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| - We went here this evening after seeing this place featured on TLC's "Best Food Ever" BBQ episode on Neftlix. We had pretty high expectations based on what we saw on the episode, but not so lofty as to doom the trip from the start.
We got there and the parking lot was empty exept 1 car. Keep in mind, this is a Friday evening at about 6:00pm - prime time for the Friday dinner rush. I would have expected to see the lot at least somewhat full, especially given how small the place is. This seemed like a warning sign to me at the time but I kept an open mind.
As we walk up to the restaurant, absolutely no smoke smell could be detected. Reading other reviews indicated the good smell of smoke outside the restaurant as they walked up to it. This was not the case this evening. Another warning sign to me, but again I kept an open mind.
We enter the restaurant and there's one customer eating and the rest of the place is empty. The counter help and restaurant employees were very nice to us as we decided what to order. This was nice because many online reviews mentioned that the employees seemed rude from time to time. They were courteous and patient as we decided what to order.
We decided on Stacy's Sampler, which is a sampler of small portions of baby back ribs, one beef rib, pulled pork, brisket, chicken, and sausage. It also came with one side. We chose "Spicy Ranch Beans". This sampler was ideal for us because we really just wanted to try a little bit of everything. I asked that all of the meat come un-sauced because I wanted to taste the meat without it drowning in sauce like most places serve it. We paid $23.00 and waited for our order to come to our table.
When the food arrived, the portions were pretty small. A few bites of pulled pork, about 4-5 small slices of brisket, a quarter chicken, two spare ribs, one beef rib, and the beans. I expected larger portions based on other reviews mentioning large portions.
My ratings are 1-5, with 1 being terrible and 5 being awesome.
Pulled pork = 2. Not much smoke flavor, tenderness and moisture were pretty good. I've had better.
Brisket = 2. Not much smoke flavor. Tasted like decent roast beef prepared in an oven. Again, I've had better.
Pork Ribs = 4. I liked the ribs. Not the best in the world, but I did like them. I got one full sized rib and one that was an end piece which was pretty dry and had almost no meat on it, so i really only got one rib out of the deal. Still, the one rib was good.
Beef Rib = 1. Completely dry, oven-infused flavor, and pretty tough. I would never have served this rib if I owned or ran the place. Terrible.
Chicken = 1. Completely dry, to the point that it was not edible. I am not exaggerating here. I took one bite and stopped there. I would never have served this if I owned or ran the place. Terrible.
Sausage = 3. Thinly sliced and way over cooked, but I saw the over cooking as a positive. I actually don't like some sausages that are cooked properly because they can be very fatty and greasy. These were a little over done for me and would have been much better if they were cooked a little less. I liked the flavors, but it was over done.
Beans = 3. All they are are canned Ranch beans with some jalapenos added. Not difficult to "make" and much less than I expected effort-wise from a supposedly good BBQ place.
Overall, it seems to me that maybe this place started out strong and has eroded to what it is today - very disappointing. The "Best Food Ever" series is dated 2010, so maybe they filmed in late 2009 or early 2010. The food I was served looked nothing like the food on the show. Of course they're going to put their best foot forward on camera but I was hoping to get something that resembled the food I saw on the show. This clearly did not happen.
Any restaurant with any pride and concern for customer satisfaction would never have served the beef rib, chicken, and sausage I received. Cooks know when they are serving good food and they know when they're serving crap. They made a conscious decision to serve me crap tonight and because of this I will never return.
I'm pretty sure the meat had been prepared well ahead of our arrival, hence the no smoke smell as we walked up, and allowed the food to dry out waiting until people came in and ordered. I would rather they say they were 'out' of the food that dried out and was thrown away (which should have happened) and served me their best of what they had left, but that didn't happen.
Maybe I went on an off day. I don't know. What I do know is I'll not be returning and potentially wasting more of my hard earned money. There are too many better alternatives out there for me to roll the dice again on this place.
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