You might question why an Englishman that lives in America would visit a barbecue joint on a visit to home shores. I view barbecue as one of the true American cuisines, it can make light work of some of the toughest cuts of meat and is a real art form to get right.
I live in San Francisco, home of some great food but sadly not great barbecue. My partner and I love barbecue so he was suspicious to say the least when I suggested that we dined here on a Sunday night. The place is divided into the top floor cafe style counter service joint with a full table service restaurant downstairs. We went for downstairs and my better half proceeded to order a little bit of everything from the menu. I decided to go for the lamb ribs which had a distinctly British accent to this Yankee cuisine. When our dishes turned up he stared at both plates suspiciously, poking and prodding at the meat with his fork checking the consistency. Undeterred he went in fork first and started working his way through an assortment of brisket, pork, chicken and of course ribs. The look slowly transformed from suspicion to delight and he revealed that he was waiting for something to "go wrong" as he motored through a plate of barbecue that you would be pleased to be served in the middle of Texas!
If I was going to nitpick i'd say the corn bread was a bit too cakey and the barbecue beans could be meatier but then that is not enough to deter it from the 5 blob rating.
The lamb ribs were melt in the mouth tender but the breast of lamb doesn't yield much meat and the cartileginous tissue that seperated the meat layers was a bit too fatty and took the sheen off of an otherwise excellent meal. Note to the chef, try barbecuing a breast of mutton as the older sheep has more meat on it and the tougher cut would lend itself well to the low and slow method of cooking.
It came as no surprise when I learned that Bodeans is the brainchild of award winning barbecue champion chef Bryan Tyrell and bespectacled Belgian food luminary Andre Blais of Belgo fame.
Long may they be successful!