After a long absence, my husband and I made a return visit to Bison County this weekend with eager appetites.  The menu appeared to have changed (and prices increased) a bit since our last visit, but I was glad to see that they still provide a mini-loaf of sweet corn bread served up with a side of honey butter before the meal.  In addition, they still offer a fairly extensive list of draft beers, including several local offerings.  I ordered a Black and Blue (Guinness and Blue Moon Belgian White Ale) – it was more black than blue, but very good.

The atmosphere in Bison County is average.  The restaurant is loud at peak times and the decor is simple but comfortable.  The walls are embellished with large vintage-style tin signs except for the back area which contains an open grill.  The restaurant is about equally split between a bar area with several TVs, and a dining area.

For dinner, I ordered the gluttonous Wagon Train which includes turkey tips, bison tips, steak tips, and two sides.  I opted for sides of garlic mashed potatoes and sweet potato fries.  For someone who finds meat filling, like myself, this meal was an incredibly generous serving size – enough for two or three servings. 

The meats were inconsistently cooked.  The turkey tips were perfectly cooked and quite tender with a nice, if subtle, bbq flavor.  The bison was somewhat tender with no bbq flavor.  It was not as flavorful or as tender as on previous visits.  The steak tips were incredibly disappointing.  The inside was cooked to medium-rare as requested, but the outsides were charred and the meat was incredibly chewy.  I asked my husband to try the steak tips to compare – he likes his meat cooked medium to medium well – and he also found the meat to be dry and chewy, and, overall, disappointing.  The garlic mashed potatoes were very garlicky but had a nice consistency.  The sweet potato fries were perfect – crisp on the outside and full of soft sweet potato inside.

My husband ordered BBQ Smoked Brisket which the menu described as being lean meat, however we both found it to be very fatty, if flavorful.  My husband had sides of cucumber salad and cole slaw.  The cole slaw was very good - crunchy cabbage in creamy mayonnaise with nice seasoning.

The value of the meal was average – about $38 before tip.  All in all, Bison County offers decent bbq, but quality appears to have declined somewhat since previous visits, while the prices have increased.  I’m on the hunt for a more perfect bbq meal in Massachusetts!