The latest addition to Le Meridien Bangkok's repertoire, Rolling Ribs Brew Bar & BBQ speaks for its name.
Set in a front corner space of the hotel, the semi-open restaurant looks like a smart blend of a vintage tavern and a contemporary BBQ joint.
The warmly-lit interior, which seats up to 50 guests at the dining tables and the cocktail bar, is decked out in red brick, black steel, dark wood and copper, with two extra large chandeliers giving it an industrial chic vibe. Meanwhile, expansive, all-open windows connect the restaurant with the outdoors.
The room is lent a luxurious touch by a marble-and-chrome prep kitchen equipped with a barbecue smoker.
The restaurant takes a cue from Memphis, one of the four barbecue capitals of the US and the host city of the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest since 1978.
Memphis-style barbecue is usually represented by pork -- smoked pork ribs and pulled pork, but can also include beef.
The meat is dry-rubbed with spices and slow-cooked in a pit fire to absorb the smokiness of the burning wood, most commonly hickory.
Rolling Ribs' menu offers a no-nonsense selection of Memphis BBQ and Southern-style side dishes as well as some house-concocted recipes.
The spicy fried wings (220 baht), that kicked off my meal, featured thinly-glazed chicken wings that had been marinated in beer-coffee brine before being dry-rubbed with Memphis-style spice mix and deep-fried. The already-flavoursome but not-so-meaty wings came with hot smoked BBQ sauce.
There are two options of nachos: pulled pork nachos and no-meat nachos (340 baht each).
Even though pulled pork is one of the restaurant's specialities, I highly recommend you go for the meatless counterpart.
Golden yellow corn tortilla chips, freshly cut and deep-fried in-house to offer a long-lasting crisp light crunch, came topped with a greenish, yet very aromatic and delicious mixture of guacamole, slow-roasted onion and capsicum, and shredded smoked cheese and melted cheddar.
For the BBQ main course, there are three American classics, two gluten-free sausages and one Thai-inspired dish.
The smoked glazed pork spare ribs (520 baht for half a rack and 920 baht for a full rack) are prepared to a Memphis recipe with dry-rubbed ribs, slow-cooked for 48 hours and served with tangy BBQ sauce.
The BBQ beef brisket (490 baht for 200g and 890 baht for 400g), another classic, features slow-cooked Australian Wagyu MBS4/5 beef brisket rubbed with dry mustard, black pepper and chillies and is smoked-grilled.
Should poultry be your preferred choice of protein, try smoky BBQ chicken (490 baht for half a chicken and 890 baht for a whole chicken), which presents free-range baby chicken brined in coffee lager and rubbed with spices and grilled to rose-hued perfection.
Sausages aren't made in-house but produced by Sloane's, one of Thailand's most respected artisan butchers. Featured are onion and sage pork sausage (340 baht) and pork & apple sausage (340 baht).
The above dishes are served with BBQ mustard, coleslaw and cheddar-jalapeno cornbread.
Other add-on side dishes (70-120 baht per item) include corn on the cob with honey butter; baked potato with sour cream, spring onions and bacon bits; hand-cut potatoes deep-fried in beef-tallow and topped with smoked cheddar; and creamy slaw with mayonnaise dill dressing.
Infusing a sweet aroma of Thai whisky into the BBQ realm, the restaurant's signature dish Mekhong BBQ pork collar (340 baht) showcases a succulent, whisky-marinated pork neck complemented by seared khao jee sticky rice, pickles, hot BBQ sauce and Thai jaew sauce.
Diners coming as a group are recommended to go for a BBQ combo platter for a full-blown, folksy experience.
A three-item meat combo (pork & chicken or pork & beef) with three side dishes of your choice, perfect for a party of three, costs 1,380 baht.
Meanwhile, a five-item All Star platter with five side dishes, enough to feed a party of five, costs 1,995 baht.
Only two choices of desserts are currently offered.
Velvety-rich peanut butter cheesecake with caramelised peanuts and chocolate sauce (190 baht) and the horizontal banana parfait with caramelised banana and whiskey sauce (190 baht) wrapped up my meal.
As a brew bar, Rolling Ribs, helmed by Le Meridien Bangkok's award-winning beverage manager, offers a nice list of creative and delicious mixology concoctions.
- Rolling Ribs Brew Bar & BBQ
- Le Meridien Bangkok
- Surawong Road
- Call 02-232-8888
- Open 5-11pm, Tuesday-Sunday
- Park on the premises
- Most credit cards accepted
