Reviews
Big Bubba’s BBQ – Mohegan Sun Casino
— Bill Daily, The Hartford Courant
One of the things I love about Mohegan Sun and casinos in general is how time and space blur with every spin of the roulette wheel. Day becomes night, night becomes day, and suddenly you’re not in southeastern Connecticut anymore but a tropical rain forest or a downeast fish house or even a backwoods honky-tonk like Big Bubba’s BBQ.
As far as I can tell, there’s no Big Bubba. He’s as fictitious as the carefully cultivated atmosphere of red-white-and-blue Americana in the kitsch-filled dining room. But the chow is real and you get a lot of it: These gargantuan portions guarantee to bring out the Big Bubba in all of us.
But plenty has its price. Eating at Big Bubba’s can take a big bite out of your wallet. An 8-ounce Bubba Burger sells for $8.95 plain. All the extras, like cheese, bacon, chili, sauerkraut or grilled onions, cost 89 cents a pop.
Big Bubba’s BBQ offers barbecue and other Southern dishes we’ve all come to adore. There’s fried chicken, jambalaya, po’ boy sandwiches, banana pudding and all the free refills of iced tea you want.
Bubba’s barbecue is slow-cooked, moist and fragrant with hardwood smoke. You can order pork ribs, beef brisket, pulled pork, lamb, a half chicken and various combinations. I go for the “two meat” combo, choosing brisket and pulled pork. Both are good. The brisket is neatly sliced into long, tasty ribbons of beef while the pulled pork is a mess of smoky-sweet strings of meat. Both soak up barbecue sauce like a sponge.
You get to pick your own dunk from four different barbecue sauces: a vinegar-based North Carolina-style sauce; a tomatoey Memphis sauce; a dashing mustard and vinegar South Carolina-style sauce; and “Bubba’s Real Hot,” which is made with tomatoes and has a wicked kick.
Bubba’s buttermilk fried chicken is served up crisp and piping hot. While the breast may run a tad dry, the other pieces, particularly the drumstick, are moist and juicy. Ditto for the chicken and rib combo. You get an ample serving of barbecued chicken, licked with just enough sauce to make it interesting without getting too messy, and four thickly sliced pieces of “St. Louis” pork ribs.
I don’t expect much from the jambalaya and am pleased to discover it isn’t bad. The flavors are relatively clean and clear, if a bit boring after a while. The dish needs more oomph. The hamburger is of standard quality. Hot dog fans will be disappointed with Big Bubba’s hot “dawgs.” They’re too plump and too vapid. The fried oysters in the “Po’ Boy” sandwich are delicately battered and fried. They stand out, but the ordinary grinder roll trimmed with lettuce and tomato does not.
Side dishes are a Southern staple and you’ll find quite a variety here. The country greens are good — soft, yielding and sporting that faded green that can only come from slow cooking. The coleslaw has a nice vinegary kick. Cheese grits are a delicious mix of creamy grits and melted cheese. The mashed potatoes with gravy, however, are a snooze.
There’s a small selection of starters. The bite-sized “Trash Ribs” are a fun wallow. You get little 2-inch pieces of rib messy with a dark barbecue sauce. The popcorn shrimp are amusingly battered and fried. The French fries are hot, golden and delicious. You can get them served with chili, cheddar cheese or brown gravy but I think they’re good enough on their own. The onion rings are huge, thick slices rendered golden and crisp in batter. Hush puppies are disappointing squiggles of deep fried cornmeal.
We found one of the most satisfying “appetizers” was the entree-sized Bubba’s Cobb Salad. The basic greens are covered with liberal helpings of that delicious brisket, pulled pork, grilled chicken, hard-boiled egg, grated cheddar cheese, crumbled blue cheese, tomato and chopped onions.
Desserts are surprisingly good. The banana pudding is a richly textured mound of sliced bananas, crumbled vanilla wafers and cream. The pecan pie is thickly topped with glazed nuts. The sweet potato pie conjures memories of Thanksgiving, right down to the silly marshmallow topping.
I must confess to arriving at Big Bubba’s BBQ carrying a healthy side of skepticism. But it’s a fun place and the food can be tasty. I think what I choke on are the prices. Yet I still found myself won over. Like a real good ol’ boy, Bubba is capable of oozing plenty of Southern charm.
