GoodWood - Eagle and Boise

GoodWood - 2 locations. Eagle & Boise

To make this a fair and comprehensive review, I have to make some comparisons between GoodWood and their newest rival, Dave's Famous Bar-B-Que, which just opened a couple months ago on eagle Road. I will do this first as a review of GoodWood, and then I will list the pros of cons of each. In that way, you can decide which you prefer.

GoodWood has been my favorite Bar-B-Q restaurant here in the Boise area for a long time now. But a couple months ago, they got some competition. Dave's Famous Bar-B-Q. I went to Dave's several times and wrote a review of my experiences. I have since returned to GoodWood.

GoodWoods food is consistently good, which is not something I can say about Dave's. If you want good Brisket, you need to be at GoodWood. Dave's Brisket is tough, fatty and unappetizing.

GoodWood gives off the air of being a good ole Texas Bar-B-Q restaurant. Right down to the roll of paper towels that you will find on each table. Yet they lack some of, what I consider to be, the primary ingredients of such a restaurant. In any good restaurant in Texas, you will find Sweet Tea. Pronounced Swait Tae. GoodWood, like most restaurants in Idaho, seem to have failed Physics class. If they had paid attention in class, they would have learned that sugar just does not dissolve well in cold liquid. If you want good swait tae, you have to mix the sugar in while the tea it is still warm.

Wheres the okra? Another thing you will find in most good Texas restaurants is Fried Okra. If Fried okra is done right, its just about one of the best things you will ever have. Ok, I will admit it. I’m from Texas, so maybe I’m just a tad biased.

The next thing missing is Chicken Fried Steak. GoodWood has Chicken Fried Chicken, which I guess is the northern version of the Texas dish. But this just aint good enough. Com’on guys, if you are going to go Texan, go all the way or not at all.

Ok, now that I got those rants out of the way, lets move on.

GoodWood is as nice and friendly a restaurant as you will run across. The staff is eager to please and very personable. The beans here are my 5 year old daughter’s favorite food. Many bar-b-q restaurants beans taste like modified Pork-n-beans. In fact, I went to one bar-b-q place that will remain nameless.... at least for now, that severed "Ranch Style" beans straight from a can. GoodWoods beans taste like the real thing.

Their sauces are some of the best I’ve ever had. (One word here. Bar-b-q sauces are very high in salt content. How bout some bar-b-q sauce for those of us that are on low salt diets?)

There just is not a whole lot more I can say about GoodWood. Good Food, Excellent Service, Good Variety, Excellent atmosphere. If you are looking for a good all around bar-B-Q place, then GoodWood is for you!

Goodwood
Pros

• Consistent food quality
• Brisket is lean
• Good Sized Portions
• Very Friendly staff

Cons

• No pre-sweetened Iced Tea (Swait Tae)
• No Chicken Fried Steak
• No Fried Okra
• Brisket does not have an ideal smoky flavor

Dave's famous Bar-B-Q
Pros

• Very good selection of bar-b-q sauces
• Sweet Iced Tea (Swait Tae)
• Very good Ribs
• Good menu variety
• Excellent Hamburgers, even if not as described in their menu

Cons

• Food quality is not consistent - hit and miss
• Food is often served in unappetizing clumps
• Brisket is tough and fatty
• Brisket does not have a good Smokey flavor
• Food items are not served as they are advertised on the menu
• Poor Portion size
• Very young inexperienced staff that is not as friendly as they could be
  
  
  

TableRock - Boise

Tablerock – Boise

Restaurant or bar with a personality disorder?

As you approach, the brick exterior and signage gives the impression of a bar. To contrast that, the covered entry door that is set in off the street and the outside dining area take you back to thinking that it’s a restaurant. Once inside though, the confusion only gets worse. The inside of this half pub, half restaurant has an Arizona flavor, which is a bit odd for a Boise based eating establishment. The inside is pretty drab and boring with plain browns and bare walls reminiscent of a bar. Just past the bar the ceiling rises to the roof like a hole that goes upward. My wife commented that if it wasn’t for this rise in the ceiling, this place would feel claustrophobic.

