Texas Joe’s House of Ribs in Subic Honest Review
December 3, 2021
Texas Joe’s House of Ribs is an institution – and is a mainstay whenever we go to Subic. Ambiance-wise, it’s very homey, I love their service staff (very proactive and great at anticipating your needs), and the food overall is pretty good.
Beware, it can get crowded though. I was a bit leery of eating indoors, but thankfully they had a pretty spacious outdoor dining area (this used to be their bar area!) which was mosquito-free and quite cool (temperature-wise).
In terms of food, we ordered the following, and i’m placing a (***) sign for the ones I would 100% reorder)
- Corn Tortilla Soup: PHP 149 (***)
- Cream of Mushroom Soup: PHP 139
- Seafood Chowder: PHP 199 (***)
- Texas-Yaki Salad: PHP 359
- Onion Loaf: PHP 189 (***)
- Tennessee Trio: PHP 789 (*** – for the ribs)
- Mom’s Apple Pie: PHP 169 (***)
- Pumpkin Pie: PHP 139 (***)
As you can see, many dishes were at the bar OR above the bar. How lovely. Let me jump in and talk about them a bit.
Soups
Pro-tip: You can ask the server to split the soup into two bowls so you can share.
Corn Tortilla Soup
This is a Mexican classic, with beans and tortilla and the works. It’s a bit spicy, but definitely provides a warm kick after a long day spent at the beach. This reminds me of chili con carne hehe!
Cream of Mushroom Soup
This is said to be house made with real cream and mushrooms. Sadly, I found it rather bland, and thought the ready-made Campbell Cream of Mushroom soup was way better than this
Seafood Chowder
Super winner. This chowder has the works – salmon, shrimp, potato, carrots, corn, onions, and bacon bits. Every spoonful is a delight! Definitely recommend this one
Appetizer
Texas-Yaki Salad
This is a large cowpoke salad, topped with special marinated chicken breast. This was actually pretty good. Light, not so heavy, and the chicken was delicious! Still, I’m not a salad gal, so if I were eating on my own, I’d skip this. But when family, we must be healthy so hello salad!
Onion Loaf
This is SO GOOD. Think onion rings jumbo version. Unfortunately, that weekend, Subic seemed to have run out of large onions (I tried ordering onion rings at Xtremely Xpresso the next day and they also hadn’t received their shipment yet). Anyway, from my previous memory, this is definitely on the reorder list
Mains
We ordered the Tennessee Trio which is meant to be good for 2-3 people. It’s composed of Swift Premium USA Spare Ribs, Slow-Smoked Certified Angus Beef Brisket, and a quarter of Hickory-Smoked Chicken. These 3 are essentially their bestsellers so it’s a good deal so you get to try them all.
Hickory Smoked Spare Ribs
Yummy! Fall off the bone tender and very very flavorful. This is my favorite of the bunch. If you can only order one of the three, this is the one to order. (Also they’re called house of ribs for a reason…)
Angus Beef Brisket
This is slow-smoked over hickory and is paper thin with good fat-to-meat ratio. It isn’t for me though. It was not memorable at all.
Hickory-Smoked Chicken
This tasted very clean, but rather bland in my opinion. My grandmother really liked it though
Sides: Corny Corn Bread Loaf, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Joe’s Baked Beans, Baked Potato
Of these 4, I guess I liked Corny Corn Bread Loaf the most. They were all OK though.
Dessert
Apple Pie a la Mode
SO SO SO SO GOOD. They don’t scrimp on the apple at all – see photo. The vanilla ice cream would’ve been better if it didn’t melt so quickly. And the crust was just ayt for me. But dude, I came here for the apple, and apple I got
Pumpkin Pie
As an ode to Thanksgiving, we ordered Pumpkin Pie and boy am I happy we did. This was very good, and I could taste hints of cinnamon in it. Overall, a happy buy!
