Rub

Rub Smokehouse and Bar, The Gate, Newcastle
http://www.rubsmokehouse.com/

      

The Cook’s Review (February 2017)

Rub looked like a college canteen – that was our first impression of the new offering at The Gate. Big round table, cheap chairs, lots of space. Its not a bad thing, but the weird semi-diner aesthetic was a pre-cursor to a similarly disjointed evening of food.

After some discussion about portion size, we went for the #hungdrawnandquartered feasting platter, with an insane array of sides (cheese fries, pulled pork bbq beans, skin on fries, rub spiced fries, sweet potato fries, texas toast, smoked cheddar mash and pulled pork chilli fries). I also ordered the mint-choc milk shake which was immense, lovely and saw me through the entire meal.

Running down the platter pieces from best to worst? Top of the shop by a long way for me, was the whole smoked chicken. This was extraordinary and possibly some of the nicest chicken I have eaten. Every mouthful was gorgeous. The rack of ribs was great, with a true ‘bones falling out’ slow and low effect. The brisket was in generous slices and well-flavoured. The slider was … a slider. The chicken wings were cold by the time I got to them and OK. The corn dog was greasy and quite unpleasant. The pulled pork? WTF? This tasted like it came out of a can, or was mixed with tomato sauce. I like nice wet pulled pork but this was sweet and cloying in the mouth. Nope. The sides were universally praised as being at least good – my pulled pork chilli fries were a meal unto themselves.

One observation was that none of the food seemed to have any hot spice added to it. There was a lot of flavour in some of the meats but virtually no heat. The additional sauces were a ketchup, a BBQ sauce and embarrassingly, a bottle of supermarket-available hot sauce. Lots of work to be done there.

Pudding was a travesty. Black ‘Forest’ Sundae would, I think you would agree, have chocolate cake and cherry vibe? Nope, not this one. This was a strawberry sundae with some lumps of clearly shop-bought brownie and tiny little pieces of strawberry in a sea of cream and white label-esque vanilla ice-cream. Words failed us at how un-black forest it was!

Service was prefunctory. Our server was pleasant enough, but seemed to have a slight air of disdain after we asked about the size of the feasting platter portions. Value for money? Yeah, we ate for around £30 a head and were stuffed by the end.

Would I eat there again? Only for the chicken. But man, that chicken!!

 

The Aussie’s Review (February 2017)

What they did well:
The burger. Properly cooked burger, burnt ends very flavoursome and the BBQ sauce the right side of tangy. Fries where fries and the mojitos where well done.
Atmosphere:
Cheerful and bright.
What was wrong:
The dessert. Advertised as the Black ‘Forest’ sundae – turned out to be a strawberry custard / vanilla sundae. The ironic quotes around the forest bit (added by the restaurant) are completely misleading. It was a nice strawberry Sunday but in no shape or form did it have chocolate or cherries as implied in the name.

Mr Quality’s Review (February 2017)

Perfectly average fare served up at a relatively high price-point for what you’re getting. There is nothing special or interesting about this place which would make me want to return.

Drinks: Their coffee machine was apparently broken, so the Expresso Martini’s I wanted were off the menu. I started with a couple of cocktails on their 241 offer which were intensely disappointing. I noted how large the milkshake was and ordered an Oreo milkshake with a bourbon shot, which was actually quite agreeable, but at the price I would have been disappointed otherwise.

Food: We went for the four-person platter. I really, really considered the Tomahawk Pizza and going for the timed challenge, or even sharing it with someone, but in the end I decided that trying something which you’d probably want to try *after* you’ve confirmed the place is any good.
The platter was decidedly average (and extremely bland!). To go through things:
Wings: somewhat burnt and un-meaty, the sauce was a vague BBQ one on them, but overall nothing you wouldn’t pick up at an Asda rotisserie.
Brisket: Thin sliced, no real flavour to it to be honest.
Pulled Pork: Wet and juicy, but extremely bland and sweet. Had no real smokey flavour at all.
Corn Dogs: Bland and pretty flavourless hotdog in batter.
Chicken (thigh): Had clearly been smoked, but the external skin had no real spicy at all to it.
Ribs: For me, these were the best thing on the platter, they pretty much fell apart at touch, and had a decent BBQ flavour to them.

And then we had the sides, I chose Cheese Fries, which does exactly what it said on the tin of Fries with cheese over them. And the Pulled Pork BBQ beans, which were actually superior and good, but came in a very small pot

In all, effectively we each paid around £17 each for a meal which was possibly more in volume than the Pitmaster Tray (18.95) which we would have had for the same money at Red’s True BBQ, but there was absolutely no comparison in terms of quality (with Red’s being a 4 stars). One overwhelming quality that Rub has is the sheer blandness of the meal, we all commented upon it. Clearly the food has been designed to be unchallenging to the palate with no real strong flavours, which I found very disappointing.

I’m not quite sure where Rub fits then. It’s far from a decent BBQ place, though where it’s located at The Gate I’m sure it’ll get a lot of passing trade. The honest truth is though, if you’re wanting simply a “big meal” in Newcastle Lau’s Chinese Buffet is literally 100m done the road and will let you each as much as you’re able for half the price. This then is the, in my opinion, average quality, pretty bland BBQ which is trading (on the dishes sampled) on the uniqueness of some of its dishes.

The Menu itself was pretty interesting and diverse, and in retrospect (if I *had* to go back) possibly the sharing platter is one of the worst ways to evaluate this place. The burger selection for example looked pretty interesting. I think as a general “give you all your meat” GGQ house then this place is decidedly average. My advice would be if you’re going here to pick the most exciting and interesting concoction on the menu and give it a try and hopefully you’ll have a better experience than I did.

The Traveller’s Review (February 2017)

I shared a #hungdrawnandquartered platter with three others. There was some concern beforehand that it wouldn’t be enough food between us, but as it turned out I was very full by the end of it and wouldn’t recommend getting anything extra. It was my first experience of a corn dog, and I fully intend on it being my last. The slider disappeared down the throat whilst barely touching the taste buds. The pulled pork, chicken wings, and brisket were fine. The Rub free range chicken and the ribs were the standout. The latter doesn’t remotely compare with the long rib at Reds, but was still nice. The chicken was nicer here than at Reds, though.

A poor selection of condiments here, with just some very basic BBQ sauce, hot sauce, and ketchup.

The sweet was a Reece’s Pieces milkshake, which was nice enough and very filling. I don’t regret getting that ahead of anything on the dessert menu.

Whilst I don’t regret getting the platter as it enabled me to sample a wide selection of their meats, I wouldn’t return to Rub just for the quality of the food. It wasn’t bad, some of it was nice, but in in the main it was average. I came away with the impression that you would go to Rub for one of their Epic meals, and would recommend sticking to those if you decide to go.