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View the Robin's
Woodfire BBQ & Grill Menu
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Storefront - note tribute to Pat Tillman on marquee. Look real close,
you'll see part of the patio area used for outside dining |
That's regular coleslaw, blue-cheese walnut coleslaw, blueberry bread with
blueberry butter |
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Big
basket of beer-battered onion rings |
Skins, no bacon bits here, just real chunks of sliced bacon |
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Neither Katie nor I like mushrooms, but we liked these enough to make
omelettes from the leftovers |
The
beans have big chunks of meat and bacon in them |
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We'd
already taken some food out of this when I remembered to take the picture,
believe it or not, it actually comes with more than you see here |
Kid's
grilled cheese. Never should have ordered this, we had way too much
for one sitting |
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We
had a sundae |
In
case you're wondering, that's steam rising off the apple skillet dessert |
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In
the overhead shot, you can see the whipped cream and apple filling bubbling
up |
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DOT COM DINING A Look At San
Gabriel Valley Restaurants by SanGabrielValleyMenus.com
Robin’s BBQ in Pasadena –
WOW!!
By Bill Coburn
“I really want to have the best, or at least one of
the best, rib joints in So.Cal. I learn something new about BBQ almost everyday,
whether it's a menu, a decoration or a marketing idea.” That’s Robin Salzer
writing me in an e-mail last week. Well Robin, I think you’re there, though I
have to admit I haven’t experienced anywhere near all of the rib joints in So.
Cal.. But of the ones I’ve tried, you’re right there. Instead of WOW, I almost
headlined the column “OH - MY - GOD.” But I thought in this PC world, I’d lose
the agnostics. And they (you) shouldn’t be deprived of trying Robin’s because I
picked the wrong headline.
Robin’s Woodfire BBQ and Grill, located at 395 N.
Rosemead Blvd. [(626) 351-8885] is a great place to eat. The food is really
good, from appetizers, to sides, to entrees, to desserts. The atmosphere is
fun. The walls are decorated with all kinds of fun things. Signs that go back
to the 1920s and 1930s, “I learned how to use a computer buying this stuff on
E-bay” Robin said. Not just the usual stuff that every bar has, the Clydesdales
and Silver Bullet neons, but new and old ads for beers like Pabst, Schaeffer,
Schlitz, etc. I especially like the hallway to the bathroom. There’s a wall
that displays “Places to Go in Pasadena.” Now you’re expecting you’re going to
find pictures of the best that Pasadena has to offer, suggestions of famous
tourist attractions. But the pictures are of the bathrooms you’ll find in some
of the best tourist stops that Pasadena has to offer. Maybe I have an odd sense
of humor, but I found that quite funny.
The menu itself is fun. There’s a large section of
one page dedicated to Robin’s Rules. Here are a few of the many rules, to give
you an idea of the “concept” of the place. “If you’re drinking to forget,
please pay in advance.” “Robin’s is run for the enjoyment of our guests, not
for the convenience of our staff or owner.” “Invite us to Tahiti and we’ll
close this joint in a minute.” “If you’re a single diner and are greeted with
the expression “Just one?” dinner is on us.” “No shoes, no shirts, no pants, no
service. But you can take it to go.” “Guess what happens if you share one of
our “All You Can Eat Nites?” That’s right, you each pay full price.”
Regarding their All You Can Eat Nites: Sunday is BBQ
Chicken and Ribs, Tuesday is Wood-fired Spare Ribs, Wednesday and Friday is Beer
Battered Fish Fry and Thursday is Wood Fired Jumbo Beef Ribs. For details, see
the menu (web address below).
Anyway, to get back to the food – you can peruse the
menu for Robin’s by telling your browser to go to
www.sangabrielvalleymenus.com/robinsbbq, and you’ll see that they offer a
varied selection. We tried the following: blueberry bread with blueberry
butter, traditional coleslaw, blue cheese walnut coleslaw (I really enjoyed it,
and that really shocked me since I don’t eat blue cheese, haven’t since I was
like eight years old, when I decided I hated it), side of beans (chunks of meat
and big chunks of bacon), Beer Battered Onion Rings, Sautéed (in garlic)
Mushrooms (Katie and I both dislike mushrooms, but we not only ate these, we
made mushroom cheese omelettes with the leftovers the next day), Potato Skins
(plenty of potato on the skins, melted cheese and lots of bacon), the Garbage
Can Combo (ensemble of ribs, hot link sausage, bbq chicken and tri-tip), a Big
Messy Hot Fudge Sundae, and the Apple Sizzle. Yes, this was a lot of food for
one meal, for those who are wondering, my pants that used to be loose, no longer
are.
