Kickin' Boot Whiskey Kitchen

The BBQ here is pretty good.  In fact, it's better than Bitter Root on several levels.  My review below is for the bar solely.

It's great to have such an large whiskey selection in Ballard.  It's a nice open space that lends itself to having a great time with a number of friends.  We've done this on a number of occasions. However, there is something that ruins the experience every time.

Why is the bar a hangout for the restaurant staff?  There must be some type of discount or "shift drink special" happening at the bar.  At dinner shift change and then later at night when servers are cut, it becomes a staff hangout.  They take up seats at the bar and converse with the bartenders.  This distracts the bartenders from the bar patrons and the service well.  It takes forever to drag the active staff member away from the off-duty crew drinking at the bar.  

This is a general theme at KBWK.  Staff members tend to chat among themselves instead of being attentive and providing that timely "first touch" that goes a long way.  The customers are not your distractions.  Your place of employment should not be treated like your basement just because you punched your timecard.   Many restaurants have a "no drinking at your work establishment" rule to avoid this very problem.  This is why you see team members from one restaurant all tend to drink together at another bar after their shift.  Again, I'm not suggesting that there is anything wrong with workplace comradery.  Just keep it professional and drink somewhere else.

We went here yesterday for the 4th and my hands still smell like BBQ sauce today! This food is yummy and the House sauce is great! I got the baby back ribs which are dry rubbed and smoked, but I doused them in sauce. I have no shame in potentially ruining the rub because it was delish!  It was $18 for a half rack, which seems pretty average at BBQ places. But oh my gosh, the sides! The onions rings, the grit sticks, and the potato salad! The mac and cheese was kind of runny when I was expecting it to be crispy, so I didn't like that. Loved the flavors of the sauce and the food, however my ribs weren't the fall off the bone kind, so that was eh. I would definitely come back though!

I hardly ever write yelp reviews. If I do it's because the place offers something that is either world class or god awful.  And for the kickin' boot whiskey kitchen, I am writing to warn you that this is not a real BBQ joint, THERE IS NOT A REAL RESTAURANT SYLE KITCHEN HERE - don't expect good BBQ and other options.

Rather they receive all their food/meats pre-cooked, and they heat them up on site. That is why there is no smell of BBQ - there is no BBQ grilling going on here. You can see the highly cost effective mini kitchen on your right when you walk in. Unfortunately like most I didn't pay attention to this when I went in, instead looking straight ahead at the very nice looking bar area and the attractive female staff.

I ordered baby back ribs, one of my favorite dishes based on the waitresses recommendation that they do a great job on these and that the  meat is falling off the bone. Yeah right. The meat was not moist, not slow BBQ, at least anytime in the 12 hours before I ate it. It was surely delivered in a refridgeration  truck that morning or the day before, sitting in a fridge at the whiskey kitchen, and just heated up when I ordered it. the rest of the sides with my order were similarly blah and I have a hard time believing any of them were cooked on site. Same for my wife's meal.

This place does have a nice looking bar, and a long but not eclectic enough selection of whiskeys. But being scammed by the not cheap, crappy BBQ food really upsets me, especially when the waitress was either a willing participant or too dumb to know what real BBQ is.