the side, because I had never had it before (that one is not out on the table).  So the chicken was like pulled pork—shreds of meat that was described as a mix and white and dark meat.  It was pretty heavy on the white meat on my serving, which was a little disappointing because it was dry and didn’t have a lot of flavor.  Even after pouring the sauce on, it just wasn’t really worth eating.  The pork was much better—more flavorful for sure, although still pretty dry.  When mixed with a bunch of the sauce, it was ok.  I actually thought I would like the vinegar sauce because I tend to like vinegar based things, but I really didn’t care for it.  It was very thin and was quite hot. It tasted like there was quite a bit of hot sauce and cayenne in there.  The vinegar was kind of lost in the heat for me.  Probably my favorite of the sauces was the mild—the hot wasn’t crazy hot, spiced up with pepper flakes, and not a lot different.  But the mild just had a nice rich flavor that I enjoyed.

Hubby’s ribs were also just fine.  They were a little tougher than we tend to like them—quite a bit of force was required to pull the meat off the bone.  And the bites I had had a fair amount of fattiness.  They certainly did not live up to his memories of Squealers’ ribs.  The sides were kind of a mixed bag.  The mac and cheese was basic—it seemed homemade, but there was nothing about it that made it stand out.  It was pretty much noodles and cheddar.  A little bland.  We both probably liked the potato salad the best—it was a mustard and mayo- based dressing with red-skinned potatoes and not sweet at all.  It wasn’t amazing, but better than most I have had lately and the best thing we had as a side.  Hubby had mashed potatoes and gravy, and they were pretty standard. Homemade? Not so sure about that.  The kids were happy though as mashed potatoes are one of their favorite things.  He also had cole slaw which was pretty standard as well.  Similar to KFC.  I should say though that while none of them were amazing, as a whole, the sides were better than a lot of BBQ places we have had.  The cornbread was in a muffin form and was extremely dry and crumbly.

Pulled chicken & pork with sauce



It was kind of funny though because my son ordered ribs and my daughter a grilled cheese off the kids’ menu and she ended up liking the ribs and he wanted her grilled cheese, so basically they ended up switching.  Typical. We saw they had cobblers for dessert and asked if they were made in house.  Our server told us “they are warmed up in house…” We passed.  They do carry seasonal pies from a local bakery and my son was happy to see they had pumpkin so he and hubby split that.

All in all, I would say G.T. South’s is not going to be at the top of our list for BBQ.  Hubby has found ribs at several other places he prefers and nothing I had made me want to go back.  Too bad too that one of the places so close to us wasn’t our favorite (or even close). But our search continues….

G.T. South’s Rib House

5711 East 71^st Street

Indy  46220

317/849-6997

www.gtsouths.com

Black Diamond BBQ

Fresh on the high of a great set of ribs from Squealers not long ago, hubby has become slightly obsessed with barbeque.  He wants to try them all, like tomorrow, so he can compare and contrast them all while it is still fresh in his head.  So we invited friends over the other night to finally get around to trying Black Diamond which is like 5 minutes from our house, and which we have never tried.  It is a pretty small place, and there isn’t a lot of ambiance there, and since it is so close, we figured it probably wouldn’t lose much in the 5 minute drive from there to our house.  Not to mention, barbeque is inherently slow cooked anyway right?  The people working in there are really nice and they put together your order super fast.

They do a lot of barbeque chicken at Black Diamond which I like, although the more I eat, the more I realize it is tough to do it well.  But I still decided to go with the half chicken anyway, figuring that at least the dark meat would be tender.  So my meal was a half barbeque chicken dinner which comes with two sides—I had the mac and cheese and the greens ($9.75).  So unfortunately, the chicken was quite dry really and even the leg meat suffered from that fate.  Extra sauce helped, but not enough.  The sauce choices are sweet, mild, and spicy. I got the mild, thinking, well it wouldn’t be sweet since they actually have a separate sauce that is sweet, but I still found it a little too sweet.  If I went again, I would certainly go for the spicy, as one friend who had it at the table did not think it was really spicy at all. The mac and cheese was fine—it was your standard noodles in cheese product—you know, like Velveeta-esque.  Didn’t taste bad, but wasn’t wowing anyone for sure.  The greens weren’t bad, but honestly weren’t my first choice.  I always want to try the potato salad at barbeque places, and when I asked for that as my side, I was told they were out of it (I was also told if we wanted hot dog kids meals that they had on the menu it would be a 30-40 minute wait which was weird I thought. What kind of hot dog takes that long to cook?).  Anyway, I was kind of bummed about the potato salad thing, but I can adapt.

Hubby got the large rib dinner ($12.95) with cole slaw and baked beans.  So these are not baby back ribs, they are the spare rib style—meaning they are larger bones with more meat and fat.  The baby back ribs come from the top of the rib cage (or the back of the pig) whereas the spare ribs come from along the sides of the rib cage.  Obviously, this is a matter of preference, as both are very popular, but hubby (and I) prefer the baby back ribs.  To me, I prefer the smaller size and the less fatty texture of the meat.   I have to say though, they give you a very nice portion of them for the money.  The thing that disappointed me the most about them though was the lack of any smoky flavor at all.  Overall, these ribs were pretty much the reason I rarely order ribs.  They were a bit tough, too fatty for me, and lacked any smoke.  Hubby’s cole slaw was also pretty bad.  It was just cut cabbage and had no creaminess to it, which is fine in theory—I thought maybe it was a vinaigrette kind of thing.  But it actually was just purely sweet.  The baked beans were pretty standard.  Definitely better than the slaw.

The kids shared some pulled pork and a bunch of the macaroni and cheese. The pulled pork on a bun is $7.95 for an adult portion and $3.99 for a kid’s portion (the adult portion is pictured).  I would say the pulled pork was the best of the things we had, and they gave you a fair amount of sauce.  Inherently though the meat was a tad dry as well (seemed to be a theme running through everything).  The kids were happy with it though, and were really into the mac and cheese (go figure).

I don’t know, I have heard so many good things about this place, but compared to what I have had locally, I would put this in the very average category.  Luckily for us (and hubby is already planning the next place), we have lots of barbeque choices around town.  Of course, I always want to hear which one you think is the best and why.

Black Diamond Barbecue

6404 Rucker Road, Suite 5

Indianapolis  46220

317/251-7427

www.blackdiamondbbqcatering.com