Boneyard Bistro13539 Ventura Blvd
Sherman Oaks
818-906-7427
I have known about Boneyard Bistro for about three years. But I wasn't thrilled reading the reviews of Boneyard. The high prices, the average BBQ. I was thinking Boneyard Bistro was going to be like another BBQ place, that is close by; Mr. Cecil's, a place I have no interest in trying again. But I later learned, I was wrong about Boneyard Bistro.
The owner/chef at Boneyard Bistro is a trained chef. But BBQ isn't something you learn at a culinary school. It's an art that is perfected by trail and error. As most readers know, I'm not all about the pretentiousness when dining out, especially for BBQ.
But I have had good luck with another BBQ restaurant, where the chef was classically trained, The Smokin Joint BBQ. So I decided to finally try Boneyard Bistro.
Every Monday, Boneyard Bistro, offers a half priced beer special. The beers they have are high quality beer, some with huge alcohol content. So the half priced special is a great deal. Now, the high priced BBQ.
One thing I like about Boneyard Bistro is that, on the menu he mentions that some of the meats are GRILLED. Grilling is different than REAL BBQ. Grilling is taking that Weber and cooking at high heat. Sure putting some wood chips will give some smoke flavor but that's not real BBQ.
I got the half rack of St. Louis spare ribs, with fried mac and cheese and french fries, $22. Six big, meaty pieces of spare ribs come on my plate. All with that nice pink, smoke ring!!! Very good start. I take a bite from one of the ribs. Very tender, good smoke flavor, and very little fat. What does that mean? These ribs were cooked low and slow, which is REAL BBQ. Of the six ribs, five ribs were great. One rib had too much fat, which does happen. Oh, one other thing, while these are labeled as St. Louis spare ribs, a few bones had the rib tip, see the white pieces of cartilage on some of the bones. I actually prefer my ribs with the tips on there!!! So it's not a big deal.
The fried mac and cheese, was different and I'm still trying to figure out if I like it or not.
I got the fries well done, not knowing they were the thin shoestring fries. I figured they were regular sized fries. These fries would have been great but would have been better if just cooked regularly. I'll take blame for ordering the fries well done but maybe the server could have mentioned the fries were shoestring fries. But that's not a big deal. I go to a BBQ restaurant for the meat, not some fries.
Service was very good. The restaurant was pretty busy and I didn't lack for anything.
I was very impressed with Boneyard Bistro and would go back again. Yes, it is pricey but the BBQ is very good.
