One of the bigger food trucks I have ever seen. Grill Man Dan has won a bunch of awards for his BBQ and certified as a Judge at the Kansas City Barbecue Society, so I was very excited to check it out. I usually review the Ribs, Brisket, Mac and Cheese, Beans, Cornbread those are my go to's. Fortunately they have them all but unfortunately for me he doesn't have a combo meal for all of them. Had to get a rib platter with 6 ribs and it came with seasoned fries. The other platters came with fries and cole slaw but I wanted the ribs more than a big serving of brisket. And the sides were a la carte and I didn't even notice the corn bread sign so I missed it.
Brisket tasted pretty good. Amazing that I actually was offered a choice of cut! Point or Flat, That's SUPER rare, Wanted to try both and he gave me a bit of each. Awesome! Good smoke ring and great rub. Point cut I could feel and taste the marbling but not quiet as much fat as I was expecting, I want to say that was a good thing because I'm not about to say "The more Fat the Better" but I think what I mean is it didn't feel like the marbling did much for the meat IMO. Rub was much more savory type, little bit of black pepper, nothing overpowering. The flavor of the meat was traditional a bit, honestly tasted more like roast beef to me. Perfect Texture though, cooked just right. The fatty parts did melt after a few seconds
Ribs came pre cut (Thank you!) but these are the types that I have been calling Backyard style or New England style. The meat itself is so juicy but the bark of the ribs is tough and charred and slathered in sauce. And when you cut them its damn near impossible to make a straight cut, the bark gets in the way and your pushing a plate of bark around trying to get at the meat that falls apart underneath. It doesn't mean anything good or bad, it's just a different style to me. A lot of meat on those bones though. Meat was a teeny bit on the tougher side for me but it wasn't "tough" and could have been a bit more juicy but it wasn't "dry". Definitely the kind of meat you need to pour the sauce all over.
Mac and Cheese looked like the traditional store hot bar kind of style. Very orange. Might have had a teeny bit of a red spice sprinkled in. Not a terrible taste but nothing I would need again, just general Velveeta mac and cheese stuff.
Beans looked like a secret recipe from a crazy Pit Master. They looked amazing and smelled like award winning. The beans were delicious, maybe a 3 bean but I could only Identify pinto and red. Gravy actually stuck to the beans unlike this canned baked bean liquidy stuff. The base was BBQ sauce though and it tasted amazing for the first few bites. After a little bit though I couldn't help but thinking I was just shoveling down warm BBQ sauce and beans. Still really good though.
Fries that came with the Ribs were seasoned with kind of like a sweet Mesquite sprinkle. Not bad fries at all, traditional cut, good taste. read more