3 Splats -

Blue Ribbon BBQ
908 Massachusetts Avenue
Arlington, MA 02476
(781) 648-7427
(Suburb of Boston)


This place had great ribs — meaty, juicy, falls-off-the-bone-tasty, topnotch ribs! Just based upon the ribs alone I would suggest a stop.

Unfortunately the rest of the meal left a little to be desired. First, I’m a sauce guy - I love all kinds of BBQ sauces, sweet, spicy, vinegar-based, tomato-based, you name I like it. Until I got here. There sauces were thin, flavorless, and a complete waste of time. Fortunately the meat was good enough to stand on its own!

I had two sides — the dirty rice and the cheesy mashed potatoes (no, I wasn’t trying for healthy here). The rice has only one overpowering flavor — chili powder. That taste was so strong it didn’t matter what else they did, you couldn’t have tasted it anyway. Too bad, cause I love dirty rice. The potatoes were good if you like carrots and peas in your mashed ... I’m not a big fan. If you were willing to act like a 9 year old and pick them out though they were tasty — just enough cheese to give flavor, not enough to get overpowering. The big slab of cornbread was good, as was the pecan pie I ended the meal with.

RIBS - 7 Splats
Nicely smoked, had a nice fire-ring, and were fairly meaty

DIRTY RICE - 2 Splats
Tasted like chili powder (and that's it)

CHEESY POTATOES - 5 Splats
If you pick out the peas and carrots they were tasty

SAUCES - 1 Splat
You might as well not even consider them - YUCK!

As much as I hate to admit it - Man does not live by meat alone - without good sides or sauces, I wouldn't go back.