The Tale of Two Q-Joints [Review]

Had to spend the night in San Jose last night for work.
Nearby was a highly rated (on yelp) bbq joint called:
Smoking Pig BBQ (aka Joint 1)
1144 N 4th St, San Jose, CA 95112

Yelp has 2,600 reviews with an average of 4 stars!

Today I ended up being in San Francisco about lunch time and stopped at:
CatHead’s BBQ (aka Joint 2)
1665 Folsom St, San Francisco, CA 94103

Yelp has 844 reviews with an average of 4 stars

The Food & Experience
Joint 1 - Smoking Pigs:
Two J&R smokers are out back when I arrive for dinner around 6pm. They appear well used, but are cold at the moment



Inside the place (that held probably 75) was almost full to capacity on a Tuesday night..
So far so good.

I was seated and ordered a 3 meat combo.
Brisket, Hot Links and (per menu- their famous) Burnt Ends
Sides were Mac & Cheese abs cornbread

This is what was delivered to my table ($29.99 not counting my beer)



Yea.......

Brisket: Too salty, a bit dry and overcooked
Burnt Ends: Tough and chewy - undercooked
Hot Links: Ok
Mac & Cheese: Ok
Cornbread: One tiny muffin and 6 packs of butter? WTF!!?

Overall score: Dismal - 2 out of 10

Joint 2 - CatHead’s:
Small place that probably only holds 30
2 built-in custom wood smokers behind the counter. Smells like BBQ, smoke rising out of chimney.
It’s lunch time, but only about 6 people inside.
I ordered their smoked sloppy joe.
A brisket sloppy joe with pimento cheese!
This was delicious!



They also have cathead biscuits and sweet tea (real sweet tea!)
I also ordered a pound of brisket to go. (Juicy and cooked well with good beefy flavor)



Overall score: Remarkable! 8 out of 10

Takeaways:
1. The most popular place is not always the best place
2. Follow the smoke, if you don’t smell a active smoker, proceed with caution
3. Don’t get too jaded and refuse to eat bbq out. There are still a few gems out there waiting to be discovered
4. CatHead’s BBQ > Smoking Pig by a wide margin
(note: if either of these joints are owned by a Brethren , I’d be happy to share more of my thoughts privately)

brimclau said:

Good BBQ in San Francisco??? who knew? [emoji782]

Thanks for the Tip - I am forced to go there for work once in a while and that Brisket sloppy Jo might make it all worthwhile.

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I would go as far as to say “great bbq!”
It is in the top 3 restaurant BBQ I’ve tasted in Northern, CA (or maybe it was just that much better than the other poser of a bbq Joint)

Pitbull said:

Wow, $30 for the first one and that's all you got?:twitch: Never mind that it wasn't good.l

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Highway robbery

1MoreFord said:

SirPork, you and I have to disagree on your point #2. A hot, smoking pit Does Not equate too good Q. I find it to be a good way for bad 'raunts to lure the unsuspecting into their traps. BBQ joints do not have to cook 24/7 to have good Q.

BTW, when I saw the prices at joint #1 I'd have probably walked and went to a steak house.

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My point being this..
If the smoker is cold, the food has been held for some time.
Great bbq restaurants cook for the day and close when they run out.
Even if they haven’t actually been smoking in a few hours, smoker would still be warm.

Most of the great places I’ve been to have an active smoker

Price point doesn’t bother me if the food is on par with the pricing. This wasn’t.