CARIBBEAN COMFORT
RUDE BOY
130 Elizabeth Street, Hobart Tues-Sat 4pm to late (kitchen from 5pm)
Walking in to Rude Boy on the first night of launching their new menu, it’s impossible not to feel uplifted by the all-round good vibes and up-beat energy. The Tropicana wallpaper is bright, the bartenders are smiling, the tunes are pumping and the mai tais are boozy.
Fried chicken is the focus for the new menu offering, and the team has absolutely nailed it. Marinated for hours on end to tenderise, lathered in a coating of your choice (choose from salt & pepper, old bay, jerk, seven spice, hot or super hot), fried until crispy on the outside and lusciously soft on the inside, it’s served with one of the impressive nine different sauce options and is just an absolute joy to eat.
This sort of fried chicken should not be confused with the greasy, food coma inducing fried chicken made famous by various fast food chains. On the contrary, this chicken is prepared using traditional techniques that have been perfected throughout areas of the Caribbean for many years, and it is actually quite light to eat and delicate in flavour. There is also the option of grilled chicken if you want to avoid the fried thing altogether.
The menu is cleverly designed, with chicken priced according to weight and cut (choose from bone in or bone out). We opt for one serve of 10oz grilled chicken with jerk coating, and one serve of 10oz fried chicken with the hot coating, plus gravy and garlic ranch as our sauces. To accompany, we go for three sides of sweet potato fries, greens and
XO sauce and slaw ($19 for three sides), plus a serve of the baked mac’n’cheese bacon crumble to start.
Drinks-wise my husband orders a mai tai which arrives in a tall, yellow, cream and terracotta coloured tumbler complete with tropical garnish. I go for bubbles — a Small Island pinot noir/chardonnay pet nat that is slightly pink and comes served in a champagne coupe rather than the standard flute which makes it feel a little bit fancy.
The drinks list is particularly impressive, with a focus on rums and Cuban-inspired cocktails (that could well be served pool-side in Havana) along with a varied selection of beer and wines with a mixture of well-known producers, along with some lesser known ones. There are also house-made sodas with the option to add booze if desired.
We are all settled in to our comfy booth, drinks in hand when our mac’n’cheese arrives steaming hot in all its melty, crumbly glory. Next comes the chicken and sides to match. Service is friendly and attentive while also casual and approachable.
The grilled jerk chicken is absolute perfection. Garnished with chilli and served with garlic ranch, the skin is crispy and charred and the meat itself is tender and flavoursome. The hot fried chicken has a nice spice to it with the gravy (served on the side) to temper if desired. Our sweet potato fries are crunchy (nothing worse than limp fries), the slaw is fresh and bity with just the right amount of dressing, and our greens and XO round out the spread perfectly.
If chicken isn’t your bag there is also beef brisket in various iterations, like the tropic thunder burger with beef brisket, pineapple and chilli salsa, slaw and rum barbecue sauce ($16) or the Got Beef plate that consists of beef brisket, potato fries, rum barbecue sauce, slaw and corn on the cob ($24). All fried chicken is gluten free and there is even a “not chicken” version of fried chicken available for the non-meat eaters among us.
While the dinner menu runs until around 10pm, there are bar snacks available until close for when late-night hunger strikes.
Snack options include chicken ribs with garlic ranch ($11), house made rum pickled vegetables ($9), five spice chicken scratchings ($8), loaded potato fries ($14), crispy calamari with miso caramel herb slaw ($13) and the mac’n’cheese ($10).
Located in Elizabeth Street’s Mid-Town precinct, Rude Boy is ideally positioned for laid-back post work drinks or dinner, and a failsafe antidote if you’ve had a rough day at the office. I can’t wait to go back.