We were looking for a bite to eat and stumbled upon Mission BBQ. Never hearing anything about it, off we went.
It's huge on the inside. A big open floor plan with memorabilia adorning the walls honoring service men and women and first responders. I have no idea if they give back to charities for them or not, but let's get into the restaurant a bit, shall we?
Having never been there, we walked up to the register to order. It's a fast casual counter service establishment. The cashier, Briana, seemed enthusiastic about helping us. Okay, you can't read tone, so that was sarcasm. She was busy separating aluminum containers. Was there a "Hello. Welcome to Mission BBQ. Have you dined with us before," greeting? No, there was not. And I know you're thinking, "well, that's oddly specific." And you're not wrong because a manager realized there were people behind us in line, opened another register and said those exact words to the people behind us.
My wife ordered the pulled chicken sandwich and a side salad with Italian dressing. I asked about the number of sides and if I could get a salad as a side. Briana looked at me as if looking through me and said, "you gotta pick a main first." Well, duh. I was just asking a question (I thought but didn't say aloud). So I picked the brisket sandwich. She asked if I wanted it dry or moist. I've never heard brisket offered that way before and must've had a weird look on my face as she followed it up with, "dry is lean and moist is not." Again, never heard brisket offered dry or moist before. Who would order it dry?
So I got the MOIST brisket sandwich, side salad with ranch dressing and fries and a large drink.
There are six different bbq sauces on the table. None are all that good. The best (and I use that term loosely) is the KC bbq sauces and the Chicago sweet sauce.
So, back to the meal. My wife had the pulled chicken. To say it was salty is an insult to salt. It was insanely salty. You could taste the salt more than the chicken, or the bun, or the sauce. A deer might like it, but it was all your daily sodium in a couple bites.
The salad was fresh, but the Italian dressing tasted off. We couldn't figure it out, but it was just off.
My brisket was moist. It was good, but if the lean is dry, it must really be dry based how moist the other brisket was.
And my salad was fresh as well. The ranch was different. It had a little kick to it. I kept thinking something was wrong with it until I figured it out and it would have been nice if they had stated that.
The fries were really good. Fresh, hand cut, fried well, but not overdone with a nice seasoning. They should focus more on their fries. Maybe make a bbq version of poutine. They were that good.
And the salads were really good too. Maybe offer some different add-ins for the salads.
The moist brisket was good. Again, if I got the lean, how dry would it have been? I don't want to think about that.
The pulled chicken was the big loser along with the Italian dressing.
Oh, and our cashier. I don't think she could have been less enthusiastic for us to be there or her being there for that matter.
When we're in the area again, we'll stick to something else. Maybe Portillo's, or Outback, or someplace else. We were not fans. read more