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Dinosaur BBQ (NYC)


phaelon56

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There are some aspects to it that I would change, such as a concentration on hickory wood rather than the oak / hickory / fruitwood mix I think they are using

I believe we were told that due to current pricing and availability, ONLY hickory was being used right now.

Yes, John Stage told that to us directly.

Jason Perlow, Co-Founder eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters

Foodies who Review South Florida (Facebook) | offthebroiler.com - Food Blog (archived) | View my food photos on Instagram

Twittter: @jperlow | Mastodon @jperlow@journa.host

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My turn . . .

They had items other than pork and beef, so I felt it was my duty to try some of their southern offerings, namely the Bronzed Catfish and the fried green tomatoes with Shrimp Remoulade.

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Fried Green Tomato with Shrimp Remoulade appetizer

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Bronzed Catfish with Cajun Cabbage and French Fries

I was a little disappointed with the Fried Green Tomato, mostly because the tomato wasn't green enough. I noticed a lack of tartness, so I peeked under the crisp crust, they were a little pink, and the beginning of the ripening process stole the green flavor I was expecting. They were perfectly fried, however, and the Shrimp Remoulade was excellent. Hopefully they'll be able to source some greener tomatoes for next time!

The catfish was nicely cooked, but not overseasoned. Do you see that bit of green poking out on the left? That is the collard greens/spinach combination that you should ask for as a side -- as it isn't on the regular list, but may make an appearance as an occasional "vegetable of the day" (which is what the Cajun Cabbage was). The fries were good, crisp, skin on fries, full of potato flavor.

My favorite dessert was the Butterscotch pudding, but for those that appreciate seasonality, the Sweet Potato-Pecan pie was also excellent.

So, you've heard the wait is long, is it worth it? Yes, but it wouldn't hurt to arrive early or late and avoid it either -- heck, at least the bar isn't smokey.

Oh yeah, very good house brewed iced tea -- I was the designated driver so I only had a taste of the beer -- but the boys went through most of two pitchers.

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Will someone dare to rank and compare the pork ribs at Blue Smoke, Dinosaur, Fink's, Pearson's, Stickey's, and Virgil's?

[Aside to Jason: Doesn't BS serve both KC and StL cuts?]

"To Serve Man"

-- Favorite Twilight Zone cookbook

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Alan: I'm not sure. I've never eaten AT Blue Smoke, I've only had their ribs at the Big Apple BBQ Block Party, where they served KC cut.

EDIT: According to the menu they appear to have both:

http://www.bluesmoke.com/blue/secondary/menus_dinner.html

Jason Perlow, Co-Founder eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters

Foodies who Review South Florida (Facebook) | offthebroiler.com - Food Blog (archived) | View my food photos on Instagram

Twittter: @jperlow | Mastodon @jperlow@journa.host

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At the Syracuse location the only way to get a table without much of a wait on most days is to go mid-afternoon on a weekday or get there before they open on a Saturday. I have also been successful in getting seated quickly by having an early dinner (5:30 - 6:00 PM) on a Monday. After being open for years in Syracuse the waits seem to be as long as ever. Last winter we tried to go at 3:00 PM on a Saturday afternoon when there was an SU basketball game in progress at the dome and every other joint in downtown was empty. The Dino had a 60 - 90 minute wait for tables and they had opened at 2:00 PM that day! :shock:

Rachel - was the cornmeal coating ont he fried green tomatoes seasoned much? This past winter in Syracuse they were doping them cajun style with a good spicy kick in the cornmeal. It was different and I really enjoyed it.

As I read people's reactions to the NYC food and think back on my experiences, trying their food at various points in the evolution of their operation, I'm more impressed than ever. It appears that rather than just sit back and earn a decent living by serving up the same stuff year after year with no changes to the process, they've continued to refine their techniques, source ever better raw materials and pursue a higher standard for the finshed goods and delivery system.

If they'd just open their next branch in Charlotte NC so I can have good 'cue when I move there next year....

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Uh, Owen, I think you should be able to get some decent 'que in NC regardless of whether Dinosaur opens a branch there or not, LOL.

Jason Perlow, Co-Founder eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters

Foodies who Review South Florida (Facebook) | offthebroiler.com - Food Blog (archived) | View my food photos on Instagram

Twittter: @jperlow | Mastodon @jperlow@journa.host

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Will someone dare to rank and compare the pork ribs at Blue Smoke, Dinosaur, Fink's, Pearson's, Stickey's, and Virgil's?

[Aside to Jason: Doesn't BS serve both KC and StL cuts?]

BS does indeed serve both. Thanks for clarifying the fuel question; I guess I outsmarted myself. I thought hickory was the dominant note, but also detected something else, but I guess I was wrong.

