Muddy Waters

Muddy Waters Smokehouse
15 Forks Market Rd
204-947-6653
http://www.wowhospitality.ca/restaurants/muddywaters.html

June, 2009

When Muddy Waters first opened its doors at The Forks, it promised to bring to Winnipeg something we had yet to experience—authentic smoked barbecue (Q) just like they make it in the American barbecue belt, encompassing a triangle bordered by Kansas, the Carolinas and Texas. While each region claims a specialty (and the title of “Best Q in the World”), they share a commonality: seasoned meats slow-cooked in smoke. My first experience at Muddy Waters found their food fell far short of American Q. MW didn’t make bad food; it just wasn’t what I expected.

MW introduced a new kitchen manager in 2008 and once more, I have high expectations that The Forks will finally serve genuine Q. MW makes good use of its prime location in the heart of one of Winnipeg’s tourist hubs, the restaurant features two outdoor patios. The patio bar, overlooking the Assiniboine pier, offers a limited menu and limited beverages. The main patio offers the full menus and a front-row view of the plaza performances and a spectacular perch for people-watching. Inside MW, the huge glass windows offer an unobstructed look at the outside happenings. MW takes on a rustic atmosphere with unfinished wood walls and floors. When MW first opened, the restaurant welcomed its patrons to discard peanut shells and other waste items onto the floor but fortunately, it’s more civilised now in its refuse receptacles. The hotchpotch of beer signs and paraphernalia add to the rustic décor but the stacked cartons of beer bottles at the side of the dining room gives the customer a delightful sense of dining in a warehouse.

Consistent with the rustic motif, MW offers a generous selection of beers on tap, which you expect considering the amount of patio space that MW features, but the wine list only features a few possibilities. Among the scant selection, the wines-by-the-glass includes a number of interesting options, including the delicious Tall Horse sauvignon blanc. The impeccable service ensures that I never sit behind an empty glass.

The efficiency and friendliness of the servers cannot compensate for the unreasonable amount of time it takes for the kitchen to churn out the food. An offering of bread would have quelled the hunger while we wait for our food—none comes. To start, I decide on the corn chowder soup, which meanders to our table over half-hour after our server received our orders. The soup comes well-presented in a cast iron skillet, which our server warns is very hot. The skillet may be hot but the soup is only tepid, which is plenty to quell the appetite. A good chowder incorporates the cream with the essences of its ingredients, bringing a harmony of goodness that oozes with flavours. This soup tastes simply like boiled vegetables with whipping cream poured into it. Purporting to be a corn chowder soup, few kernels of corn swim in this soup; instead, an abundance of semi-cooked, under-sautéed onions contribute to oleic mess. Under no circumstances should anyone order this disaster.

I still haven’t lost all hope as this is meat haven and I might have just made a cardinal mistake in ordering a vegetarian soup. MW features a “holey burger” on their menu, which is a half-pound patty with all the fixings. They punch a hole in the middle of the patty so that heat penetrates the multiple facets, ensuring an even cook and a perfect burger—wrong on numerous fronts. While the barbecue sauce on the patty gives this burger plenty of potential to be a flavourful and complex burger, the dryness of the well overcooked meat leaves me wishing I could drink the barbecue sauce straight from the bottle. Seriously, this is a terrible burger and at $11, I can’t properly express how much I would have preferred to have two A&W sirloin burgers over this debacle. Even the flavourful (albeit greasy) fries cannot fries cannot hope to save this selection—disaster #2.

I still have a glimmer of hope; after all, this is a barbecue smokehouse and I haven’t tried any of the Q yet. I choose the beef ribs and hope for the best. The plate comes with three massive ribs, fries, a few kernels of corn (they must be running out of corn) and a cup of beans. In any great Southern Q restaurant, you anticipate the beans almost as much as you anticipate the meat. The beans usually come cooked in the same barbecue sauce that slathers the meat, making for a perfect food complement. Do MW’s beans complement their beef ribs? I’m not sure. The beans come in a little plastic cup that zoos use to hold nectar for hummingbirds; the five beans in this pitiful container barely gives me a taste of what this side is supposed to taste like. At least they didn’t skimp on the meat.

Over a pound of beef sticks to these ribs but their black appearance leads me to fear that once again, we experience overcooked food—and I’m right. Although the meat bursts with the smoky flavour that I expect, the charred outside is barely edible and the soft insides lack juiciness, which is quite a feat. The ribs are among the fattiest region of the beef and it takes a lot to dry them out; although these ribs aren’t dry, they come very close.

The WOW Hospitality network normally puts out reliably delicious (if not outstanding) food but this experience leaves me with few reasons to dine here again. Next time, I’ll just sit on the patio and drink the wine.

** /5


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