With checkered tablecloths, big tables flanked with benches and a leafy outdoor location, Great American Rib offers a neat all-American barbeque atmosphere—and the vegetation and overhead fans do a good job of keeping temperatures cool. (There is also an indoor space, but it doesn’t convey full-on Americana as well.) The “Great American BBQ Ribs” (B375 half-rack, B595 full) come with two sides (a choice of barbecue beans, baked potato, coleslaw, potato salad, Idaho curly fries, or corn on the cob) and either Texas jalapeno corn bread or garlic toast. You could also get a big family platter (B1,1950 or B650 for half) with nearly all the aforementioned sides, “pastramied” pork tenderloin, barbequed chicken and pulled pork. You’ll get plenty of smoky notes, charred flavors, and barbeque sauce, but the meats themselves are also seriously dried out in the process. How dry depends on the meat, but the slow-cooked “butt-kickin” chicken (B195) is unforgivably desiccated. The ribs, though firm and without juice, are much nicer. Fans of American-style ribs don’t expect fall off the bone meat anyway, and the six-hour hickory wood smoking does add flavor. What’s less acceptable is that so much of the food is boring stuff slathered in a barbeque sauce. Combine the pulled pork (barbeque sauce and fairly bland pork, B250) with a side of barbeque beans (which taste like more barbeque sauce) for example, and you won’t care how nice the sauce is. Sides aren’t particularly exciting either, from greasy curly fries to fatty coleslaw and potato salad, although we’re suckers for the Texas jalapeno corn bread. They do have a B495 all you-can-eat buffet every Wednesday (6-9pm) with ribs, skewers and burgers—a good deal for famished carnivores. Overall, this place gives an authentic experience, and the portions are pretty huge given the prices. If you’re a homesick expat teacher, you’ll be back. But if you never acquired a taste for barbeque sauce slathered meats left to dry in the scorching heat of a grill, eating here might be biting off more than you care to chew.
