Salt lake city april 26-may1

I can recommend two BBQ places:

Pat's Barbecue (www.patsbbq.com) Here is my review of the place.

The other is Q4U (www.q4u.com)

Blue Iguana
165 S West Temple
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
Tel: 801.533.8900

Great place, great food. Lots of moles to try for sure.

Following this thread, I stopped at Pat's BBQ tonight. I had the three meat combo. I knew I wanted brisket and ribs and decided to go with chicken over pulled pork. Good chicken is a treat and pulled pork normally is a disappointment compared to what I'm used to. It was a mixed bag. I thought the chicken (only a leg) was very good, just the right smoke, the right seasoning, the right tender and juiciness. The major disappointment for me was the brisket that I tried next. I'm used to very thick cut, tender, juicy brisket (Texas style). What I had very much resembles what Larry shows in his website (review) picture linked above. If I'd paid attention to that before, I never would have ordered it. What came were three thin, fairly dry, slightly tough brisket slices. There was flavor on the edge, but it was very bland overall and I really had to sauce it (the three sauces provided on the table were great). To me this is exactly the type of brisket that I imagine people not liking brisket are used to. I would be a brisket hater, if this was what I was used to. The ribs were very good (but not great). They were meaty, juicy spares. I enjoyed the seasoning, but I felt they were just a bit on the tough side. The meat definitely held very firmly to the bone. For a side I had jambalaya. I'm not a jambalaya expert, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The atmosphere was absolutely superb. That and a beer was $23, including tip. It also was at least 30% less food than what I normally get for $15 (I probably could've eaten another plate), so I'd rate it on the expensive side. Overall, I'd probably go back, but definitely would stay clear of the brisket. I'm told they have point on Fridays, but it normally sells out at lunch time within an hour of opening.

On my last night I tried Q4U. I sampled their large sample platter that included both spares and baby backs, a hot link and (boneless, skinless) chicken breast. Accompanying were coleslaw and yams. I tried both their sauces on the side. Probably the most memorable was the coleslaw. Nothing really stood out, except the sauces were a bit unique (in a good way). I probably should have gone with the pulled pork as that was the most popular, but it wasn't included on the sampler. The place was named one of the West's 10 best by Sunset and recommended by Larry above. This does have me concerned for the state of Western BBQ.