Bâton Rouge Steakhouse & Bar

FAMOUS FOR
- Pork Back Ribs (7/10)

BUZZ
- Creamy Potato Soup (7/10)

I ALSO TRIED
- BBQ Chicken Breast (3/10)

Went here for a business dinner, so everyone pretty much just ordered for themselves and talked shop (after 9 straight hours of talking shop!). The place has an ambiance a lot more classy than Chili's, but not as classy as a Morton's or a nice steakhouse; perhaps something closer to a Claimjumpers. It's not in the mall, but it's its own building within the mall's parking lot. It's sort of a meat place, as they do steaks, chops, ribs, burgers, and anything meaty. They also have salads with raw beef in it too. Everything's meaty.

RIBS
Don't know if I should really call it "famous," as that's just what the menu says, but oh well. I ordered a Ribs & Chicken dinner, so I was expecting a 1/2 rack of ribs and a 1/2 rotisserie chicken or something, but nope! Instead, I got like 7/8 rack of ribs and a iPhone sized chicken breast.

My ribs were a little burnt. They were "fall off the bone" as advertised, but really, what baby back ribs aren't? Despite the fact that they were burnt, the meat itself was surprisingly moist. It's just the outer edges (2-3 bones' worth) were "rib chips" and some of the other parts had a leathery exterior. Had a light smoke flavor to it, but the sauce really helped it along. The sauce was a lot more sweet than tangy, very molasses-y. They definitely didn't give me enough sauce on the ribs as is, so I had to order a side of sauce. If you dip it in the sauce, it doesn't taste good. What you have to do is, while it's hot, slather some on top of it and let the sauce heat up to the temp of the meat. Then they go well together. Otherwise, they contrast a bit, and it's not as good. All in all, very respectable effort. Nothing to write home about (even though that's essentially what I'm doing here), but I must say that their sauce, when used correctly, gets honorable mention!

CHICKEN
Chicken breast looked and tasted processed. It didn't have any sauce on it, but it was certainly marinaded in something. The breast meat was so, well, neatly packed, that it just didn't seem natural, and the added saltiness that it inherently had made me think that way too. The taste by itself wasn't really good. There was a smokey flavor, but it wasn't alone. It just had that "bought it from a grocer's freezer" taste to it. I added the extra BBQ sauce I had from my ribs, and it made it just a tad better, but I just tried to eat the whole thing real quick to get it out of the way. The sodium in the sauce on top of the sodium rich chicken breast was almost too much, but I just had to frown and bear it.

CREAMY POTATO SOUP
I read another review for this for a different location, and people mentioned the potato soup. Even though I ordered a baked potato, I got this too. Well, imagine a loaded baked potato, remove the skin, mash it, add just a tad of extra water, and voila. It's soupier than mashed potatoes, but thicker than any other soup I've ever had. What can I say, if you like baked potatoes a lot, then this is the soup for you. It's not a cream soup (like cream of potato or clam chowder) about it, but just a creamier mashed potatoes. It was fine, but nothing mind blowing. Just FYI, my loaded baked potato tasted just the same.

PRONOUNCED BAH-TONE ROUGE
This is one of those places where you can judge a book by its cover. It looks and tastes classier than a Chili's, but not even close to a real BBQ or steakhouse joint. The ribs were decent enough, but that chicken breast really sucked! Come for a casual dinner, I suppose, but don't expect anything great.

This place is hit or miss. Being in Quebec City on business and because it's close to my hotel, I ate there three times this month. First time was their prime rib with garlic mash. It was quite good. Second time was their lobster poutine. While listed as a "main entree" on their menu, the serving is quite small. They advertise "chunk lobster" but it's mainly claw meat. They say the gravy is made from their lobster bisque. If that's true, don't order their lobster bisque, as the gravy had a very BBQ sauce flavor to it. Lastly I ordered their surf & turf. Terrible!! The 6 oz lobster tail comes cut in half and is completely overcooked, the unseasoned 8 oz fillet was cooked properly but all gristle, and everything was covered in their green chimichurri sauce. Who does that to lobster??? And the entire dish was served in a bowl. Yes, a bowl. With wilted asparagus which, despite loving asparagus it was just unappealing. And for the price of the surf & turf I could have enjoyed just about anything from another nearby restaurant for less than half the cost. Service was good all three times, but they really need to work on their menu and presentation. Summary: If you're looking for steakhouse basics, that's what you'll get here. It's nothing special, nor anything close to special.

We had a really nice lunch on saturday afternoon! The staff was friendly and really helpfull. I had the creamy potato soup for appetizer and had the Seared Ahi tuna salad after. Everything was fresh and really tasty. The portion were also excellent for the price we paid..

Baton Rouge excels at ribs! However there are many other fantastic items on the menu! On this evening I didn't feel like putting my stomach into "meat coma" so I decided to have the crab bisque with a salad. The crab bisque was okay (could have had more crab meat) but generally okay! For my salad I had the chicken tender salad with mustard vinaigrette. A very satisfying larger portion salad with enough filling for the night! Restaurant atmosphere was mildly busy with nice relaxing ambiance.

I was very impressed with the friendly bilingual menu offerings and service. I ordered the chicken breast with goat cheese and Dijon which was delicious followed with creme brûlée for desert. Excellent food although a little pricey.