Blisters BBQ Review

by Vera Chen

 

Blisters BBQ is a small joint serving smoked slow cooked food out of the Shell station north of Rexburg. They specialize in foods like pulled pork, brisket, and tri tip. They also have the shrimp poor boy and hamburgers for those who want something different or familiar. They seem to be pretty new at what they are doing, with just two people taking orders and cooking. The place seems very laid back with not many tables for customers to sit and eat. So take out is definitely a must if you want to eat in comfort. However takeout has its drawbacks too. The food gets cold pretty quick and the bun gets soggy if you got the pulled pork or chicken because all the juices run to the bottom. There seems to be a pretty stable flow of customers, so they are constantly busy it seems. However, that also meant that tables were not wiped down regularly, and the trash was overflowing. Food is priced per item, with sides like sodas and waffle fries costing $2 each. They have a combo where you can add on two sides to your sandwich for $3 which is not bad, but when a sandwich is costing about $4 - $6, it makes the meal a little expensive for college students but affordable to the community. They do have specials, which would bring the price down to about $3.50 to $5 for a sandwich depending of what the special is for that day. 

I went on a Wednesday afternoon at about 1pm and it took me a total of 15 minutes to place my order and get my food. So they are pretty quick. The food, on the other hand, is mediocre. I got the bacon wrapped hotdog with baked beans and a deep fried pickle, and the new pulled chicken sandwich with waffle fries. The bacon wrapped hotdog is normal; with nothing special about it other than that it is a bacon wrapped hotdog. The beans were very sour on the first bite, and then you could taste the spice after that. They had hotdog pieces in the beans which seemed to be just an extra that they do with their overcooked hotdogs. The pickle had good breading and flavor. It was not too sour like other places. The pulled chicken was a little disappointing especially after all the other raving reviews on it. The portion was huge, but the flavor left a lot to be desired. The chicken seemed dry, and the bun was soggy and fell apart after I took it home, 20 minutes later. There also did not seem to be enough sauce on the meat. It could have used thicker and more sauce to add flavor. The waffle fries was battered and had good flavor. I liked that it was waffle fries and not the regular cut fries. They had a sauce with the fries, which was tangy, definitely different from the common fry sauce found in this area.

All in all, not bad for what you can find in this area but not great either.