My take on Tablerock is that they are trying to cater to both bar goers and restaurant goers and tried to accommodate and appeal to both crowds. In my opinion they failed to accomplish this. TableRock looks like a bar that decided it wanted to be a restaurant but didn’t want to give up the bar life.

The most noticeable feature of the interior is the huge steel beer vats that sit behind glass enclosed rooms just behind the bar. Though the restaurant and the bar are both incorporated in this one building, I did not notice the smell of cigarette smoke or the unusual noise level that I would normally associate with a bar. In the corner there sits a large popcorn machine which adds to the bar like feel. In fact, I could not help but get visions of the TV show Cheers in my head.

We began with an appetizer of their “Buffalo Bites.” The menu describes these as a boneless version of Buffalo wings with tender chicken breast smothered in a traditional buffalo sauce. I was very disappointed with what arrived, though I have to admit that my review of these may be tainted by the fact that I loathe vinegar and vinegar based sauces.

The chicken strips were not especially tender or the "light and fluffy textured meat" that I would expect from using fresh chicken. They looked and tasted like the frozen chicken strips that can be purchased from any store. They were indeed drenched in a red sauce. Now for those of you out there that like the taste of vinegar, you might love these, as my wife does. They had a very strong vinegar flavor which was very overpowering and bitter. I thought that the heat level was pretty mild, but my wife had to drink a lot of water. (On a side note, water only spreads the heat. Dissipating the heat requires a milk based product.)

For our main course I ordered the bacon Cheeseburger, while by wife ordered the Meatloaf. After we had turned in our order and waited 10 minutes or so, our server came over to our table and told us that she had to make a confession. She admitted to us that she had neglected to turn in our order. After apologizing, she went off to turn in our order. I have to give her good marks for admitting to this error on her part. She could have kept this info to herself. We would have thought the service slow, but we would have been none the wiser to her mistake.

Our meal did finally arrive and we anxiously dug in. My hamburger was one of the better ones that I have had in Boise. There were large strips of crispy bacon to accompany the large hamburger patty. The meat itself had a wonderful charbroiled flavor but was a little red on one edge of the patty which indicated to me that it had not been cooked evenly.

My wife’s Meatloaf was dripping with grease. I tasted it and I liked the flavor in spite of the abundance of grease. Again, our server (#27) came to our rescue. She noticed that my wife had barely touched her meal and came to our table. She must have noticed the grease as well, because she commented that the Meatloaf did not go over too well, and offered to remove it. She took my wife’s Meatloaf without saying much else, but soon returned. She said that he Meatloaf and the drinks would be no charge and that she hoped that we would return.

In spite of the problems that we encountered at Tablerock, we will return.

I was very impressed with how they handled the problems that we experienced. Many businesses seem to have the misconception that problems and mishaps are the end and even the talk or the admitting to such should be avoided. This is a result of poor thinking and a traditional view of sweeping problems under the proverbial carpet.

The reality is that problems and complaints should be viewed positively. Employees and businesses that admit to mistakes and problems and make restitution for those mistakes will win loyal employees. Most customers will respect that employees or that businesses honesty in admitting to the problem and going the extra mile of making some sort of restitution for their mistake. In fact static’s show precisely this.

All that to say that we will Indeed return to TableRock.

Outback SteakHouse - Nampa

Please note that your visit may produce better results than mine. Cooks can have a bad day, as can the restaurant. (Of course this is where a good manager or another form of quality control comes in. Meals should be inspected before they are severed to insure that they meet at least standards.)
It might be a cook that was in training or he might just be having an off day. The server could be having an off day.

We were greeted well and quickly seated in one of their booths. My advice at these booths. Make sure that you seat yourself to either the inside or outside of the booth. If you sit in the middle, and you are tall like me, you head will meet their low hanging lights.

We both got iced tea. (My first pet peeve. Why cant local restaurants offer pre-sweetened iced tea?) What was supposed to be iced tea arrived with very little ice in it. When I asked our waitress to please bring us some ice, she made the excuse that the ice just melted very fast. (Somehow I doubt that the laws of physics missed this place, which caused their ice to melt faster than others restaurants ice.)

