Bellarine Estate: Texas-Style Baby Back Ribs

Bellarine Estate, also know as the Bellarine Brewing Company, is located on the Bellarine Peninsula, about a 30 minute drive out of Geelong. Long know for their award-winning wines, gourmet foods and micro brewed beers, it was the last place I was expecting to find Texas-Style baby back pork ribs!

But there they were on the menu and being a Rib Appreciation Society member, it was my duty to try them and review them. It was a quiet afternoon at the Bellarine Estate restaurant and I had a tough decision to make, do I have the Texas-Style baby back pork ribs, the beef sticky ribs or the tasting platter?

My mind was saying tasting platter but my heart was screaming out for the Texas-Style baby back ribs and the heart always wins! I ordered the Texas-Style baby back ribs with a side of New Orleans slaw and sweet potato chips. You get a choice of two sides with your mains and these two just made sense, the other two options were a roquette and pickled fennel salad or fries.

To my surprise they were out in about 15 minutes, which was quite fast but it was a quiet afternoon at the Bellarine Estate. Everything on the plate looked very appealing and the first thing that I noticed was how tender the meat was, no fingers required here, the meat literally fell off the bone. It did take the fun out of eating ribs but I’m never going to complain about meat falling off the bone!

The bourbon BBQ sauce was quite sweet but I was expecting this, though the sweet potato chips did make things a little too sweet all round, next time I’d order for the roquette and pickled fennel salad, it just needed a bit of acid to cut through that sweetness. The New Orleans slaw was nothing special, just coleslaw really, I’d go the chips.

The ribs were substantially covered in the bourbon BBQ sauce and overall the ribs were quite rich and full of flavour. You would certainly need a couple of beers to finish them off comfortably, not a complaint but just best you budget for a couple of beers.

The serving size was good, it left me wanting a bit more but not really hungry but at $37.90 for the Texas-Style baby back ribs it’s definitely on the pricey side in my opinion.

I’ll be heading back to try the sticky beef ribs in the near future I’m sure and as the waitress promoted on the day, I would join their birthday club, you get a free meal on your birthday!

Venue Details

Address: 2270 Portarlington Road, Bellarine VIC 3222
Phone: (03) 5259 3310
Hours of Operation: Open for Lunch and Dinner on Weekends.
Website: http://www.bellarineestate.com.au

Pros:

Great flavour, packed with sauce
Meat was falling off the bone
Choice of sides

Cons

It’s a bit pricey and I’m not sure it’s worth it.
Sweet potato chips made the whole dish a bit too sweet.

Think you know where the Best Ribs in the Bellarine Peninsula are? Why not let us know by commenting below.

Author
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Reyan

Head of Reviews at Rib Appreciation Society

One of the Founding Members of the Rib Appreciation Society.

Always on the hunt for the perfect rack of ribs and cooks up a storm at home, and yes, he loves to tell everyone about it.