Tacia Burgin
Shane Wood
English 102
18 April 2016
Biggs BBQ
When visiting a restaurant for the first time you focus on everything you feel; from entering to exiting. When leaving the restaurant, a decision is made about if the trip was acceptable or worth it and if it's a good idea to go again. I had the opportunity to have these experiences and make these decisions when I visited Biggs BBQ at 2429 Iowa St, Lawrence KS, 66044.
I thought that I would be going into some whole in the wall diner when driving up to this sit-in restaurant. I walked in and, to my surprise, it was a pretty spacious place with wooden furniture, walls, and floors, two separate levels of seating, and the feel of any other barbecue place I've been to. A friend and I walk in and are immediately seated. The host wasn't the happiest person and also did not ask us where we would prefer to sit (booth, table, bar, etc.). She sat us by the bar at a table. While seated, with menus already placed in front of us, I began to further examine the inside of the restaurant. There were flat screen TV's all around, cloth napkins, ceiling fans turned on, lots of lighting, and they were playing music in the pop/rock genre. The restaurant seemed very family friendly with a wide range of ages present. One thing that was puzzling to me was that, the majority of the time, you can smell barbecue from a mile away and in this restaurant I could not smell it at all. This is something that I need from a barbecue restaurant.
We get our drinks and order and, during the waiting period, a waiter comes to our table with complementary fries so that we could try their house barbecue sauces. They had three sauces: hot, sweet, and original. We tried them all and my final favorite was original and sweet mixed. Having this addition to their restaurant made it easy to know, ahead of time, what to put on my meal. Our food was delivered in less than 15 minutes. This could be because they are consistent with quick arrival or because there wasn't too many people at the restaurant at that time. This was unexpected because it was a Friday night. Our food was delivered on red and white plates. I ordered a pulled pork sandwich with a side of fries and my friend ordered a buffalo chicken salad. My dish looked astonishing with the sandwich split with toothpicks holding it together, lightly buttered bun, mouthwatering tender meat falling out of the sandwich, and perfectly crispy French fries. And, although I am not a salad person (especially at a barbecue restaurant), my friend's meal looked larger than her body in size, filled with color, and delicious as well. I tried two different methods to eating my sandwich. First, I put the barbecue sauce directly on the sandwich, but for the other side, I dipped it into the sauce, eating my fries simultaneously both times. The difference in methods didn't help or harm the taste or feeling of my delectable sandwich. Both my friend and I were so focused on how tasty our meals were we stopped talking to each other. I even said "you know its good when it's silent".
Three different waitresses (there were more women seen than men) checked on us to see if everything was going ok. This is a good quality for a restaurant to have, or waitresses and waiters alone, if they want to be tipped or be known as a decent place to be in. I ate everything on my plate and my friend had so much salad that she only finished a quarter of it. We both decided that Biggs BBQ had treated us in a desirable manner and our food made the whole week worth getting through. There was no rush for us to leave, but as soon as I finished my plate was bussed and our tickets were given. For as great of an experience I had at this establishment, I would have been willing to pay a little more than normally. But, I didn't have to. Both of our meals came out to be less than 10 dollars. We paid our ticket and sat for a little while to get comfortable enough to get back on the road. During that resting period, I tried to cook up anything that I thought could have been an issue from this visit. The host and waitress didn't seem too happy to see us, they didn't ask us about seating, there was no barbecue smell, and there was a lady smoking out front during her break. None of these small disappointments were enough to ruin my visit or change my rating.
I am giving Biggs BBQ a four out of five star rating for fast service, good prices, and enchanting food. This place would be a great place to try for people who love barbecue because of the variety of choices they have and the outcome that I have experienced. I would definitely recommend Biggs BBQ to others and I will most likely be back myself. read more