When this place opened up in SM Aura, I originally thought it was an indie-barbecue shop created by BBQ aficionados. As it turns out... this is a new concept by RACKS. It's funny... because just 3 weeks ago, I ate at RACKS with Sarah and Courtney, and we all felt that RACKS hadn't changed at all to cope with or to cater to the millennial, young market of today!
We got seated around 8PM at their SM Aura branch on a Tuesday, which was practically empty. It seemed a large group had just left, as the tables all needed cleaning. Again, we were hungry so we opted to order 2 items... and share the items on the menu.
Our table only had the Mother Sauce and its spicier variant, the Spicy Mother Sauce... so we ransacked the other tables to grab a few other bottles. We got 5 different bottles in total, and I was determined to try each sauce on the pork ribs I ordered (for Sarah, she's not really a fan of spicy sauces or dishes... so she decided to keep it simple and just use the Mother Sauce)!
They offered us a small side of pork and beans. Of course, after eating cans upon cans of this as a kid, I was so used to the taste of Del Monte's or Hunts' pork and beans. This came as a pleasant surprise, of course, when I could taste bits of the marinated pork strands. Overall, tasted great!
While this photo doesn't do great justice to the actual proportions of our food, it was really pretty sizeable! It just so happens that the rice they gave was large... and so were the accompanying nachos! Anyway, when I got to taste the ribs, it was really tender... but not like melt-on-your-plate tender, but really tender nonetheless. I tried a bite of the ribs on its own... not bad. However...... once you pair it with the Mother Sauce.... BOOM. It suddenly wakes up your brain. It was that delicious!
It tried each of the 5 sauces. All I can say is that the Hoisin variant felt a little like eating Chinese food. The Sriracha Thai sauce was an interesting blend... and that the Kansas BBQ sauce was really enjoyable (now I understand why this bottle seemed pretty empty compared to the rest). I personally love the Mother Sauce... but if you love kicks to your meals, the Spicy Mother Sauce is the way to go!
We decided to share an order of their 2-piece crack chicken. Y'know... I really loved their chicken! It was crispy... and juicy at the same time. Fortunately, Sarah gave up on hers and I got to eat more of her share later on haha!
We decided to pair our orders with some corn and mashed potatoes. From the photo on the menu, I originally thought that it would be a massive bowl full of corn kernels... I guess I didn't see the menu very clearly! It was served on these mega tiny bowls... I'm not totally complaining though, as it's practically a side order and it's just enough.
My only piece of feedback we have though was that the corn we got seemed a bit undercooked. I mean, it was grilled for sure, but there was some "rawness" to it. I think a few more minutes at the steamer would've done the trick.
We both got lemonade... and I highly recommend it! At first, I was expecting the really sour lemonade type you'd get from Aunty Anne's in the past. But not this one... it was just the right blend. Not too sour... not too sweet either! I'd totally order this again!
Overall, Rackshack offered great value for money, in our opinion. Though this is also owned by RACKS, I strangely felt that this tasted better than RACKS. Maybe it's perception... or maybe they changed the way they cooked the meats for this brand. But generally speaking, this place was really enjoyable. I had honestly passed through this restaurant several times... mostly ignoring it from the various great food options available to SM Aura. But after this great first experience, I'm definitely coming back here again next time!
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