Blue Grass BBQ Reading

A forum for reviews of bbq restaurants. Only mods and admins can create new topics here, but everyone else can reply. Opinions expressed here are those of the individual and are not representative of the BBBQS.

Blue Grass BBQ Reading

Postby GingerBen » 16 Dec 2015, 10:02

Went to Blue Grass in Reading last night to give it a try. I think it is a very newly opened restaurant as last time I went to Reading it was an Indian so I'm guessing it's been there a few months at most.

Atmosphere/Feel of the place - A bit lacking if I'm honest. They have gone for the bare wood on the walls look in some places and very plain paint in others. If I'm brutally honest it looks like somebody has ordered an instant BBQ restaurant kit off the internet and chucked it in a nice old building. There was no smell of food or smoke inside or outside which I found odd and no real atmosphere inside which was a shame.

Service - You order your food and drinks at the bar once you have a table. Nothing unusual about that although they had a system where you queue from the left making your way right to order and pay at the end. In the middle the bar staff are taking drinks orders so the while queue gets confused and the woman spent half her night telling people how the queue works rather than getting people served quickly. A simple sign saying queue here or similar would probably solve that. There isn't really table service to speak of. The waitress did offer to get us second drinks when she came to check if the food was ok but as you pay at the bar we had to pay for those drinks separately rather than just getting a tab going.

Food - Down to the reason we went there, sadly we both thought the food was a bit average. I had the ribs and brisket plate which came with home cut fries and 'slaw and the wife had brisket and burnt ends. We also had a side of pit beans and shared the ribs and burnt ends so sampled a good amount of their range. They also do pulled pork and chicken as well as the usual burgers, hot dogs etc.
The ribs (bb's) were the star of the show, very tender, moist and a reasonably nice flavour of smoke and rub. I would probably have a full rack of those if I go back. The brisket unfortunately whilst very tender was dry and didn't pack any punch in the flavour department. It was also pretty grey looking so I suspect was cut a while before it was served. The burnt ends were also pretty dry and were saved by the sauce they had been cooked in.
Sides were disappointing - fries were soggy and unseasoned, pit beans I swear were Heinz with some pulled pork in and the slaw was bland.

Overall I think it might have been suffering from being newly opened and not quite found it's stride yet so I will go back in a few months and see if it's got better. The food in summary tasted ok but wasn't outstanding by any stretch and hasn't left me eager to return soon.

Of course this is all just my opinion and personal taste varies from person to person.
GingerBen
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Re: Blue Grass BBQ Reading

Postby essexsmoker » 23 Dec 2015, 13:10

It must be hard to start a new restaurant so I hope it's just a slow start for them. Personally as new restaurant owner I'd be trying to get feedback.
Silly things like a que shouldn't be an issue. But even macdonalds sucks at that and they are giants.
essexsmoker
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Re: Blue Grass BBQ Reading

Postby Mj2k » 06 Mar 2016, 18:20

I was there last week and agree with the Heinz out beans, very poor indeed. Strangely the breakfast there was better than our evening meal.

It is either extremely hard to mass cater, or I'm in the wrong job as the other 6 diners I was with all suggested my pork, ribs & brisket were far better, oh and my beans (reds recipe)
Mj2k
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