For Q, I think pork ribs go like this:

Dinosaur

Blue Smoke

Waterfront Ale House

Pearson's

Daisy May's

Virgil's

Mo's

and then the rest...I've never heard of Fink's or Stickey's. I would point out that this list is just for pork ribs. I think Daisy May has the best beef ribs, the Waterfront the best pulled pork, "English Bob" the 2nd best brisket, and so on.

Josh

Mr-Cutlets.com: your source for advice, excerpts, Cutlets news, and links to buy Meat Me in Manhattan: A Carnivore's Guide to New York!
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Hi All

This is my first post here, and I want to give my initial experiences of Dinosaur here in Manhattan. I also have written them up in another website- so sorry if any of you are also members there, if I am repeating myself. I love good bbq, and needless to say, we here in NY are deprived. And yes- I have travelled recently to many great bbq havens to savor the real stuff.... so here goes. My first post on EG- Nadine

Ok, so where do I start? It was Saturday night about 6:45 pm, as we pulled up to Dinosaur's. I know that the restaurant just opened on Wednesday, and their hours are curtailed the first 2 weeks, but what we witnessed was astonishing. Also, please bear in mind, this location is in a very remote part of NY, and not easily accessable to public transportation.(131st Street and 12 avenue.) We go into the place, and I am not prepared, as there are hundreds of people standing ahead of us, and in the bar area, waiting for a table. Whoa!

The young lady taking names tells us there is a 2 hour wait (for a party of 3.) We decide to stay, and go to the bar. It seems as if there is a huge bar area, and a small dining room, but I will have to reconfirm this at some other time, as there were so many people. I order a ginger ale, and my friends a beer (23 different types on tap).. and we stand there. After about 5 minutes we say- are we crazy?... and decide to look at a menu, and then finally decide to take out. There is no way we could have been comfortable with all those people around us, and trying to balance plates full of BBQ. For the most part, the food I had tonight was great. We tried combo plates of Ribs, Pulled Pork, Brisket, and Chicken. I found the Ribs, Pulled Pork, and Chicken to be faultless, though the brisket I felt was not near Texas standards. We had ordered a variety of sides, and one order was not the correct one, but for the most part... all were great. My friends loved the baked beans- though I am not a baked beans person. I would be happy eating a rack of ribs, and pulled pork with no sides. My friends also tried the shrimp, and loved the sauce. Across the street, when we shopped at Fairways, we purchased a bottle of their Habenero BBQ sauce too, and my friends loved that.

So.... please I preface my findings with the caveat that we took the food home, and reheated a bit. That being said, the food was still a big success. This last year, I have been fortunate enough to to taste some great bbq in Texas- (Dallas, Taylor, Lockhart), in North Carolina- Raleigh, Wilson, and Goldsboro, and the year prior in Memphis. This bbq served at Dinosaur was just as good as the majority that I had sampled in these great bbq towns.

The menu looks similar to the one on the website, though not identical. There were fewer sides offered, and alas, the prices were higher. For Manhattan though, the value is still there!

Hopefully I will be able to return within the next month- when we have access to a car, and the hours are extended. I am so interested in hearing from others about your opinions of the food and the room layout. To me, it looked like they needed more seating! A warm welcome to Dinosaur, and may more bbq places flourish here.

Happy eating,

Nadine

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Uh, Owen, I think you should be able to get some decent 'que in NC regardless of whether Dinosaur opens a branch there or not, LOL.

Not in Charlotte unless I've overlooked it in my research. The Queen City is full of chain joints like Bubba's and also has some great soul food and southern breakfast options but I have yet to hear about a really good BBQ place there.

Yes it is an option to drive two or three hours to places like Mitchell's but not as a regular excursion for lunch or dinner.

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Uh, Owen, I think you should be able to get some decent 'que in NC regardless of whether Dinosaur opens a branch there or not, LOL.

Not in Charlotte unless I've overlooked it in my research. The Queen City is full of chain joints like Bubba's and also has some great soul food and southern breakfast options but I have yet to hear about a really good BBQ place there.

Yes it is an option to drive two or three hours to places like Mitchell's but not as a regular excursion for lunch or dinner.

Hi there.

Perhaps a shorter drive would be to Lexington, North Carolina- a bit under 60 miles from you. There you will find about 15 bbq places, and one better than the next, serving great pork bbq. The 2 best that I found were Smokey Joes, and by far the best- Lexington #1, aka HoneyMonks. They are extremely well known, and worth the trip. Great chopped pork, and hush puppies.

You had mentioned Mitchells, which is great , but right near Mitchell's is Parkers, that also has great bbq, and the best fried chicken I have ever had.

Hope you find it helpful- Nadine

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Thanks Nadine. That's very helpful . A bit under 60 miles is okay for a Saturday afternoon jaunt but it's still a hike. I guess that means Charlotte is still ready for some really good barbecue right there in town.

