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Long ago I remember "Tom's BBQ" at Alma School and Warner. It was decent. Until San Tan BBQ came to town it was my favorite. (Then San Tan closed and I discovered Joe's!!) Tom's long-since left the place I remember. Well, we were in the area of Chandler Heights and Gilbert tonight and thought "why not?". So we stopped in. After all, Yelp showed 3 stars.
When we entered the place was packed. Good sign, I'm thinking. We were seated promptly, and the waitress came by quickly. She wasn't much for chatting, but she was friendly and professional.
I ordered the pulled pork sandwich, my wife had the brisket sandwich. We were very surprised how quickly the food came. We both tried our beans first. They were...OK. Not really good, but not really bad either. I removed the top bun because it seemed so small, but the meat was piled respectably thick. Fine. Put the bun back and take a bite.
This is where it goes wrong.
The meat was very tender. That's about the best I can say about it. The sauce was like a generic grocery store sauce. Not bad, but not really good. The meat seemed like it had been boiled, and then some sort of smoke flavor added. It was nasty. The "smoke" flavor was not right, and not good. Almost like a burned flavor, but not quite that either. The after-taste of that flavor lingered about an hour after we left. (What is that?!) Compare and contrast to either Dave's or Joe's (both of which are good, though Joe's is much better).
My wife's brisket sandwich was no better. Well, maybe a little better. She said it also seemed like it had been boiled, but there was no smoke flavor at all (so she didn't have to deal with the after-taste like I did). She was, however, a bit nauseated until after we got home. I understand...my stomach felt like I had just had a Big Mac (that always leaves me a little queasy with the feeling of a rock in my stomach).
It was further, but we should have gone to Liberty Market instead. We thought about it, almost did it, but this was closer. Bad choice. Never again.
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