October, 2005

Rating : 7 out of 10

The Tariff : Dinner for 1

• Slab of ribs
• 2 beers
• Dessert
• tip
• $43

You wouldn’t expect a place with a waterfront view and with “boathouse” in its name to be known for its ribs. This one is. In fact, it not only claims to be the biggest seller of ribs in the USA, supplementing its in-house business with sales all over the country. So if you eat here on a business trip (as I did) and decide you can’t live without them, the Montgomery Inn will send you their ribs in a Styrofoam container packed with dry ice along with their branded barbecue sauce.

Food

How were the ribs? The full slab of pork ribs ($22) is big and smothered in their barbecue sauce. The fact that Montgomery Inn doesn’t even set the table with steak knifes should be an indication how tender they were. Even a dull knife would work as the ribs were cooked to softness and quite literally falling off the bone. So if you like your ribs this way this is your kind of place.

But I prefer less sweetness as I get older and the sauce that was drenching the meat was a bit too much for my tastes. It overpowered the taste of the pork. Still, this may have been one the 5 best rib dinners I’ve ever been served in a restaurant (the one to beat is Corky’s in Memphis with its dry rub ribs http://www.corkysbbq.com/).

Salad and a side dish come with the meal. I forgot to say “dressing on the side” and got way more blue cheese dressing that I could deal with. The French fries were quite good.

I reluctantly left a few ribs on the plate as I wanted to sample the desserts. I got the carrot cake upon the recommendation of the waitress. It looked like every other carrot cake complete with the cream cheese icing and the little orange carrots (who makes those things?) but was delicious and moist, so good I could have eaten another even though I was quite full.

Service

The host seated me promptly and the waitress was charmingly servile. I couldn’t have asked for more.

Ambience

The restaurant is set in a beautiful riverfront park. The place is huge. So big that a small army of valets is on hand to park your car and 3 people manned the reception. A curved outside wall makes for great views of the Ohio River. Most of the clientele seemed to be over 50, so it may not be the best place for young couples looking for edgy and hip. It does seem to be an old style, big portions, fancy sort of place that your parents would keep coming back to.

www.montgomeryinn.com