If you have ever wondered what it’s like to eat at Chilis, well now you can easily find out.   Smokin Joe’s bills itself as providing “authentic wood fired, pit smoked, glatt kosher BBQ”.  As I have not always been kosher and have actually many times had authentic wood fired, pit smoked non-kosher BBQ, I have to humbly disagree with their assessment that this is “authentic BBQ.”  I think if you went to a real BBQ pitmaster down south you would get something very different.  This is the type of “authentic” BBQ you might get at Dallas BBQ in times square or, as mentioned, Chilis.  Get yourself a bag of woodchips, a gas grill and a bottle of Heinz BBQ sauce and you’ll come out pretty close. 

So we went to Smokey Joe’s on a Monday night around 8pm.  It was pretty empty and we got seated right away.  The décor is very commercial and casual, like any non-kosher chain restaurant.    There’s butcher paper on the table instead of a tablecloth, paper napkins etc..  It should not be a problem to bring kids to this restaurant, there’s actually a lot of free space that encourages kid exploration.  The waiter immediately brought us a basket of cornbread and some onion jam.  The cornbread was too sweet.  The onion jam on its own was decent, basically tasted like caramelized onions pureed with some sugar and water into a jam.  The jam would have been o.k. on a cracker or other bland bread, but the sweet jam with the sweet cornbread was just too sweet.   All that sweetness also doesn’t do much for the appetite.   A little basket of chips and salsa probably would have made me happier and inclined me to eat and drink more. 

None of the appetizers looked too appealing to me (onion blossom, wings, guacamole) so I decided to try the Aztec Corn Soup.   Although there were visible pieces of pureed corn, the soup did not have much flavor.   The soup also had a very pale yellow color and did not look very appetizing as there was no garnish on the plate at all.  They really needed to create some color and distraction, add some cilantro, fresh corn or toasted pumpkin seeds on top…anything to make it look better.   The flavor also needed to be amped up, throw in a few roasted poblanos, some chile oil or even just some garlic to give it a real kick of flavor.

I was really here to try the BBQ so for our entrées we got the brisket, chicken and sausage sampler platter, with the mashed potatoes and the three rib platter with the tex-mex potato salad.  Both entrees also came with cole slaw.  The sampler platter was composed of one lamb merguez sausage (size of a typical breakfast sausage, i.e. small), 4 slices of brisket covered in bbq sauce and a leg/thigh piece of chicken covered in bbq sauce.  All three items were pretty tasty, the primary problem with them though is that they were covered in a too sweet bbq sauce.  The bbq sauce was unnecessary and masked all of the hard work that went into smoking these items.  I would have preferred if they simply offered a bottle of sauce on the side.  The sausage was too small but it had good lamb and herb flavor.  Once I removed the skin, and thus the bbq sauce from the chicken, I found that it was nicely cooked and had a very pleasant smoky flavor.  The brisket was nice and tender and not too fatty, great flavor but again I wish they had skipped the too sweet bbq sauce so I could really get all the flavor of the smoker.  The mashed potatoes came in a separate small plate and looked very lumpy,  but they were actually quite creamy and had a strong margarine flavor.  Some good gravy would have really hit the spot.  The coleslaw was typical coleslaw.  The ribs were very large but as with most beef ribs only had a relatively small amount of meat on either side of the bone.  The ribs were unevenly cooked but the well cooked meat was deliciously fatty and smoky but also covered in bbq sauce.  Again, eliminating the bbq sauce would have made it better.  The big surprise of this dish was the tex-mex potato salad.  There was nothing really tex-mex about it but it was perfectly cooked cubed potatoes with a healthy dose of green onions and mayo.  The texture was perfect, not dry but not too mayonnaisey and the green onion flavor was delicious.  Definitely the best part of our meal.  We skipped dessert as none of it looked too exciting.

Our total bill came to almost $60, excluding tax and tip.  We didn’t have any leftovers but the portions were fine and we definitely left full.  In the summer, I’ll probably stick to my own bbq.  But in the wintertime, when I’m in the mood for some BBQ, I may head to Smoking Joe’s and I will probably just tell them to hold the barbecue sauce.

