THE BULL & BOAR SMOKEHOUSE GRILL ~ Belleville ON

RIP - THE BULL & BOAR is NOW CLOSED

I'm still catching up from the begining of November when I was in Ottawa. Well this particular story was when I went to Ottawa and then went to Belleville for the day. For lunch I went to one BBQ joint, and then once LJ was done work, we went to another.

If you told me Belleville had one BBQ joint, I'd be surprised. But to have TWO BBQ joints in town is down right amazing in a country that is just starting to embrace this culinary technique. Well I was told about it, which was by an excellent review by the Oshawa Ogre. Although I hadn't read the review in a while, it seemed like a good spot to stop for food.

The Bull and Boar is much more like a family/causual restaurant with lots of booths and table seating. It was kind of dark inside, and for a Thursday it seemed a bit quiet. Our server was Kristopher, who was friendly and informative about any questions I had about the BBQ or the wings.

LJ didn't have lunch, so both of us were really hungry. We decided to to a big sampling feast:

We started off with the Iron Skillet Sour Dough, which is "a sour dough loaf dripping in chipotle garlic butter with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese" ($6.99) with cheese (+$0.99). We both love sour dough loafs, but the presentation of this one is quite different than I had seen before. Usually they are a whole loaf that you tear apart (and after going back to Oshawa Ogre's review, seems to have changed) but is now slices with the cheese melted over. The melted butter, cheese and soft bread just make this wonderful.

Going to a BBQ joint means I want to do a lot of sampling. We shared "The Trough" ($18.99): "Belly up; everything including the kitchen sink is here in true Southern BBQ Style. It's loaded with all you favourite including ribs, brisket, pulled pork, BBQ chicken and sausage. We're not finished yet, it also comes with beans, slaw, fries and cornbread."

What a combo!

1. The bun. Generic. I would like it to be more fresh.
2. The Sausage. Kristopher informed me it was a pork/beef mix. The skin was crispy, the meat was tasty - this was probably my favourite part of the trough. 
3. Brisket. Sliced thin. It was a bit cold. Was better dipped in BBQ sauce.
4. BBQ chicken. Liked the skin where most of the taste lie. The chicken was a bit tough. 
5. Ribs. had a bit of pull (which is good). There was a mild pork/smoke taste. Not bad, but not great.
6. Smokin' Bull BBQ Sauce. Darker, smokeir sauce - not that sweet. Great for dipping the que into.
   
   

7. Coleslaw. It left no impressions on me.
8.  Pulled Pork: Tender, but no flavour. BBQ sauce was a must.

9. Beans. They came out in this awesome little cast iron-like pot. But the beans really turned me off. I was expecting a rich, thick, savoury bean. Instead they tasted like it was beans mixed with salsa. Maybe this is more my hang up because I expected something else, but I just didn't care for them.

Not shown are the french fries. Crispy, fluffy inside, seasoned well. Good fries.

Oh, our sampling didn't end there. We also had the Fiesta Platter ($18.99).  "Stuffed Jalapenos, Pig Skins, Deep Fried Pickles, Wings and a mound of Nachos with cheese, Pico, peppers, onions, jalapenos and baked beans."

i)   Deep Fried Pickles. Generic, but good.
ii)  Pig Skins. Standard potato skins with pulled pork and bbq sauce. I love potato skins, and if this was warm, it would have been great.

iii) Stuffed Jalapeno. Bacon wrapped jalapenos. They were cold. But it was still good. But would have                         been much better hot.
iv) Baked Beans. More salsa-like beans.

v) Nachos. Slathered on high. Lots of cheese, lots of toppings. Not a fan of pico cooked right on it, but oh well. The jalapenos actually had a nice kick.

Of course, the Fiesta Platter had wings.

The Fiesta Platter clearly doesn't represent a regular order of wings. On the platter, there are 3. I asked Kristopher how they are cooked and he said smoked, then deep fried and sauced. This is the way to do BBQ'd wings.

The big dissapointment with these wings were that they were cold when they came out. They looked great though and were nice and saucy.

In length they were about a medium, but they were very meaty chickens. The skin was crispy, and the meat was tender. After biting into them I wanted more than 3.

Sauce wise I went with their Hot BBQ. This was their  BBQ sauce described above mixed with a hot sauce. This was a nice blend that was going to be palatable and tasty to anyone no matter their heat level.  I also got a side of suicide on the side ($0.99). This was very fresh and had a good bite. It was full of chopped peppers and very juicy. Not exactly my favourite style of suicide, but lots of flavour and had a good kick.

