Rattlesnake Bar & Grill Review

Rattlesnake shakes up menu
By Mat Schaffer | Friday, June 12, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Dining Reviews

RATTLESNAKE BAR & GRILL: C

There have been changes at Rattlesnake Bar & Grill - Brian Poe, former executive chef and food and beverage director at Seasons restaurant at the Millennium Bostonian Hotel, has taken over the kitchen at the Back Bay watering hole with its popular roof deck.

The Rattlesnake’s sandwich and Latin-influenced pub menu now has a distinct Mexican slant and Poe uses local ingredients as often as possible. The result is slightly more upscale cuisine than you’d expect at a drinking establishment at slightly higher-than-saloon prices. The most expensive dish is $14.

Yet patrons may still balk at paying $12 for the “infamous avocado,” half a grilled avocado, filled with lobster meat and lavender-scented crema sour cream.

“What’s the market for a $12 appetizer at a sports bar?” muses my friend Anne, who nevertheless pronounces the avocado delicious. It is, indeed, a creative new twist on lobster salad.

Alas, the “peachy pinche pink” chimichanga ($9) of BBQ salmon and rice rolled in a reddish flour tortilla isn’t daring enough to call itself pinche, a naughty bit of Spanish slang. It’s more tortilla than salmon and we end up picking the filling out of the wrapper.

Poe’s chili relleno ($8) is an unsuccessful interpretation of the classic Mexican, deep-fried, cheese-stuffed pepper. But it’s not deep-fried and oddly stuffed with cold corn and cherry-seasoned goat cheese.

Chili-dusted, fried calamari ($9) would be better without chunky corn and Anaheim pepper and orange-colored ginger chili sauces. Less would have been more.

Tacos make up a large section of the Rattlesnake menu. Many are plated on top of sauces and salsas that make them unnecessarily messy to consume. And soft-style tacos would be better if the tortillas were softer.

Smoked pork tacos Jalisco ($10) are excellent - chunks of savory pork with thick, cuminy salsa and slivered cabbage. But promised chimichurri crema is a no-show, replaced with a crumbling of white cheese and sprigs of cilantro.

We liked the fish tacos ($11) although they would have been easier to eat with smaller pieces of fried cod. The apple in the Anaheim pepper, red onion and apple slaw is unappetizingly discolored.

The molasses-and-cola-marinated duck breast in the Hudson Valley duck tacos ($10) is superb. But everything else - gooey cranberry and rosemary risotto, weird truffle and cranberry “glaze” and an oversized fried taco shell - is miscalculation.

Whatever the Mexican meatball sub ($12) lacks in authenticity, it makes up for in taste. We devoured these spicy meatballs covered with melted jack cheese on slices of toasted baguette. But a ramekin of chipotle cilantro jus is overly salty and the price tag is too expensive for only three meatballs.

The Fred E’s quesadilla ($10) - purportedly named for a 72-year-old Arizona chef Poe met on his travels - is a flavorful combo of smoked chicken, green chilies, melted cheese and grilled tortilla served with mango salsa.

Booze and beer are the beverages of choice here. The cocktails are large and high-test. The beer list is expansive but disappointingly stingy when it comes to Mexican suds. A hoppy Hoptical Illusion IPA ($6.50) from Long Island is a good bet with this fare.

The Rattlesnake Web site credits Meghan Thompson for dessert. Try her outstanding, palate-cleansing, tart and sweet mango and cilantro sorbet ($6). Or her treacly rich tres leches cake ($7), soaked in condensed, evaporated and whole milks.

The Rattlesnake is a utilitarian space with tile floors, heavy furniture, long wooden bar and multiple flat-screen TVs. The room is enlivened by a series of colorful posters of Mexican loteria bingo cards along one wall.

Service is friendly if occasionally stretched. Our server Amelia, a self-described Army brat who recently moved to Boston from Atlanta, couldn’t have been nicer.

384 Boylston St. 617-859-8555; rattlesnakebarandgrill.com

Casual

Price: $20-$40

Hours: Daily: 11:30 a.m.-1 a.m. Bar until 2 a.m.

Bar: Full

Credit: All

Recession specials: No

Accessibility: Accessible

Parking: On street, nearby lots

OLE: Rattlesnake Bar & Grill chef Brian Poe and his lamb taco.

Stuart Cahill
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/food_dining/reviews/view.bg?articleid=1178395