The 2nd refill that was brought to us came out in a hot mug. (My first indication on their problem. Why would anyone serve iced tea in a hot mug?) The mug had cracked in several places.

I ordered a hickory burger, which was to have some nice bacon on it along with melted cheese and a tasty hickory sauce. When the waitress served it, I immediately noticed bacon looked very close to raw. I had to get the waitress to take this back and replace it with some cooked bacon.

The hamburger was over cooked, dry and almost tasteless. The hickory sauce was almost non-existent. I did like the way that the wait staff either knelt at the tables or sat with you in your booth, or at your table when they took your order. This makes it feel more like they are involved and care, than just staff that hovers over your table like a Gestapo agent.

So to sum up, my visit to the Outback Steakhouse was very disappointing. Out of a possible 10 points, I would have to give them a pretty dismal 1.

Dave’s Famous Bar-B-Q

Dave’s Famous Bar-B-Q

Dave’s Famous Bar-B-Q opened up off of Eagle in Boise a couple months ago. It seems that they are attracting big crowds. Though this may be largely attributable to the fact that its just something new.

Now, I make it a rule not to write up a review of any restaurant until I have eaten there at least 3 times.

Why you might ask? Simple.

Good restaurants can have a bad day. Bad restaurants can have good days. Also, food often varies with different cooks, at different times of the day, and even with they are busy vs. when they are not busy. So I try to go at different times and get the best overall picture that I can. And with Dave’s, I am very glad that I did.

When I first visited, I was very impressed. Our waitress was the best I have ever encountered. She was older, very warm and friendly and took excellent care of us. Our food was also excellent. But then on my subsequent visits, I started to get a different picture of Dave’s.

Every time since that I have eaten at this location since, I have been met with nothing but very young and less and than attentive or capable wait staff. In fact on one visit, our waiter told us that they were out of straws. After he left our table, we looked over at the bar, and there on the corner was a huge container filled with straws. My wife and I came to the conclusion that the wonderful waitress we had gotten on our first visit was a ringer. Someone with tons experience that corporate probably brought in just for the purpose of opening the new location.

On my first visit, I had ordered sliced brisket, which is my personal favorite. The portions were large, it was presented well on the plate and it was nice and lean. But on every visit since then, the brisket portions were small, it was put on the plate in unappetizing piles, and it was fatty and tough. Also missing are smoke rings and a black crust. Brisket that has been well smoked should have a brown to black crust. It should also have a reddish area that penetrates the meat about a 1/4 inch or so.

On one visit, I ordered their Devils Spit Hamburger. First, the good news. This is easily one of the best burgers in town. They are char-broiled 1/2 burgers and they are to die for.

Ok, now the bad news. Here is the description from their menu.
"Devil's Spit® Burger Careful, this cow kicks!
A seasoned burger slathered with Devil's Spit® BBQ sauce and topped with melted pepper-Jack cheese, jalapeño bacon and Hell-Fire Pickles."

I have eaten this hamburger 3 times now just in case the kitchen had a bad day the first time. But each time I’ve ordered it, it was the same.

• No Devils Spit Bar-B-Que sauce was slathered on the bun.
• No Hell Fire Pickles. In fact, they are sweet pickles.
• No Pepper Jack cheese. It was boring ole American.
• The bacon was hit and miss, but was never Jalapeno bacon. Sometimes it was thick and meaty; sometimes it was thin and bland.
  

This cow not only had no idea how to kick, but it didnt even have a leg to kick with !!! The burger was so not hot, that my wife took several bites. (My wife’s idea of hot sauce is Ketchup).

The ribs are good, but the portions are sometimes small and the flavor just does not seem to linger like good Bar-B-Q should. The sauces are good and well worth a try.

Now I do recommend going to Dave’s Famous Bar-B-Que restaurant and trying them on for size. But if its good lean brisket that you crave, you wont find it here.

In my opinion the best overall Bar-B-Q restaurant in Boise is still GoodWood. Hands Down!

(See my Goodwood review on this blog)