The SCORE: I felt the Bull and Boar was all over the place. Some things were good, others ho-hum. Nothing was terrible, but the fact that both platters were half hot, half cooled down food made the experience less enjoyable. The BBQ was decent, but little stood out - I liked the ribs and the sausage. The wings were cold, and that was sad. At the same time, they were really good.  Kristopher was a good server, but I should have mentioned the temperature issues. Overall, I liked it there, and I would go back for the wings for sure. I just hope if I do, they are hotter. 6/10

The Bull & Boar Smokehouse Grill

13 Bell Blvd, Belleville ON

thebullandboar.ca

SMOKEHOUSE BLUES ~ Belleville ON

RIP - Smokehouse Blues is NOW CLOSED

While visiting LJ in Ottawa, she had to travel to Belleville for work. So I decided to tag along and look into some local history. First I went to the Belleville Chamber of Commerce and tourist info cabin. Then I went to the Canadian Forces Base Trenton which has the National Air Force Museum. After lunch I went to the Belleville Armory which has the Hastings & Prince Edward Regiment Military Museum. Then I went to Glanmore National Historic Site, a historic house restored from the 1800`s. It was an afternoon of history, learning and respect for those that sacrifice for our protection.

In that busy day, I went for lunch. LJ had to work through lunch, so I went to a place across the street from where she was. I immediately remembered Signature Blues from Wilfred Reinke, the Oshawa Ogre who reviewed it on his blog earlier this year. I was hungry and I could definitely go for some BBQ.

This is mostly a take-out joint that has a few tables and high-counter seating. I was surprised how quiet it was at lunch, but they were getting phone-in orders. The smell of BBQ was in the air, and I really had to take in the whole menu.

I was hungry, wanted to do some sampling, but not spend too much. They have your standard ribs and brisket, chicken etc, but unique items like potato nachos, sandwiches and their Pulled Pork Parfait were also tempting tasting grounds.

The good news was that I was going to be able to add whatever sauce I wanted on after I was served, because the tables all have extra sauce bottles for sampling!

Then I found the perfect combo for me: Combo Plate A

1 Pork Wing, 4 Chicken Wings, and 1 side for $13.99. 

There were lots of tasty sides to choose from:  fries (both potato and sweet potato) slaw, cornbread, etc but I thought beanse were the way to go. And boy was I right. These beans were smokey, tomato sweet, thick, mushy etc.  Hands down one of the best beans I've ever had. Perfect on a slightly cool day.

Pig Wings. Brilliant idea.

What is a pig wing? Take a meaty pork shank (part of the leg), smoke or braise it, then deep fry it and toss it in sauce. Smokehouse Blues gets their Pig Wings packaged and then just deep fry for service.

I got my Pig Wing tossed in Smokey BBQ Sauce, which is a "Kansas City style traditional BBQ Sauce with a hint of Guinness Beer".

The Pig Wing was super tender and meaty. The sauce had a nice hint of smoke, and not too sweet. This was a great wing concept and well executed.

A normal order of wings is about a pound, but I was ordering Combo Plate A where there were just 4 in an order.

The wings were smoked and then tossed in sauce. The wings looked absolutely gorgeous. Nice and saucy. too

These were pretty big wings. Very meaty. They were not crispy though. This is a challenge for BBQ smoked wings. It also lead to some very tough wings. Each bite was a difficult and I had a hard time pulling the bone from the wing. This was the only downside to these wings.

HOUSE HOT

I went with the House Hot for the chicken wings. "Our House Sauce with some heat. Starts Sweet, finishes Med Hot." This was an accurate description of the sauce. It wasn't too spicy, really a medium heat like they state. Before ordering the wings my server let me sample the sauces, and when I sampled House Hot, it had a lot more flavour, but on the wings they didn't stand out.

XXX

I also squited on some XXX on after. "Our own Fiery Hot Sauce powered with Naga Jolokia peppers." Yes, this was a spicy sauce. It too started sweet, but had a strong kick from my old nemesis the Naga Jolokia. It had multiple levels of heat.

HOUSE
I squirted a little on another wing as well. "Our own sweet, tomato based North Carolina style BBQ sauce."
They said it was sweet, and yes it was. Too sweet, too sugary for my liking.

FINAL SCORE: Smokehouse Blues is a great little BBQ joint. Staff was friendly, the food was good. I was really impressed with the Pig Wings and the beans. The wings had a good flavour, but they were tough. I liked some of the sauces, and not others, but that's ok. Next time I would have the Pig Wings for sure, but I'd like to sample some other options. 4.5/9

Plus, Belleville is a nice town with a lot of history. Go check it out.