Of course, you probably won’t be trying all these
items in one sitting, unless you go in with a lot more than we did, just the
three of us. I think the Garbage Can could probably feed four people. We took
a lot of food home. And had dinner the next night, lunch the day after. And of
course, the breakfast omelettes I already mentioned, (though we had to provide
the eggs and cheese on our own).
So back to the food – blueberry bread, with
blueberry butter was really good. I have a weakness for blueberry stuff, and
this was really good. I enjoyed the regular coleslaw, not too sweet, though
there was a hint of something sweet, and the blueberry walnut coleslaw, shocked
me, as I said. The beer battered onion rings, a big order, with just the right
combo of batter and onion, cooked golden brown. The Garbage Can was really
something. The hot links were unlike any sausage I’ve had before, they were so
tender it was like they melted in your mouth. The tri-tip, as I was cutting it,
I said to Katie that it seemed a little tough, and she said wait till you eat
it. She was right, it cut tough, it chewed tender. The ribs, baby back, short,
spare and beef were meaty and delicious. And a note for those of you who are
sensitive about your BBQ. It says right on the menu, “the real measure of true
BBQ is how it tastes without the sauce, so if you prefer the hickory smoked
flavor of ribs without the sauce, just ask your server to please bring me my
bones dry!” They do put a lot of sauce on (the menu uses the word smother), so
if you don’t want a lot of sauce, ask them to bring the sauces on the side.
That way, you can put on just as much as you want. I didn’t do that. Despite
numerous passes with napkins, and the piping hot wet napkins personally
delivered to our table by Robin, for some reason our dog, Tux, was happy to give
me (and my beard) lots of kisses that night.
Robins offers four sauces. There’s Robin’s Tangy
Original, there’s the Memphis Red Vinegar Style, the Smokin’ Spicy Mad Dog,
(that has some heat, my personal favorite), and the Carolina Sweet Mustard
sauce. Robin, who knows a lot more about this BBQ stuff then I do, said that
these are the four main, popular, types of sauces, associated with their typical
geographical areas. The Robin’s sauce, is, to my understanding, associated with
the most common, the St. Louis, Midwest area BBQ sauce.
And the desserts. WOW (yes, I just said Oh My God
again). The sundae, what can you do to a sundae, right? Vanilla ice cream,
fudge sauce, whip cream, nuts, a cherry? Well they have their own unique way of
dishing it up. You know how usually you have to dig down to the bottom of the
goblet to get some fudge to go with the ice cream and the whip cream? Our
goblet was covered with the fudge sauce. No digging, just run your spoon along
the side of the glass. (Digging will work too, there’s plenty of fudge inside
the goblet, as well as on the outside). And the apple sizzle (apparently also
available without the sizzle). You know those black skillets that you get
fajitas on? Same skillet, same sizzle. But it’s apple pie, with ice cream,
whipped cream, and cinnamon powder sprinkled on top. This is one heckuva
dessert folks. I worked five years at a place known for their pies, and we had
nothing to compare to this.
Robin’s has a catering menu, and does lots of large
events, street fairs (250 or so a year). Robin ran Robin’s as a coffee
shop/dinner house for 18 years, three meals a day, before he decided it was time
for a change (about four years ago), that he wanted to re-invent it, make it
new, keep it fresh, and decided on making it a rib joint. He still has a
breakfast menu on Saturdays and Sundays only, (we don’t serve breakfast, we
serve “morning food”) with 99 cent mimosas and bloody mary specials. But I’m
glad he decided to make the change, ‘cause I think it’s great just the way it
is.
Bill Coburn is owner of SanGabrielValleyMenus.com, a
restaurant website featuring dozens of restaurant’s menus, as well as
downloadable coupons. He has nearly 20 years experience in the restaurant
business, and has been eating for much longer than that. |