Smokin Joe’s Tex-Mex Barbecue, 494 Cedar Lane, Teaneck, NJ -      201…     www.smokeyjoesbbq.com

If you have dined at Smokey Joe’s please feel free to post your thoughts in the comment section below.

Yes, it was formerly the Pasta Factory and now its meat, not dairy as Pasta Factory was, and they have a liquor license.  They make a pretty good apple martini, it tasted just like a sour apple Jolly Rancher, as it should.  We hit Nobo on a Sunday night at around 8pm.  There were many diners but we did not have to wait for a table at all.  The atmosphere is very nice and upscale at Nobo. I would say there is a neat casual dress code, the décor that of exposed brick and candlelight.  There is a kids menu but this is not a place to bring the kids. If the kid can sit at the table and eat like an adult, o.k. but bringing a handful and having them wandering around and kicking chairs is not going to work.  This is the business lunch place, the date night with your wife place, the third date that you want to impress place.  

If you go to their website you are greeted with a photo of a really great looking focaccio and tomato tapenade.  These wonderful looking items did not greet us when we arrived at our table. We were provided with some warm rolls that did appear house made and a jar of good olive oil (I later noticed that other tables received butter/margarine, we did not).  These were perfectly fine but some sort of tapenade would have more appropriately whetted our appetites.  We ordered two appetizers, the Smoked Chicken Pot-Stickers with sautéed spinach & lemon salsa verde and the Crispy Veal Sweetbreads with lentil, sage, dried apricots & crushed peanuts.  I understand that the pot-stickers are a popular item on their menu, however, I found them to be very lacking in flavor.  The filing tasted predominately of red pepper and olive, not what we were looking for.  The sweetbreads were a much more successful dish.  The sweetbreads were oddly cut into little pieces but were nicely caramelized and had great flavor.  The lentil salad that accompanied it was probably the best thing I ate all night.  I did not detect any peanuts but the other flavors, lentils, onions, apricots all worked beautifully and together really created something special. 

For our entrees we ordered the Braised Beef Cheek Gnocchi with carrots, parsnips & arugula in a dark beer orange reduction and the Pan Roasted Chilean Sea Bass with orzo, olives & spinach in a saffron broth.   Nobo has many steaks on their menu, all of which looked quite good, but I wanted to order items that were unique and showcased the chef’s hand.  Unfortunately, both of these dishes missed the mark.    The gnocci dish was particularly surprising.  I pictured soft pillows of gnocchi coated with the reduction and soft braised beef cheeks on top, with the roasted or steamed baby carrots and parsnips on the side.  What I received was a big pile of stew, with cubed pieces of carrots and parsnips, cubes of gnocchi and shreds of beef cheeks all mixed together.  On the bottom of the bowl was a slightly sour wine tasting sauce.   We didn’t finish it.  Good idea, poor execution.    The sea bass had a similar outcome, the fish was fresh and nicely cooked.  Good crisp outside and nice and moist on the inside.  The orzo it was sitting on was inedible.  I believe I only took one bite and it tasted strongly of uncooked wine and thyme.  It was probably just the saffron broth.  If the chef had merely sautéed the orzo with spinach and olives and some salt & pepper, it would have been a winner.

Nobo has an extensive dessert offering and we tried the special that night, a warm sticky toffee pudding cake with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce.  It was quite good.  The vanilla ice cream was a little strange, but how could it not be, it’s parve.  But together with the warm spiced cake it worked well and was excellent for a parve dessert cake, which are usually dry and lacking flavor.

The overall dining experience at Nobo was good, the restaurant is clean and beautifully decorated.  The staff is cordial, professional and attentive.  We did not have to wait for a table and all of our food came out very promptly.  Our bill came to about $100, without tax or tip, which I think is very reasonable for the type of food they are looking to execute.   I would dine at Nobo again, but with regard to entrees, I would probably stick to some of the simpler dishes, like the steaks.   The steaks are a little pricier ranging from $28 to $48, but looked quite large.  They also have a very extensive wine list.  I am not a wine drinker but if you are this would be a great place to try out a variety of kosher wine.

Nobo Wine & Grill, 1400 Palisades Avenue, Teaneck NJ -        (201) 837-1000        – www.nobowineand grill.com

If you have dined at Nobo please feel free to post your thoughts in the comment section below.