Critic's Review
Ah, Bobby Rubino's. At one time they were everywhere; the big deal when they opened on Long Island was the Onion Loaf; the bomb of onion dishes until the outback came out with the bloomin' onion. This location is the last one left; the original location opened in Fort Lauderdale in 1978.
When you walk in, it's like walking into Chuck's; you're transported back to a time when hotels and restaurants used the same interior designers. There's a large bar, and 2 big dining rooms, at lunch only the rear dining room is open. It's dated, but it's in good repair; the black vinyl is comfortable and the tables are clean and sturdy.
The servers have probably been here since there were youngsters; the clientele here is of the blue hair variety. It's likely that the only reason that this place is still open is that all of their original customers still live in Pompano.
Everyone was very nice; they only serve their lunch menu until 3pm but they let everyone who came in after 3 order from it. Why not simply serve it until 4pm? Ordering from the dinner menu at 3:20pm is stupid.
I came here for ribs, so I ordered a half rack with cole slaw for $9.99. As with the decor, the owners didnt get the memo that you don't serve bread with the lunch specials; I was surprised to get a big, warm loaf.
Pretty good Italian-style bread. Music ranged from "Celebration" to Sinatra; nothing remotely recent will be played in here. The ribs came out lickety-split.
With a good dose of pepper, this cole slaw is simply outstanding. Not too sweet and not too cabbagy. Of course they have the boxed pepper in a shaker rather than the more modern grinders. The ribs were as good as I remembered, however they're not very meaty. A half rack of these is nowhere near the amount of meat that you get at the BBQ hut places. You'd need a whole rack to get a full meal of these, but they were very good.
With the bread and the good slaw, a veritable lunch for $9.99.