Walking into this place immediately gives you the feeling of an old-school neighborhood BBQ joint…read more The building itself is older and pretty small, with just a handful of booths and several small tables packed into the dining area. The decor is very minimal, but one wall completely covered in customer signatures honestly adds a nice personal vibe to the place. Ordering happens at the register tucked into the back corner, so when there's a line it cuts right past some of the tables. Definitely close quarters while people are eating, but it somehow still fits the character of the place.
The gentleman taking orders was friendly, just not overly talkative. The lady who brought our food out was very polite and welcoming though, which I appreciated. Overall, the service was okay. Our food took about 10-15 minutes to come out, which felt a little long considering it didn't appear very busy other than one larger party already seated when we arrived. To be fair, we couldn't see what was happening in the kitchen. The only real frustrating part was waiting close to another 10 minutes for a to-go container after asking a few times.
As for the food, I'd say it landed somewhere in the average range for Texas BBQ. Nothing was outright bad, but nothing really blew me away either. I ordered the loaded baked potato topped with brisket, link, two pork ribs, all the traditional baked potato toppings, and their spicy BBQ sauce.
First off, the potato itself was fantastic. Huge, perfectly tender, and honestly exactly what a baked potato should be. The toppings were fresh and plentiful -- butter, cheese, sour cream, bacon pieces -- and it could have stood on its own as a solid meal even before adding the meats.
The brisket was over chopped, which personally isn't my favorite style at a BBQ joint. I usually feel like finely chopped brisket loses some of the texture and full smoke flavor you get from sliced or a coarse chopped brisket cut to order. It stayed moist, but I really didn't pick up much smoke flavor from it.
The link was unfortunately overcooked and dried out. The casing had tightened around the meat, and even sliced up it just didn't have much juice left in it. The ribs were probably the weakest part for me. They were on the smaller side, dry, and pretty tough with the meat cooked down close to the bone.
Now with all of that said, the seasoning on the meats was excellent. Bold flavor across everything, and the spicy BBQ sauce was absolutely on point. I just wish the meats themselves had a little more life and moisture to match how good the seasoning tasted.
Overall, everything felt pretty average to slightly below average for me, especially by Texas BBQ standards. On the positive side, the prices were actually very reasonable considering how expensive meat has become these days. I'd still come back again because I'd like to try some of the meats individually and let them stand on their own without being loaded onto a baked potato. There's definitely flavor here -- I just think the execution was a little inconsistent during this visit.
