BBQ Review: Texas Chain Massacre!

The BBQ Family is not into the big national chains. Many are awful, the majority are serviceable at best, and just a handful are actually good. Still, if something looks promising, we’ll give it a try. Dickey’s Barbecue Pit is a chain that hails from the great state of Texas. You would think that fact alone would give them some type of “grill cred”.  Oh, contraire…

Let’s start with the three meat combo with slaw and beans (remember, these are the BBQthDirector’s standard sides).  I take one look at the meat and know immediately that we have become victims of false advertising.  This was no BBQ place!  Smoked meats always have a pink “smoke ring” around the outside, and there was no hint of this on the pork ribs, beef brisket or sausage.  They screamed oven baked!  The ribs were pretty tasty (though completely lacking any smoke flavor) and were actually pleasantly tender.  The sausage was your standard commercial grade stuff, not awful, but lacking any distinctive characteristics.  The brisket was gross!  Dry doesn’t begin to describe it.  Chalky is more like it.  The taste was reminiscent of liver marinated in Los Angeles Harbor water.  The slaw was just average, no different than anything you can buy at your grocery store.  The beans were… gross!  The BBQthDirector’s Wife said it tasted like someone dropped a cigarette in the beans.  I say it was a hobo who first swirled his cancer stick in L.A. Harbor then dropped it in the beans!  The best thing on the plate was the roll.  It tasted of homemade yeasty goodness.  Not bad at all.

Also on our table was a pulled pork sandwich, that was quite moist, but also quite flavorless.  The BBQ sauce was served warm and was fine.  A little thin and watery, but it definitely helped all the meats.  The Macaroni and Cheese was a bit better than the stuff out of the box but didn’t taste like much.  We got a couple chicken nugget kids’ meals with waffle fries (standard out-of-the-freezer fare).  A huge plus was the free soft serve ice cream that you just help yourself to (so, of course, we helped ourselves more than once).  No toppings, but you do have your choice of a cone or styrofoam cup (which I’m sure would be remarkably similar in texture to the brisket)!

Thankfully, the BBQ Family got a great deal from Restaurant.com.  Check it out some time for some great deals.  We bought a $25 gift certificate for $10.  The catch was the $35 minimum purchase, which was still a great deal for us.  We ended up paying just under $20 for our meal.  We can hardly go to a fast food place for that much.  I would definitely choose Dickey’s over McDonald’s, but not for full price.

If you like fake “bbq” like Tony Roma’s or Chili’s, you’ll be fine here.  I would only return with a good discount like I had, but I wouldn’t go out of my way.

The BarBeQuethMinistry! Rib Rating (1 bone = awful, 5 bones = legendary):

Ambience/Service: 4 bones

Sides: 1.5 bones

Sauce: 3.5 bones

Meat: 1.5 bones

Overall: 2.75 bones