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| - We went to Phil's BBQ today after finding out that sadly, our favourite place, Highway 61 has closed down back in July. I had heard a lot of good things about the place, however, after reading the reviews here and other places, I wasn't so certain I wanted to try it but the boyfriend convinced me and so we went.
The place was nice, it smelled smokey and delicious in there and the service was pretty good. The waiter was quick, almost too pushy (I got a bit of the "order already, I ain't got all day" vibe from him) but overall not too bad.
We got served within a reasonable time period (about 15-20 min.).
I ordered the ribs, in fact most of us did, except my boyfriend who tried the pulled pork.
The food: the ribs had a nice bark on them, the flavour was definitely there. Smokey, not too overwhelming, and not oversauced. The fries were light golden brown and crispy and fluffy on the inside. Big too! Very nice. The beans were amazing. That's the main thing I've heard about and they did not disappoint. They were smokey, had pieces of meat in them, just sweet enough and melt in your mouth. Delicious.
Now the negatives (mostly about food): the ribs, aside from the flavour were tough. They were not fall off the bone in any way, they were very chewy and hard to get through. It's too bad really because otherwise they would've been very good.
The sauce was slightly too acidic for my liking, but that might be a personal preference. I like a good sweetness balance to my rib sauce.
The potato salad I got as another side was disappointing too. The chunks of potato were huge and undercooked. There was not much else aside from the big pieces of potato in the salad and it was a bit bland.
My boyfriend's pulled pork was very stringy, chewy and oversauced. Disappointing as well.
Overall, when I go to a BBQ restaurant and the beans are my favourite thing on the plate, that's a bit sad. A lot of places can do good beans but not everyone can do good ribs and meat.
I don't think I will be coming back to Phil's, sadly and will have to keep looking for a replacement to Highway 61, RIP.
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