Boonie’s Southern Soul Restaurant

Sorry! Restaurant is now CLOSED. (Trust me, I’m as pissed as you are.) Private catering still available.

Restaurant: Boonie’s Southern Soul
Cuisine: Barbeque (BBQ)/Southern/Western/Soul/American
Last visited: July 28, 2010
Location: Langley, BC (Inside the Quality Inn Hotel)
Address: 6465 201 Street
Price Range: $10-20

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 5
Service: 6 (I’m a bit biased)
Ambiance: 2.5
Overall: 5
Additional comments:

• Grandma’s recipes
• Authentic Southern BBQ
• Friendly owner (also chef)
• Old fashioned Southern Soul food
• Family owned
• Home made dishes/desserts/sauces
• Hidden gem
• Family/kid friendly
• Affordable
• Beer available
• Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner/Catering
• Dine in/Take-out
• Daily breakfast 7am-10am
• Open daily 11:30am-9pm

**Recommendations: Honey Fried Chicken, BBQ Smoked Ribs, Seasoned Fries, Potato Salad, Honey Butter Cornbread, pie or cobbler (If you get the pulled pork sandwich try requesting it with the cole slaw to be served inside instead of the plain cabbage)

Yes! A place worth heading down to the boonie’s for! It’s not only called Boonie’s and in the boonies, but the owner is actually a big black guy from the good old South and his name is Boonie! AND to top it off he makes his Grandma’s recipes! I freaking love this guy and his BBQ! The place is a total stereotype, and I think y’all gunna love it!

He knows my face as I’m an avid fan of his eats, but he doesn’t know about Follow Me Foodie or what I do. However he is just as friendly from the first day I met him and tried his glorious Southern Soul food (which was over 3 years ago now).

I’ve been waiting to write a post for Boonie’s Southern Soul Restaurant for years now. A few years ago it was the concession stand, barely a restaurant, at the Cloverdale curling rink. It was literally a hole in the wall and the wall wasn’t even theirs! I used to bring people from “out of town”, aka Vancouver, just to try his pulled pork sandwich. It eventually closed down and after at least a year of waiting it has finally reopened in a new location inside the Quality Inn Hotel (which is also hard to find). Boonie’s sure has an odd choice of locations, but it really is a hidden gem.

I’m super spoiled when it comes to BBQ and Southern Soul food. I came to Boonie’s just coming back from my trip to Austin Texas where I was determined to find the best beef brisket. After visiting world class BBQ restaurants with real open fire pits like Smitty’s Market and Salt Lick Bar-B-Que, Boonie’s had a lot to live up to. Boonie’s does specialize in BBQ but it’s much more of a Southern Soul food place and I would call it one of the top 5 best BBQ places in Vancouver and the lower mainland. It’s hand down the best Southern Soul Food place we have though, and not only because it’s the only one too lol. Boonie’s has expanded his menu and now offers even better stuff and a lot more variety. I’ve been waiting so long for it to reopen and it was definitely worth the wait!

On the table:

Sweet Tea – 1/6

• $2.50 (Photo is a sample)
• I only sampled their sweet tea and that was the only disappointing thing.
• Sweet Tea is not simply sweetened iced tea. Authentic Sweet Tea in the South is way better and doesn’t taste like this. It had an aspartame aftertaste and was much too sweet without that strong tea taste.

Pulled Pork Sandwich – 4/6

• Seasoned pork shoulder butt roasted for hours, then shredded and combined with our signature Honey Bourbon BBQ sauce and piled on a fresh roll. Served with seasoned fries $10.95
• This used to be a MAJOR highlight of my life… but I honestly feel like they changed the recipe to the pulled pork burger. 🙁
• Seasoned Fries – 5/6
  • Awesome! They’re crispy and heavily seasoned with tons of flavour, yet they’re not too salty. Double fried would be even better!

• The pulled pork burger is still very good, but it’s not as good as it once was… back at the curling rink.
• He used to use the cole slaw he serves as a side rather than this plain shredded cabbage. I miss the cole slaw method which was tastier and I will try requesting the switch next time.
• The meat was nicely shredded, but a tad dry. Every pork shred used to be smothered in his Honey Bourbon BBQ sauce and every bite was a saucy, juicy and drippy mess. Now I eat it like a regular sandwich and it wasn’t nearly as fun or good.
• I do love the home made Honey Bourbon BBQ sauce though, it’s very tangy and sweet, but could use an extra kick.

**Honey Fried Chicken – 6/6

• Southern battered and fried chicken drizzled with hot honey. Served with 2 sides and cornbread. $15.95
• I have never tried honey fried chicken, and now I know I was severely deprived.

• Dah! You can’t deny this fried chicken. It was so damn good! It as the crispiest chicken I’ve had to date. It was fried golden brown and so crunchy! It tastes like something I would imagine Paula Deen from the Food Network making… minus the pound of butter and sour cream.
• I bet he uses buttermilk to tenderize the meat first, or at least in the coating process. The meat itself could have been a bit juicier, but it wasn’t dry by any means. The batter is the highlight and it’s slightly sweetened from the honey which never made it soggy, and it wasn’t that greasy either.
• The famous chicken wings from Wo Fung Dessert are greasier (but still delicious).

**BBQ Smoked Ribs – 5/6

• Meaty back ribs rubbed with Boonie’s secret spice blend and then smoked for hours over smouldering hickory then sauced with our Signature Honey Bourbon BBQ sauce. Served with honey butter cornbread and your choice of two sides. Half rack $17.95 Full rack $24.95
• I ordered the half rack, which is enough for one person for sure… but they’re so good you want the full.

• These ribs are fantastic! But I must say that I’m pretty sure they’re boiled first. So it’s not traditional and they could be more flavorful and smoky, but they were still excellent.
• The flavour comes more from the Honey Bourbon BBQ sauce than the meat itself. The sauce is is heavier on the tomato paste, very tangy and sweet and quite thick as well. It was very good, but I like my sauce to have more of a kick to it.  The ribs had a lot of meat on them, which was quite tender and it literally fell off the bone.

See I’m not joking… it’s falling off the bone tender (but the boiling process helps… my assumption)

Southern Sides

Boonie’s offers a selection of traditional Southern sides, but I don’t find them the strongest things on the menu especially compared to the meats (which are essentially most important at any BBQ joint anyways). They used to allow you to sample the sides before ordering, but I’m not sure if they still do that.

**Honey Butter Cornbread – 6/6

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