Restaurant Review: Delicious BBQ & Peruvian Chicken At Barbacoa

Editor's note: Thanks to Elizabeth of It's Good To Be The Cook for her first blog on Patch, a review of , located on Rittenhouse Place in Ardmore. If you love food too, we'd love for you to submit your own review of spots in Ardmore, Merion and Wynnewood.

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I love having workout partners.  Whether it’s a girlfriend I convince to take my Powerstrike class with me, or it’s Dave my boyfriend lifting while I run on the treadmill… it’s always better to have someone with you.  It’s great motivation. 

I normally don’t need any kind of outside motivation to workout.  I really do love it, and it’s usually my favorite part of my day.  However, since I work at the gym there are some days all I want to do is just go home after work and lay around and watch TV with Stella my dog.  On those days, I love knowing that my friends Kelly and Sam will be coming to the gym to take classes with me.  I feel more obligated to stay, and it’s always more fun. 

Kelly has been telling me about this great new BBQ place in Ardmore near us that they go to called Barbacoa.  We finally got it together to make plans and head over there. 

Before I go into the gory details of our meal… let’s just say I’m so happy we worked out first. 

Kel and I split two things (in my true indecisive fashion) , and each get two sides.  Kelly ordered the Pulled Pork Sandwich and I got the Half-Rotisserie Chicken.  I can’t even decide which I liked better, because they were both unbelievable.  

The chicken is Peruvian Style:  Soaked in brine for 12 hours before being cooked over an open fire of hardwood coals and local oak.  The chicken was super juicy and flavorful.  

The pulled pork was also very moist.  The sandwich was delicious and came with some of their signature slaw and wasabi sauce ontop.  The wasabi was a surprising flavor with the pulled pork but I loved it, it worked so well together.

As if the tasty BBQ meats weren’t enough… wait until you hear about the sides. Kelly ordered the mac and cheese and the creamed spinach.  Mac and cheese— forget it… OMG,  it was ridiculous.  I also picked the creamed spinach—mmm!  So yummy.  My favorite side, though, was recommended to me by our server:  cornbread pudding.  

Yup, I said it.  Cornbread. Pudding.  It was creamy and sweet but salty and just so, so yummy.  Wow.

The restaurant is small but you can BYO which is great.  With all of the food we ordered, including tip, the total was $21 per person—not too bad!  Since I ate at Barbacoa with Kelly, Dave and I have tried it again as takeout.  We went with the Pulled Pork Sandwich again but also tried their Brisket Sandwich which was really only just okay—a little bit dry.  

I’ll definitely be back though for those delicious sides and rotisserie chicken!