Hi folks,
I recently visited the Red Hot & Blue restaurant in Williamsburg, Va. and just wanted to provide my family's experience.
I don't often accompany my wife when she goes to the outlets in Williamsburg, but I had a vacation day and she and my son were out of school for a snow day last Friday (01/18/13).
We got to Williamsburg about lunch time and what is better for lunch than BBQ?!?
We decided to give the RH&B a try since we had never been there before and what follows is the review of what we had for lunch. When we walked in we could smell the hickory smoked meats and the waterfalls started! We spent about 20 minutes trying to decide what to order. We will have to return to try other entrees.
Our order on this visit was as follows:
I had a half rack of Memphis Dry ribs (St. Louis Style Spares - dry rub only w/ sauce on the side) with hush puppies, cole slaw, and bbq beans.
Steph had the Smokehouse Salad.
Trevor had the Beef Brisket Platter with hush puppies, and jumbo sweet potato (1.99 extra for the potato).
I'll start...the ribs were moist & juicy, fall off the bone tender. My preference is a little pull, but the meat tasted really good, especially with the RH&B dry rub, which I really liked. It wasn't sweet, just savory, and they had a shaker of it on the table, which I tasted just to try and glean some ingredients. I managed to pick up on a few ingredients and noticed that they put a bay leaf in the jar to keep the moisture down. While the ribs tasted good I was disgusted to find the silver skin still on the back uncut. I know some BBQ restaurants leave the silver skin on to cut down on prep time, but typically they take a sharp knife and slice between each bone. The RH&B in Williamsburg did not do this and that big piece of silver skin took away my appetite for the ribs. The beans were good as was the creamy slaw. The hush puppies contained kernels of corn and pieces of jalepeno pepper and were good as well. Good, not great.
Steph's salad was huge, great portion. It had pulled bbq chicken, pork, and beef. Kind of defeated the purpose of a salad but she loved the flavor and really raved over the corn relish, which she said was the best part of the salad. Warning...this salad is not for dieters, which is kind of misleading.
Trevor's Beef Brisket Platter looked fantastic upon arrival and I immediately asked for a taste, which I found to be very good. The brisket was hickory smoked and very thinly sliced. They covered the top layer of beef with the RH&B Mojo Mild sauce, but not too much as to drown the taste of the beef. More meat than sauce is a good thing! The portion was huge and Trevor managed to finish about half (he's 13-some days he eats everything, some days nothing). The "jumbo sweet potato" was the most disappointing item of the order. In my mind jumbo means really big, but apparently in RH&B speak jumbo means bigger than a walnut. For a sweet potato lover like the T-man this was very disappointing. I would recommend the brisket platter but forgo the "jumbo sweet potato". My favorite comment of the meal...Trevor - "Dad, your brisket is WAY BETTER than this!" Man I love that kid!!!!!!
I will definitely return to RH&B in Williamsburg, Va. to try some of their other entrees! The pulled pork really looked good as it passed by and everything smelled really good. The staff was very friendly and responsive, and English was a second language for them all. Not sure of their countries of origin but I'm guessing Eastern European.
I would recommend a visit to the Williamsburg, Virginia Red Hot & Blue. Order the ribs at your own peril - if you like the silver skin you'll love 'em, if you are like me...well, you might not order the ribs again.
My intent with this post is not to criticize the RH&B restaurants but to provide a personal insight from an experienced Que guy.
I hope you find the post informational and welcome any comments and feedback.
Thanks,
Bill
I recently visited the Red Hot & Blue restaurant in Williamsburg, Va. and just wanted to provide my family's experience.
I don't often accompany my wife when she goes to the outlets in Williamsburg, but I had a vacation day and she and my son were out of school for a snow day last Friday (01/18/13).
We got to Williamsburg about lunch time and what is better for lunch than BBQ?!?
We decided to give the RH&B a try since we had never been there before and what follows is the review of what we had for lunch. When we walked in we could smell the hickory smoked meats and the waterfalls started! We spent about 20 minutes trying to decide what to order. We will have to return to try other entrees.
Our order on this visit was as follows:
I had a half rack of Memphis Dry ribs (St. Louis Style Spares - dry rub only w/ sauce on the side) with hush puppies, cole slaw, and bbq beans.
Steph had the Smokehouse Salad.
Trevor had the Beef Brisket Platter with hush puppies, and jumbo sweet potato (1.99 extra for the potato).
I'll start...the ribs were moist & juicy, fall off the bone tender. My preference is a little pull, but the meat tasted really good, especially with the RH&B dry rub, which I really liked. It wasn't sweet, just savory, and they had a shaker of it on the table, which I tasted just to try and glean some ingredients. I managed to pick up on a few ingredients and noticed that they put a bay leaf in the jar to keep the moisture down. While the ribs tasted good I was disgusted to find the silver skin still on the back uncut. I know some BBQ restaurants leave the silver skin on to cut down on prep time, but typically they take a sharp knife and slice between each bone. The RH&B in Williamsburg did not do this and that big piece of silver skin took away my appetite for the ribs. The beans were good as was the creamy slaw. The hush puppies contained kernels of corn and pieces of jalepeno pepper and were good as well. Good, not great.
Steph's salad was huge, great portion. It had pulled bbq chicken, pork, and beef. Kind of defeated the purpose of a salad but she loved the flavor and really raved over the corn relish, which she said was the best part of the salad. Warning...this salad is not for dieters, which is kind of misleading.
Trevor's Beef Brisket Platter looked fantastic upon arrival and I immediately asked for a taste, which I found to be very good. The brisket was hickory smoked and very thinly sliced. They covered the top layer of beef with the RH&B Mojo Mild sauce, but not too much as to drown the taste of the beef. More meat than sauce is a good thing! The portion was huge and Trevor managed to finish about half (he's 13-some days he eats everything, some days nothing). The "jumbo sweet potato" was the most disappointing item of the order. In my mind jumbo means really big, but apparently in RH&B speak jumbo means bigger than a walnut. For a sweet potato lover like the T-man this was very disappointing. I would recommend the brisket platter but forgo the "jumbo sweet potato". My favorite comment of the meal...Trevor - "Dad, your brisket is WAY BETTER than this!" Man I love that kid!!!!!!
I will definitely return to RH&B in Williamsburg, Va. to try some of their other entrees! The pulled pork really looked good as it passed by and everything smelled really good. The staff was very friendly and responsive, and English was a second language for them all. Not sure of their countries of origin but I'm guessing Eastern European.
I would recommend a visit to the Williamsburg, Virginia Red Hot & Blue. Order the ribs at your own peril - if you like the silver skin you'll love 'em, if you are like me...well, you might not order the ribs again.
My intent with this post is not to criticize the RH&B restaurants but to provide a personal insight from an experienced Que guy.
I hope you find the post informational and welcome any comments and feedback.
Thanks,
Bill
