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| - Few foods cause as much rivalry, fierce loyalties, and controversy as BBQ. Like many folks, I love good BBQ, and have my preferences as to meats, sauce, and sides. For complete transparency, I've been eating 'Q' in various states regularly for almost 40 years, and my favorite is whole-hog pork BBQ with low country SC-style mustard sauce (it's what I grew up with, and to date, I've never had a better style anywhere). That being said, I respect the other styles/locations, and if it's done right and with love and respect to the meat, you'll get my business.
So... My girlfriend and I have driven by Bobbee O's many times (and always laughed at the lit neon 'OPEN' sign on the side window that is turned on during hours that the restaurant is clearly not open), and finally decided to give it a try. We ordered through DoorDash, and the food arrived hot and well-packaged about 30 minutes after ordering (which was around 6:30 pm on a Saturday evening).
I ordered the pulled pork dinner with cole slaw and baked beans, and my girlfriend ordered the brisket dinner with fried okra and cole slaw. We also ordered a side of Brunswick stew, a side of mac & cheese, and hush puppies as our choice of bread. Overall, we had a decent first experience (I'd give 3.5 stars if Yelp had that option), with the following pros & cons :
Pros:
* Almost all of the food looked fresh and had a 'home-made' quality. I don't know about you, but the last thing I want out of my 'Q' is an industrial-scale, boring chain restaurant vibe.
* The portion sizes were ample, a good value, and had enough for leftovers.
* Both the pulled pork and the brisket were moist and tender, and didn't need to be covered up in sauce to be tasty. But they did not have a massively intense smoked flavor that I've had at other places.
* The mac & cheese had good flavor, with the addition of a little onion. It was definitely NOT the 'blue box', and tasted more like 'somebody else's family's recipe', if that makes any sense.
* The fried okra was surprisingly good, and I absolutely despise okra.
Cons:
* While the vegetables in the cole slaw looked fresh, appealing, and were perfectly crisp, the dressing was so overwhelmingly sweet that my heart sank with disappointment after the first bite and I couldn't eat any more. Please watch the sugar !
* I know deep-fried foods can be difficult to pull off with take-out and delivery, but the hush puppies were not hot, dry in the middle, and seemed almost like an afterthought.
* The Brunswick stew was okay, not great. The reason I put it in the cons is that we found not one, but two big bay leaves floating in it. While I like the flavor of bay leaf, and applaud the cooks for using real spices and herbs, they can be a little weird to swallow, especially if you're not expecting them.
* The baked beans were also a little too sweet for my taste (but nowhere near as distractingly sweet as the cole slaw).
A review wouldn't be complete without mentioning the sauce. I found the sauce to be neither a pro nor a con. For what it was, it was fine. Some people will love it, others will hate it. It is on the sweet and tangy side of things, and I personally didn't use much of it because I didn't think the meat needed it. It's not my favorite style, but seemed to be crafted with love, so I can't knock it. Your results may vary.
My girlfriend and I both remarked that we would like to eat Bobbee O's BBQ again, and maybe try some different items. The potential for greatness is there with some tweaking here and there.
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