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JHlurie, Rachel, my brother Brandon and myself went to Dinosaur this evening and had some mighty good 'cue.

Since we are all stuffed and are about ready to pass out, here's the link to the album with all the pics:

Dinosaur BBQ Photos (Click Here)

Here's a few to get you started. My apologies for the washed out look, I had to use flash inside there for most of the photos, and for the ones I didnt use flash on, the light was so low that we ended up having to overexpose the shots, so they came out slightly blurred.

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Heavy report tomorrow. Now, sleep.

I had to laugh -- tell me you didn't snap a picture of John using the bathroom. :)

verysleepy, I have to disagree on the public transportation (or lack thereof) that you mentioned. Taking the 2/3 to 96th St and then switching to the 1/9 should get you there in no time; the M4 and M104 buses also make stops at the corner of 125th and Broadway.

I won't comment on the food there, since I actually work the line -- suffice it to say that now it's clearer to me who all these various folks were that came around with cameras while we were cooking. :)

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brooklyncook,

Welcome !  Love to see people in the business on egullet.

Thanks!

I'm one of the "Rochester transplants" that work there -- I moved down to Brooklyn at the beginning of July, but was offered a job in October. Great place to work, no question -- definitely beats my previous cooking job in TriBeCa.

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I had to laugh -- tell me you didn't snap a picture of John using the bathroom. :)

Ummm... actually...

Jason Perlow, Co-Founder eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters

Foodies who Review South Florida (Facebook) | offthebroiler.com - Food Blog (archived) | View my food photos on Instagram

Twittter: @jperlow | Mastodon @jperlow@journa.host

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About the location vis a vis mass transit. Get off whichever train line you are on (someone outlines the appropriate ones above), at 125th and Broadway. Walk one block west, turn left onto 12th. Dino BBQ is about 1 block up the right. It's weird the way the roads intersect up there, but it really is only a two block walk from the (elevated) subway stop.

I hope they work out some kind of parking arrangement with Fairway. There was this huge lot right across the street, with big "Fairway only" signs, and a get preventing people from accessing 12th. But I didn't have trouble parking our (big) car on the street, less than 1 block from the restaurant, at 9 PM on Saturday.

Regarding the fried green tomatoes, I didn't notice any Cajun seasoning on them, just a sprinkling of grated parmesan cheese.

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Dinosaur Barbque is only about a block and a half from the 125th St subway station on the 1/9 line. Not a long walk at all.

Mary

This is a point of confusion for most people, because of the 131st street address. The streets don't run exactly parallel in that area, so it's not clear unless you know that part of town. But if you know where either Fairway or The Cotton Club is... Dinosaur is within spitting distance of either.

It almost feels like they inherited the space in the current state, which is a big compliment. (Though they probably spent hundreds of thousands on the interior...)

At least one feature of the interior is "original equipment"--the cement pylons holding the place up. :laugh: Curiously enough, it somehow manages to look good and proper. They've done a lot of painting and decorating, but it also looked like they intentionally distressed the pylons a bit (as well as any paint they put on them) so it didn't look too neat and pretty.

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Jon Lurie, aka "jhlurie"

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And they're apparently closed on Monday, leaving us eating pizza at Patsy's and jonesing for pulled pork, damn it. :angry:

K

Basil endive parmesan shrimp live

Lobster hamster worchester muenster

Caviar radicchio snow pea scampi

Roquefort meat squirt blue beef red alert

Pork hocs side flank cantaloupe sheep shanks

Provolone flatbread goat's head soup

Gruyere cheese angelhair please

And a vichyssoise and a cabbage and a crawfish claws.

--"Johnny Saucep'n," by Moxy Früvous

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Jason put the link to a scan of their takeaway menu (there's a few more offerings on the in-house menu, catfish and boiled shrimp, for example) on the first post of this thread -- the hours are on there. Meanwhile, for this page, here they are:

  • Tues-Thurs: 11 AM - 11 PM
    Fri & Sat: 11 AM - Midnight
    Sun: 12 PM - 9 PM
    Closed Monday

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Jason put the link to a scan of their takeaway menu (there's a few more offerings on the in-house menu, catfish and boiled shrimp, for example) on the first post of this thread -- the hours are on there. Meanwhile, for this page, here they are:
  • Tues-Thurs: 11 AM - 11 PM
    Fri & Sat: 11 AM - Midnight
    Sun: 12 PM - 9 PM
    Closed Monday

Hi Rachel- what is important to know though, that until the 14th of this month- they have curtailed hours, and they do not open until 430p. Well- that is what they had told me.

Thanks

Nadine

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I was talking to some of the bartenders the night I stopped by for a drink. They said that they were hoping to extend the hours again after the first of the year. They were also hoping to have some live music in the new year, although this location does not have a stage.

Mary

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