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| - TL;DR version: nothing is seasoned (meat or sides) but all the meats were cooked very well, so somebody knows how to control the heat. I wouldn't call it BBQ because nothing has any flavor and BBQ isn't just about how meat is heated to cook, but how it's rubbed, marinated, mopped, basted, smoked...FLAVORED. The only flavor I got tonight was salt from the food and major sugar from the sauces. The bright spot of the night were the pickle fries, which despite the rest of the food were absolutely delicious. Overall, this place is definitely a no-go. Details follow.
My food had no seasoning other than salt, if anything. My brisket taco was incredibly salty and the corn tortillas tasted super cheap, but the meat had great texture and bark and was cooked well. I couldn't taste any flavor at all from the taco's coleslaw over the meat's salt, so it was basically totally flavorless. Great size though, for its price I'd order these in a heartbeat if they tasted good. My french fries tasted like cheap frozen fries cooked in old oil. My pulled chicken was cooked very well also, but seasoned with only salt as far as I could tell. It seemed like it was made to be eaten with the sauces, but all the sauces were disgusting (more on that in a minute).
The wife's pulled pork had great texture like my pulled chicken, but was again basically unseasoned, and just had salt and cooked alright. However I did get one bite that was all bark (which was pretty thin) and it tasted like pure salt; I had to spit it out. The brisket had good texture and one end of the cut was seasoned but as she worked down the piece of meat the seasoning faded to nothing about halfway through and the second half was unseasoned. Her side of coleslaw also had no flavor at all.
Pickle fries were absolutely excellent. Simple as that. Pickles had snap and tasted fresh. Breading was great thickness and cooked perfectly. We asked for some ranch to go with them, and the ranch they gave us was definitely a store-bought ranch put into those little plastic cups, but they didn't charge us for them and at least it was a good store brand. No complaints on these two items. Easily worth the $2.50.
So about those sauces: original barbecue sauce tasted like ingredients are corn syrup, water, and vinegar (in that order); "hot" barbecue sauce tasted to me just like the original, and was not even remotely spicy (I couldn't tell the difference betwixt the two sauces, truly). Not even my wife thought it was spicy, and she's exceptionally sensitive. White sauce was super watery, even though it was called a mayo-based sauce, and it was short on flavor too. All three sauces were super watery and the two barbecue sauces were super super sweet. I'm not surprised that people are raving about these sauces in some of the reviews. They're basically sugar water, and if you're into eating lots of sugar, then you'll probably like them. But the only flavor they're going to add to the food is sweet, and there's nothing nuanced or subtle or flavorful about it. They have no depth. They are just sugar water.
I felt personally insulted by the menu. $14.99 for 2x 1/4 pound meats, and 2x small sides or one large side. Small sides alone are $2.50, large is $3.50, and 1/2 pound of meat is $7.99. $7.99 + $5 = 1/2 pound of meat and two small sides for $13. So for 2 extra dollars I get the privilege of getting half-and-half meats? OR I could just buy a half pound of meat and the sides on their own and save $3. I thought combo plates were supposed to be a better deal than buying things individually. Apparently not. It's insulting, basically like saying "we think our customers are too stupid to do basic math."
Given all the positive reviews, I'll try this place again and hope they just had an off night with the seasonings. But seriously, it was a really really off night. And I'm pretty sure the menu prices and sauce ingredients were chosen in purpose, no "off night" on that part. Despite the (un)flavor, the meat was all cooked pretty well. It wasn't inedible, that's not my complaint, it's just either super bland or super salty and it's the sauces (or more accurately, sugar waters) that are inedible.
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