Wow. I really thought I was going to love this place. They have consistently received rave…read morereviews from magazine and newspaper food critics. I know that they had a food truck, but had never tried them before. So I went in with a very positive mindset.
I was actually shocked by how many things I didn't like. The place is very large, but their parking lot is tiny. Which means parking on the street. I can see that to be a challenge considering we were there early at about 4:45, but it still looked like the parking at the State Fair. We were lucky and snagged a spot right when someone pulled out. Bullet dodged.
We were seated right away (bullet #2 dodged, because I've heard of multi-hour waits), and were sat at a large communal table. The person who sat us explained that we could use the QR code to order, or a waitress would be by. After a few minutes, a waitress appeared and we were ready to order. She advised us to use the QR code, or "she would come back in a few minutes." I'm not a fan of QR codes, but used it anyway. I dislike that the screen is not in menu order, so there is a lot of searching. The text gets cut off when you view it on a phone, so there is a lot of clicking and guessing. Strike One.
While waiting, you can't help but notice all the signs (including one on the table) hyping that "Animales does not accept tips on our food & beverage" except that they automatically charge 20 percent on every item. And, oh, we really want you to order using QR codes, so that we don' have to do it. (Strike 2). By the way, in order to get refills of pop, I had to go up to the bar and have them do it, so again, serve yourself, but give us 20 percent as a service charge (Strike 2.5).
OK, but I bet the food, is GREAT! Not so much. In fact, I might have cut them some slack if the food was good.
To me, the stars of any barbeque place should be the beef brisket and the pork ribs. I can't comment on the beef brisket because they don't even make beef brisket (they weren't out of it, they don't carry it). That's a solid Strike 3. OK, well, certainly the ribs are going to be fantastic, right? They LOOK great. Wonderful dark bark. They were on the skimpy for a $18 half rack with no sides, except for some shavings on onion and jalapenos. The good news: they were very tender. The bad news is that they were HIGHLY over salted and there was hardly any meat on the bones. I asked the person next to me (at the communal table) how he liked his ribs and he said, "Eh. Very salty and skimpy." We live in an Instragramable world, looks great, so the taste doesn't matter very much.
They offer two sauces (which taste very similar) (and ketchup) and they helped cover the salty taste, but that's not the point of good barbeque. This strike was an automatic game lost move. (Did I mention that I had to ask the bar to refill my $3 pop each time?). If you are a BBQ place and don't have fantastic ribs, you ain't a good BBQ place. Period. Full stop.
My wife had the cheese steak sandwich she said was "OK" but I tasted it and it just seemed (again) salty and mushy. (No strikes this time, but no more than a single.)
Lastly we ordered "Memphis Fries" which are not explained on the menu and google didn't seem to think "Memphis" Fries ($10.46 with tax) are a thing, so a little menu help would be nice, since you can't ask the non-existent wait staff. They are battered, seasoned fries that come with a white dipping sauce and are cooked in tallow fat. My wife rated the fries as 5 out of 5, so I won't take off any points for the fries (I would have rated them lower, but they were OK to good and I'm trying to be fair).
For a happy hour sandwich, the "half rack" of ribs, the fries, a beer, and a glass of pop, our bill came to $64.24, which I think is pretty expensive for mediocre food, and difficult parking and a mandatory service charge for no service.
My recommendation: Go to Famous Dave's. Pay less, get more, and have a much better food experience (and you can get brisket too). Sigh.....
