If you miss the ribs from Bar-B-Barn, I found your spot: Cuisine Philippine Fernando, a family-owned Filipino restaurant at 15 Rue Sunnydale in Dollard-des-Ormeaux (DDO), on Montreal’s West Island. The Bar-B-Barn chain closed its downtown Guy Street location in 2020, then shut its last remaining location on Sources Boulevard for good in 2024, and a lot of Montrealers have been mourning those ribs ever since. As it turns out, the owner and head chef here worked at Bar-B-Barn for years before it closed, and he added the recipe to his own menu when he opened this restaurant. That explains a lot. I had to see for myself, so I stopped in for lunch to find out if the hype was real.
I was not disappointed. The ribs taste remarkably close to the Bar-B-Barn version, right down to the tomato sauce rice served alongside, which makes sense given the chef spent years cooking the originals. If I am being picky, I remembered the Bar-B-Barn ribs being a touch darker, but the flavor is there. The owner actually came by my table to ask what I thought, and when I told him they tasted like the originals, his face lit up with a genuinely happy smile. It is an impressive homage from a restaurant whose real focus is authentic Filipino cuisine, run by a family that clearly takes pride in what leaves the kitchen.
Beyond the ribs, this is very much a Filipino kitchen at heart, and it is worth going in with that mindset rather than treating it purely as a Bar-B-Barn stand-in. It is a small, unassuming spot, the kind of place that runs on word of mouth rather than flash, and the family behind the counter runs it that way on purpose.
If you are craving those ribs now that the original is gone, or if you simply want to try something new in the Filipino food category, this is worth the detour. Just check the schedule before you go, they are open Wednesday to Sunday.
