Way OT: Good BBQ in Dallas?
You are going to get more aggregated reviews here
yelp.com/dallas
Off The Bone BBQ. So dang good.
Haha, you must be a friend of Wongtran. I'll see you there? We are going to North Main BBQ per groom's recommendation.
I agree on the hard 8. Two Podners directly across from Fair Park and the Cotton Bowl Stadium is amazing too. Homemade sweet tea, unreal brisket and sausage. Get the banana pudding too. This is your classic local joint in the grit of the city.
The Grapevine location is tremendous. The food isn't the best BBQ by any stretch of the imagination. But the waitstaff provides a very nice atmosphere.
We all know that Bone Daddy's is just where the strippers work when they aren't at the club... May need to let the OP know that before taking someone there ;)
I'm sorry but when i saw the title I thought this had to be a joke. I know I grew up in Michigan and have never lived in Dallas (but have travelled there countless times on business through the years) but isn't asking for a good BBQ resturant in Dallas sort of like asking for a good French resturant in Paris?
Aren't virtually ALL tjhe BBQ places in Dallas good? At least the one's I've been to have been.
Texas BBQ sauce has a weird tangy flavor to it (I prefer sweet BBQ). Also, there is some weird obsession with brisket that I can't relate to. So no it's not anything close to asking for a good French restaurant in Paris.
I've also found that asking people who grew up in Texas about good food is a terrible mistake. It's better to ask someone who grew up outside of Texas where the good restaurants are from my experience.
Due to the proximity of all the cows and availability of cow meat, Texas is known for their BBQ-ing of brisket.
If you've tried to BBQ a brisket, you know it's hard as hell to do right. Poster below is right; if you really want good brisket, you need to drive south to the Hill County around Austin.
"good" brisket places will frown upon sauce, but Texas really isn't known for a sauce, as opposed to the Carolinas (vinegar), South Carolina (mustard), sweet ketchup/honey based (Kansas City).
Best purchase I've made in the last few years is my smoker! :)
Yep, I just can't get into brisket. Even when someone tells me it's good brisket I can't appreciate it.
Also, I agree on the best BBQ being in Central Texas. Didn't mean for my last reply to be so entirely negative. Last place I lived was KC and I just enjoyed their BBQ better (the non-overly salty sauce variety).
nah it wasn't negative.
different strokes for different folks.
my wife loves brisket, is 'meh' with pulled pork and pork ribs.
Couple of other points- the meat is the most important part of BBQ not the sauce and different regions have different flavors, up north here it is sweeter, in the carolinas it's vinegary and so on. The fascination with brisket is that it is a tough piece of meat to do properly. Keeping it tender/juicy with a great flavor is why brisket has so many competitions around it. Not to mention the fact that TX is a beef state through and through.
Btw- I lived in Houston for 3+ years and have traveled all over and can tell you that Texas has excellent BBQ and some places DO have sweeter sauce down there as well.
Damn, this post is making me hungry, guess I'll need to hit Smoque later! Edited for grammar mistakes.
I know it sounds odd but my wife has come to the same conclusion about restaurant recommendations as has pretty much every other northerner I know in the area.
Though you bring up a good point about Houston. That city has some truly excellent restaurants so it might be different there. I'm speaking more from my experiences in the I-35 cities (Dallas, Austin, and SA). Haven't spent much time in Houston so I can't speak for it.
Meh, I would say it's more akin to asking for a good coney dog in Michigan. There are some places here that, despite the fact they're in the state that popularized the coney dog, think they can slap chili on a hot dog and call it a coney. So to an outsider, it may seem they're having something somewhat good and authentic, but to someone who knows better, you've just wasted your time by not doing your research.
MUCH better analogy. But the point remains - if a coney dog place in Michigan sucked it wouldnt stay in business very long due to the overwhelming number of competing places people can go enjoy a coney. Much like BBQ in Dallas.
Side note: would you believe there are NO coney places here in Cleveland outside of the dreaded skyline chili? You would think as close as we are we'd have at least a few but no. There are none to be found.