Smokehouse Blues

300 North Front Street, Belleville ON

smokehouseblues.ca

Wahoo 2 Sports Bar - Belleville ON

RIP - WAHOO 2 is NOW CLOSED

It had been a quick weekend up to Ottawa with Mr P, him visiting Paul, and I seeing LJ. Mr P and I met up on a few occasions, but the biggest part of the trip had to be the actual road part of the trip. We left downtown Toronto at 5pm. We stopped for dinner in Oshawa, driving for what seemed like forever to find a place. The place we did eat at made us wait 45 minutes for food - so by they time we had reached Ottawa, it was about 30 minutes past midnight.

The weekend went by, and we left Monday morning. Heading to Stittlsville, everything from antique stores to the Diefenbunker were closed, prompting us to be on the road early. We travelled North to a ghost town known as Balaclava, and then South stopping at little shops along the way (see photos of the Balaclava and creepy dolls HERE). By the time we had finished running around in Belleville, it was 5pm. We didn't have lunch so we were quite hungry, but we spent a ton of time, like Oshawa, trying to find a place to eat. Having driven down the main road for the third or fourth time, we surrendered and went to a local sports pub.






Wahoo's Sports Bar was on the edge of town, with little to no competition around. Its roadhouse exterior and sports moniker made us think we were entering a jock-like environment in which we would eat quick and get out. Instead, we found the seniors hang out. Inside the seemingly small restaurant were 3 main rooms: the bar (where all the old men were), a games room (with two high schoolers) and the 'dining' room, with no one. We sat in the dining room which overlooked the Bay of Quinte.





The barmaid/waitress brought us menu's that had so much to choose from, our opinions of the place were certainly turning around. The decor was still pretty junky (crappy 90's tables and chairs, no effort into the place's appearance) but the food might have something to offer.

Jason went for the wrap sandwich - chalked full of chicken, bacon and goodness. He got it with onion rings that were cooked to my own desire, and the wrap was clearly large, almost the size of a Berlin special!



Of course, I went through the menu, ogling burgers, potato skins and other appetizers/dinner options, but of course, I went with the wings. Oh, and a Greek salad.



2007 THE SCORE 3.0: WAHOO’s Sports Bar - Belleville

STYLE:	dusted, buffalo style
PRICE:	6 for $5.99, 12 for $8.99
SAUCES:	§ mild/medium/hot/suicide § bbq § honey garlic § Caribbean jerk ($0.50 extra) § Death Wish ($0.50 extra) § Jack Daniel’s Sauce ($0.50 extra)	1/1
HEAT:	tingle - could feel it, but for suicide it was sad
SIZE:	large	3/3
WETNAP FACTOR:	dripping	3/3
CRISPINESS:	crisp	2/3
FLAVOUR:	good, sweet	2/3
SIDES:	veggies	1/3
CLEAN UP:	napkins, moist toilettes, bone plate	3/3
WING NIGHT:	Wednesday nights $0.40	1/1
OTHER:	n/a
TOTAL:	good – definitely worth stopping off the 401	16/20

The great thing about lowered expectations, is that when something good does come, its a welcome surprise. The vibe of the place didn't impress me, but the wings sure did. Big, meaty, crispy wings with the perfect amount of sauce. The dusting applied before deep frying gave it an extra crunch, and their more than decent size provided lots of wing nourishment for not an expensive price.


The sauce wasn't floating, but it certainly was enough to be slippery when holding. There was a sweetness to it, and very little heat. That was very dissapointing for their suicide. They did have a hotter sauce, Death Wish, but its just a commercial sauce you can buy anywhere.



To suppliment my hunger, I ordered a classic Greek salad. This was a monster of lettuce, cucumber, olives (one of my food nemesis') and of course feta. There was so much feta, it was a winter wonderland of a salad.

The Greek salad is overlooked all too often as a perfect accompanyment to almost any Western meal. Overshadowed by the Caesar, an excellent salad, the Greek makes up for the creamy richness found in its rival with feta and more veggies. Its a little tangy, and it won't leave your breath in a killer way when you are done.





FINAL SCORE: Despite its terrible name and less than desirable atmosphere, the food at the Wahoo is certainly enough to make this citizen of the Wing Nation want to come back if ever in Belleville. So if you are travelling East towards Ottawa, or West towards Toronto, take a stop at this great food emporium. 16/20





Wahoo's Sports Pub
449 Dundas Street West
Belleville, On