So, I’m back home in the US and I am really craving some
Southern goodies. As I was contemplating
what I wanted to eat, we passed by a Famous Dave’s barbeque. Super Southern? Mmm, not really but bbq did sound pretty
good. After running inside out of the
sleet, we were welcomed by an empty lobby.
Not a server or host in sight. We
waited for a couple of minutes without seeing anyone and almost started to walk
around to the dining room until we saw a server come in to seat us. He quickly sat us down at the closest table
and left us with our menus. The original
hostess walked through at the same time we were being seated and quickly wished
us a nice meal from behind her podium.
A few moments later, a more attentive server came by to get
our drink orders. He was much better at
paying attention to us and making us feel like we were allowed to be
there. In the end, we ordered the pick 2
combos, which included a choice of two meats, a side and a corn bread
muffin. Since we wanted to try a little
bit of everything, we each chose different meats and sides to share. We chose the Georgian chopped pork, barbeque
chicken, rib tips, and brisket, with mac and cheese and fries as our
sides. On a side note, he had his head resting on the table on top of his arm which he was taking our order so that was a bit weird. I noticed that the 5 people working at the time were very young and and seemed to be really bored. The restaurant only had a handful of tables, so there probably wasn't as much to do for them...
Look at all that FOOD!!! :)
So the first meat, the chopped pork, was pretty tasty. It was a little bit dry but the extra sauces available on the table was much needed and made the meat much better. The bbq chicken looked small at first, but was actually quite a large piece. It was moist, well seasoned, and had a light lemony pepper kick to it. The macaroni and cheese was really watery and lacked any flavor to me. It wasn't really cheesey and it really just didn't live up to my expectations of mac and cheese from a restaurant. It did have a little spicy kick to it but not really much else. Watered down Easy Mac anyone?
The rib tips were really tender and the meat fell off of the bone. It too was a little on the bland side, needing that extra boost from the sauces. My favorite was the brisket. Thick cuts of juicy and tender meat. Some parts were a little chewy but the meat's flavor was good and salty so I could overlook that. That sauce that comes with it? Straight from the refrigerator! It was super cold and was startling to taste at first because of the contrast from the hot meat. It was a smoky but rather grainy sauce, good to try, not to eat. The fries were normal steak fries but were satisfying. The corn bread muffin was more on the muffin side that bread side. It was a fine grain corn meal and had a very uniform texture. Nice and fluffy with a touch of sweet.
I started to think, the meats are pretty well cooked here, but you really need the sauces to enjoy any of them. Lucky for us, each table was equipped with a caddy of 6 special sauces:
The Sweet and Zesty- exactly was the namesake suggests: a sweet bbq sauce with a nice kick. This is a mild sauce for the flavor seekers who don't want that extra spice.
The Rich and Sassy- this sauce has a deep smoky roasty tangy bbq flavor. This one is a pretty normal medium mild bbq sauce.
The Texas Pit- This one is smoky medium heat sauce, with no tangyness.
Devil's Spit- this one is a spicy one! Just a touch of tang, not too much bold flavor.
Georgia Mustard- A tangy medium spice mustard sauce, that is a little on the thin side.
Wilbur's Revenge- the spiciest sauce in the rack, a smoky pepper sauce without the tangy /citrus flavor.
What a cute little country restaurant!
So our server ended up disappearing towards the end of our meal... and took about 10 minutes to come back to pick up the credit card and bill. He also only came over because we flagged him down (he passed by the table 3 times and didn't even look at us!!). Hmph...
So, How Nuts Are We about Famous Dave's?
Food: 3.5 coconuts. Teh bbq was pretty standard, nothing special, but it was well cooked and there were lots of fun sauces to make up for the lack of originality. Service: 2 coconuts. We started out with no service, went to pretty attentive service, back to no service. Those youngins'... (I even overheard then saying, "There are 5 hosts and nobody is in the restaurant. I'm so bored!") Hmm, should have helped us then! Repeatability: 3 coconuts. The food is nothing special, but it's a good place to go for some bbq that is not going to burn a hole in your pocket. Hopefully service is better next time!
Until next time...
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