Skyline is god awful. I was down at the derby last weekend, so driving back home, I for some reason decided to stop along the way in Cinci and got a 4 way. Man, I should've remembered how absolutely terrible that watery mush that they call chili sauce is. I just don't see the appeal.
Eating brisket and ribs at Franklin BBQ is a wonderful, life-changing experience.
Sonny Bryan's. Brisket to die for.
Smoke Pit in Ft Worth is real good! I will be there today for PCF (Pork Chop Friday) biggest pork chop you will ever eat and man is that thing good. You have to be there early they only make 200 so its first come first serve. Enjoy!
There are so, so, so many BBQ places and they all are just a little bit different and it depends on what's really important to you.
For my money if I'm only concerned with the meat I'm going to Rail Head in FW right off of 30 - it's always brimming with customers no matter what time and everyone I know that's been there loves the meat.
There are a number of places in Arlington (near the stadium even) for BBQ - Bodacious BBQ is pretty good and, this is going to get some growls, but I really do like Dickey's BBQ even if it's chainy the chopped brisket is quite good (they really know how to smoke a brisket down here...)
I've tried Rudy's and it just doesn't do it for me at all. The meat isn't as good, the sides aren't as good and I'm not a big fan of the picnic table setting.
Oh, and Dickey's has rolls and I love rolls :)
Are good. actually I like Rudy's alot. The brisket tacos are top notch. I believe that Rudy would kick Famous Dave's ass in a honky tonk fist fight. If I were going I'd select like 10 places and try them all. Also I'd Make a trip to Razzoo's, also a chain. The view is great and the food is pretty good, too bad they don't have those chains up here.....Pappadeaux is another chain place that is very good. How come we get stuck with Chili's and Applebees?
I liked Hard Eight in Coppell -- www.hardeightbbq.com
It's a "pay by the weight" operation -- you walk in, point out what you want from the pit, they load it up and it gets weighed. You pay.
Their camp beans are all you can eat and are wonderful.
If you want to stay near downtown Dallas (not driving off to Coppell or Grapevine or Ft. Worth where there is certainly better bbq), you basically have 4 options, which I'd rate this way (and this is mainly brisket).
4. Peggy Sue's. In Highland Park across the street from SMU. A lot of people like this place, but I think that's only because it's the only halfway decent bbq in northern Dallas. Brisket is dry and portions are small. Good sauces, but if you need sauce, that's a problem.
3. Sonny Bryants. It's excessively expensive because of its location close to downtown. About $5 more per plate than other places. I found the brisket dry, but I've only been there once and it was somewhat late, so I may have gotten the dregs.
2. Sammy's. Great atmosphere and the brisket and sausage have been really good everytime I've been. Never dry, which is likely because they have severely limited hours, basically just lunch. In a weird area between uptown and downtown, and kind of hard to find as it's on a dead end street. If you go, make sure you check the hours and get there toward the early side because they do run out.
1. Lockhart Smokehouse. This is off in Bishop Arts, which is a bit west of downtown. Have only been here a couple times but both times the brisket was very good. Not as good as central Texas to be sure, but a good approximation. No sauce, so if that's your thing, go somewhere else.
Either way, I spent years in the area. Jose T. Garcia in Ft. Worth, the stockyard area with the Cattleman's where J.R. Ewing had many dinner during Dallas seasons. But the stockyard also has Billy Bob's, White Horse Saloon and all the things to do there that gets your bbq fix along with the sightseeing things there. Watch out for cow pies though. Up in Addisson Fugo de Chou, a Brazilian Churrascaria bbq type.
and they are the standard, like it or not.
Anybody here old enough to remember Usenet? There used to be a group called: rec.sports.football.college back in the early days of the internets. I only bring it up because BBQ was a frequent (and often heated) off-season discussion topic.
Back then, there were so few people talking about college football online that there was basically one place where *EVERYONE* electronically congregated. There were some epic threads debating the merits of Catsup-based vs. Mustard-based vs. Vinegar-based sauces.
Also, damn, am I old.
I suggest Sammy's BBQ in downtown Dallas (there is also one in University Park). Get a two meat plate with the heart-stopper potatoes and cole-slaw. The onion rings are also very good sopped in BBQ sauce.
2126 Leonard Street, Dallas, TX 75201