I Just Don't See It

Curry Boys BBQ 

Courtland Street at St Mary's

 

 A local version of a national on-line publication recently cooed about one of those click-bait lists that define so much of the internet, in lieu of actual information. In this case, it was a list of the "100 Best Places to Eat In Texas", or something like that, compiled by one of those ratings sites like Yelp or Travel Advisor or, I don't know, Google Maps? It doesn't matter. Spur-of-the-moment reviews created by two thumbs on a mobile phone's keyboard seem as far removed from thoughtful critique as Donald Trump is from George Washington.

 The highest-rated local restaurant on that list, Curry Boys BBQ, happens to be not too far from my house; and the other evening we decided to pass a few hours at the San Antonio Museum of Art, so this restaurant happened to be on the way home, and open. I saw an opportunity to try something new and different, something that a number of people, at least, seemed to like.

 As I understand it, two local restaurateurs -- one with a seafood place and one with a barbecue house -- decided to fuse their culinary experience and expertise, and Curry Boys is the result. There's a California connection in there somewhere, but to be honest I don't remember the stories I've read about the restaurant's history, and you can look it up on line just as easily as I can, if it interests you. It doesn't me. 

 So they come up with this idea, and open the restaurant, and it's a hit, and now they've moved from one pink house to a larger pink house. (I'm actually more curious about why the pink, but not enough to look that up either.) 

 The new, larger pink house is right at the southern end of the St Mary's Strip, behind Burger Boy and across from a black-painted former gas station (I'm guessing) that now houses a taco place. I didn't see a lot of parking, but there was enough. Meaning that we got a place and there was at least one left. On stepping inside, we were greeted in a friendly way by a welcoming young lady, who referred us to the menu board posted next to the order window. I noticed that several items on the menu were covered over with painter's tape, so I supposed they're out of those things. Rather than read through the remaining options, I asked the woman for the best thing they had. "That would be the Missing Link," she said without hesitation; so I ordered that. My wife chose the Magic Mushroom, and she wanted an order of edamame for us to split. We both had kölsch beer to drink. We chose a table and had a brief wait before the food was brought out to us.

last city inspection: perfect (4/23)

  The Missing Link is sausage served sliced in a bowl with rice, potatoes and carrots, the whole thing treated with a Panang curry sauce. The quality of ingredients is very good, and the quantity is completely satisfying. The hard veggies were cooked perfectly: retaining their texture but soft enough to eat comfortably; not at all mushy. And the rice, like everything else, was expertly prepared. The combination of flavours, notably between the sausage and the curry sauce, was delicious; I put that down less to the very good sausage and more to what I have to think is the best Panang curry sauce I've ever had. (For one thing, the strong flavour of peanuts, a major ingredient, was kept subtle.) And there was just enough of it to moisten and flavour everything in the bowl without producing a souplike puddle.

 My wife's Magic Mushroom was, essentially, the same dish, but with marinated mushrooms instead of sausage, and a green curry sauce instead of Panang. I had a couple of tastes of it, and found it as well-made as my own dish. The sweetness of the curry sauce was particularly noticeable, which I like.

 The only less-than-excellent thing about the food we ordered was the edamame. The pods were served in a light sauce of some kind (the menu just calls it a "Thai sauce") that seemed to lean heavily on red peppers. The pods themselves were listed as "smoked," but I couldn't identify any kind of smoky flavour about them. And they were unusually tough to get open; I finally had to try stringing them like old-style green beans, but even that didn't often work. Most of them are still in our refrigerator, awaiting a burst of industriousness that may not come.

 The ambiance of the restaurant seems to me to be going for a kind of modern we-don't-really-care funkiness. The dining room isn't large -- they may do a lot more take-out than dine-in service -- yet it has a kind of open feel to it, a relaxing space comfortably but inexpensively furnished. I suspect that if I had been there on a typical Friday or Saturday night, it would have been crowded with college-aged and 20-something patrons, but a quiet Tuesday evening was perfect for an older couple like us ... though we're neither of us as grown up as people seem to think. 

 I do have one complaint about the ambience of the place, and that is the environmental wastefulness of disposable utensils and single-use plastic cups and go-boxes. They serve the food in bowls that have to be washed; I'm not sure what their reasoning was in deciding they couldn't economically wash and re-use forks and spoons at the same time. (I'm theorizing they use a dishwasher.) I think that's enough said on the point, as these days people generally seem more aware of the damage we do with these things. (And I am old enough that I re-use the go-boxes at home. They're good for at least a trip or two through the microwave.) Also, this isn't the first time I've fixed on that topic in this blog, to no visible effect.

 The value was pretty much on target. (Two and a half chili peppers is a good rating in my calculus; if you want to know more about those ratings, look here.) With two entrées, an appetizer, and two beers, plus tax and tip, our bill came to just over fifty bucks, about normal for a night out in this town at this sort of place. 

 So yeah, I think Curry Boys BBQ is a pretty good place, and I would definitely go back (if it's not crowded and noisy). But I think Best-In-Town status is over the top. There are lots of very good places in town; this one might be all the rage right now, but in six weeks or six months the bloom will be off the rose. And I've looked at a lot of those restaurant "reviews" on those web sites, and in my view they're nothing more than glorified popularity contests. Not to be relied on for anything serious.