It's been a while since I had been to By The Tree - for many reasons - and returning to the space's reincarnation reminded exactly what those reasons were. That's because the space has not changed AT ALL minus a different sign outside. The owners have even gone so far as to conserve the old drinks menu as well as the spiderwebs that hang lazily from the ceiling, providing By The BarBQ its only semblance of personality.
The food menu is a complete rip-off of Home Plate, just smaller. We went along to make the most of the restaurant's buy-one-get-one-free brisket sandwich special on Wednesdays, which we ordered before sitting in the half-light getting intermittently blasted with air-con, bleach, and other cleaning products. Ten minutes passed before the fuwuyuan returned to our table to inform us that the chef had not bothered to cook the brisket or tell the management. Maybe he was on strike, which I could imagine given the general environment. We were then offered double cheeseburgers to replace the brisket, coming in at a huge saving of 5 kuai. We asked for a couple of sides, which were obliged, the potato salad perhaps being the best thing going in this place.
As for the burgers - eh. The meat wasn't particularly flavourful/seasoned and I hit a couple of pieces of gristle along the way, which not even the MEMPHLS sauce could cover.
So, I'd give this ersatz rendition of Home Plate a skip. I mean, really, you couldn't even come up with a name?
PS There's no happy hour, unless you count drinking 10 kuai bottles of Tsingdao in the dark happy. I've had happier near run-ins with Beijing taxis.
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