After a couple of days of allowing writing to get away from me and a few really good meals that should not go without a review, I believe it’s time to get back to business here.
In the spirit of October and those who believe that autumn brews are the best… the new place of dining is Brutopia right on Atwood avenue in Cranston. This is a place that I’d had my eye on for awhile now. With continuous whispers regarding their food I can’t deny that I’ve been curious. Even for someone who does not enjoy the alcohol side of things the way most people do. I am happy to report that I wasn’t disappointed with their dishes!
First of all, the atmosphere is nice, it doesn’t have to much of a “country kick” to it but it does have a kind of cozy and down south feel to it despite its location. The service was kind and on top of things (even though we were sat in a pretty remote and out of the way booth). He gave food suggestions being our first time there, and was quick to introduce the sauces that come in squeeze bottles for you to choose from with dinner. What we ended up with as our plates were the fried pickle chips, pulled pork sandwich, and the pulled smoked chicken sandwich. Typical decisions for a barbecue place I suppose…
Fried Pickle Chips
Not exactly the type that I’d been expecting. These pickle chips were lightly breaded and lightly fried. They really weren’t anything special. They give you a ton of them though. I think that could stand as someone’s meal and someone would be quite content with it. Though they don’t give enough ranch dressing and the dressing that they do give isn’t anything that is all that remarkable. I was not overly impressed with this but they were still okay. Perhaps next time the nachos or the butternut squash ravioli would be a better decision…
Pulled Pork
As far as pulled pork sandwiches go this meat fell apart the second it touched your mouth. The bulky roll it was on was lightly grilled and buttery adding to the flavor and the coleslaw provided a bight crunch. Paired with the honey barbeque sauce was just the perfect dressing to top this off! Though I do believe that the French fries might have been the best part of this meal. They were crispy and perfect, cooked to just the right temperature where they crunched perfectly without being burnt.
Pulled Smoked Chicken
I was pleasantly surprised by this dish. It was full of flavor, with the same easy to bite texture as the pulled pork, served on the same type of roll. All and all this dish was very good, very ordinary. Rather than paring it with the French fries though, I (as always) substituted with sweet potato fries. They were very good, of course they didn’t hold up to the ones from Rhode Rage Foodtruck (that post will come) but I doubt that anything really will! All and all it was a very good but forgettable dish.
I believe what the boyfriend said about this place was that “it tastes like summer” and went on to further explain it as the perfect place to go in the middle of winter when you need a little reminder that the sun is out there and that summer will be just around the corner. I suppose I’ll go with that and agree. And maybe next time I’ll get the mac and cheese, who can go wrong with an entry of mac and cheese anyways?
Brutopia in my opinion is a solid B.