“The
preparation of good food is merely another expression of art, one of the joys
of civilized living…”
― Dione Lucas
― Dione Lucas
RATTLER’S
BAR B QUE
26495
GOLDEN VALLEY ROAD
SANTA
CLARITA, CA 91351
661-251-4195
11:00
AM to 9:30 PM Sunday through Thursday
11:00
AM to 10:00 PM Friday and Saturday
Happy
Hour 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM Monday
through Friday
We started out a bit later than usual for the drive to
Santa Clarita, but that worked out since the traffic was lighter. That side of Santa Clarita is still “out in
the country” and the drive from the freeway to the shopping area of town seems
to be in the middle of nowhere at night.
The location is in a relatively new shopping mall just past a Sam’s
Club. There are a couple of rather
noticeable gas heaters in the outside waiting area that show a spectacular
flame but don’t seem to put out much heat. The interior is done in a Southwestern
contemporary design with a repetitive theme of old cowboy boots decorated with
paint and “jewels” that are spread around the room. The designer must have gotten a good buy on
those boots. An amply stocked bar is in
front of the line with the semi-open kitchen behind. The only discordant note is a somewhat Damoclean
assemblage that hangs over the interior of the entry. It is a three tier assembly loaded with
colored glass containers. It seems
sturdy enough for building and safety but didn’t make any sense to us.
The host seated us at a booth with a very practical and
contemporary table top of wood bordered stainless steel. The setups are real flatware wrapped in black
real cloth napkins. The only other table
furnishings were salt and pepper shakers and a coffee shop style syrup
dispenser filled with and overly sweet barbecue sauce. (In the interest of full disclosure I did not
ask if they had other sauces.) Our
server arrived promptly and took our drink order. Sharon ordered water and I ordered ice
tea. Both arrived in quart sized Mason
jars.
The menu provides a good selection of appetizers, salads,
burgers and sandwiches but seems somewhat limited in the barbecue
selection. The only meats on the
barbecue plates are Baby Back Ribs, Prime Beef Ribs, Tri-tip, BBQ Chicken, BBQ
Chicken Breast, and oddly enough, Salmon.
Combination plates are two or three meat and do not include the
Salmon. This made it easy to decide
quickly on our orders. Faced with a
choice of only five meats (four since two of the selections are chicken) Sharon
ordered a two meat combo with Baby Back Ribs, and Tri-tip and I ordered a two
meat combo with Prime Beef Ribs and BBQ Chicken Breast. The sides are also somewhat limited so I
ordered Twice Baked Mashed Potatoes along with Nutty Coleslaw and Sharon
ordered Baked Beans along with Macaroni and Cheese. The Macaroni and Cheese is a “Specialty Side”
and there is an “up charge” when you order it along with a meal. While we waited for our order our server
brought a basket of garlic rolls. The
food arrived before we finished the rolls.
After we sampled the que we ordered a small portion of Triple Chocolate
Blackout Cake for dessert.
Garlic Rolls
The garlic rolls should have been quite delightful. They are baked in-house from commercially
supplied dough. Then they are dipped in
garlic butter, dusted with parmesan cheese and finely chopped parsley. The parsley is a bit disconcerting since it
is so bright green that it looks like colored sugar for cookies. Unfortunately, while they were acceptable,
they did not quite have the flavor you expect from freshly baked rolls.
Nutty Coleslaw
This is an “A-“ coleslaw.
It is multiple cabbages with green onion in a spicy vinaigrette
dressing. It was not overly wet and my
only complaint was that the dressing could have had a little more spice. I found it just a bit timid. In spite of that, there are many other
places, barbecue and otherwise, that could learn to make coleslaw from this
one.
Twice Baked Mashed Potatoes
Mashed potatoes with barbecue? Yes, if they are these mashed potatoes. These are so good that I am going to try this
method at home.
Macaroni & Cheese
As a specialty side this comes in a generous
serving. The pasta is cooked al dente,
and mixed with a creamy white cheddar sauce that seems to have a slight hint of
garlic and onion powder. This is
similar, though not as rich, to the mac and cheese served at some other
barbecue restaurants in the area. It’s a
good, competent mac and cheese but falls just short of great.
Baked Beans
This is a conventional side of baked beans in a somewhat
too sweet sauce. It is nothing to write
home about.
Baby Back Ribs
The ribs had a puzzling skin on the back as though the
chef had not pulled the silver skin off before putting it in the smoker or on
the grill. This made them very hard to
separate even with a sharp knife. The
meat was fall off the bone tender which made this even more difficult since
when you try to put a knife between them the meat falls off the bones into the
plate. Now I know that mesquite smoke is
more subtle than most of the woods used in barbecue smoking but despite the
tenderness of the ribs they didn’t taste as though they had been anywhere near
a smoker. Baby Back Ribs should not
disappoint, but these did.
Prime Beef Ribs
Another disappointment, these ribs were tough, a bit dry,
and surprisingly for an upscale barbecue place, actually stringy. Tough beef ribs don’t allow the flavor to
come through. You would expect a big
beef flavor, but it wasn’t there. They
just weren’t what I would call prime.
Tri-tip
Now this looked promising. It wasn’t sliced too thin, in fact it wasn’t
sliced but was a nice chunk of tri-tip.
The fact that it was a bit hard to cut with a steak knife was puzzling
since it certainly was not tough to chew.
While it was tender to the tooth it did not have a visible smoke ring
and the flavor showed it. We were
beginning to wonder if our taste buds had taken a vacation.
BBQ Chicken Breast
It tasted like a good grilled chicken breast. It was tender and done though, but had only
the slightest hint of smoke. It was more
flavorful than the baby backs, but not by much.
A better than average grilled chicken breast but not great as barbecue
chicken.
Triple Chocolate Blackout Cake
This is a tall but average commercial “Death by Chocolate”
cake. It is kept refrigerated and served
cold. The small portion was more than
enough for two so we took it home. The next
day, after a few seconds in the microwave to bring it to just above room
temperature it tasted better.
When you walk into Rattler’s you are favorably
impressed. The surroundings are clean
and contemporary, the staff is young, bright and helpful, and you are set up
for a good experience. Unfortunately,
the que doesn’t live up to the expectation.
While mesquite smoking can be subtle, compared to woods used by other
pit masters, in this case it is just plain bland. We came out feeling that we had been to a
Stonefire Grill with proper table service.
It didn’t seem to be barbecue. Not
only that, but we experienced a bit of indigestion later in the evening. Now indigestion is not necessarily the result
of what you just ate. It can be caused by
food you had eaten as much as seventy-two hours earlier. Unfortunately, when I tried the leftovers the
next day I experienced the indigestion again.
It still could have been me and not the food, but even giving them the
benefit of the doubt on that we still can’t rate them over a five for the que that night. While they have been in Santa Clarita for
over twenty years they are really have to improve the que now that there is a
Lucille’s close by.
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