America’s Best & Worst Cities for BBQ ~ How Do Your Picks Rate?

thirdeye

thirdeye

somebody shut me the fark up.

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The lists of cities in this article were formulated from reviews on TripAdvisor, so a people's choice kind of thing. Spoiler alert: A map of the US is at the very top of the article showing the top 10 cities. A chart shows ranking of about 50 more cities.

Of the top 10 listed I would have only picked one. But before looking at the chart, I made some more picks. I picked one in the 11 to 20 group, and zero in the 21 to 30 group. So, even though I got a peek at the top 10, I would have only picked two out of the top 30 cities according to the rating system. Actually I wouldn't get another hit until positions 39, and 47.

Jot down a list of cities, then open the article.
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https://www.chefspencil.com
 
That list is a silly as any I've ever seen. Lubbock, TX, has some of the best BBQ in the world and isn't on the list at all. Kansas City is 39th. Austin is 18th. LOLOLOLOL!
 
Used to love visits to KC-Tony Roma’s was a newer building plus visited some other quaint places. They looked sketchy but were outstanding bbq
Dallas has cool places- Heim-Cattleack-Pecan Lodge

Our most common, though quite rare eating away

Gas Station Burritos
Sonic double with Tots
Only occasionally bbq. Heim, Pecan Lodge, Cattleack visiting DFW but usually Thai food
Home not often but perhaps 1-2 year Rudy’s, our Rudy’s is quite good
 
Just a little erroneous. Dare I say these off the wall places have people ranking them who don't know good bbq? Some of the well known places may suffer because their customers know good bbq and judge harsher?
 
26 BBQ joints in KC???? Uh...have you ever been to KC? There are tons and tons of BBQ joints there. OK Joes is in a farking gas station! The American Royal is there! And Memphis is even lower....this has to be a joke.

I may agree with the Portland rating. It's been on fire for a year or so...
 
This reminds me the last time I was out with some friends in Texas. They were all Asian and wanted some Chinese food. Of course, they checked TripAdvisor and found the best Chinese restaurant, possibly in America. It had a huge number of reviews and almost all of them were 5 star. I tried to dissuade them, telling them they were not going to get good Chinese food in this town. I asked them how many non-white, non-Hispanic people they saw in the two days they'd been there and the answer was zero. BBQ, yes; Mexican food, yes; steak, yes; Chinese food? highly doubtful. I knew I didn't stand a chance as I was completely outnumbered and the TripAdvisor reviews for this restaurant were out of this world, so we went. The restaurant was not awful, but boy were they disappointed.
 
APPARITION said:
My favorite place for food in the world is New Orleans, I would not get BBQ there.
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I've had BBQ there. I believe I tried three places. I've had worse, but not much worse. It was consistently bad. It actually came to mind as one of the cities with the worst BBQ I've experienced. It has been a few years, and these things change. I'm guessing from your comment that New Orleans ranked pretty high.
 
SweetHeatBBQnSC said:
Just a little erroneous. Dare I say these off the wall places have people ranking them who don't know good bbq? Some of the well known places may suffer because their customers know good bbq and judge harsher?
Click to expand...

The flip side of the coin is that the market drives the business. If the majority of the people in Sometown, USA like a menu with fall-off-the-bone tender ribs, over sauced meats and fried wings.... places that sell that kind of barbecue might just rise above a place serving more traditional barbecue. But, in a city like Memphis or KC there are enough people that know good barbecue to keep the real places busy.

Gore said:
This reminds me the last time I was out with some friends in Texas. They were all Asian and wanted some Chinese food. Of course, they checked TripAdvisor and found the best Chinese restaurant, possibly in America. It had a huge number of reviews and almost all of them were 5 star. I tried to dissuade them, telling them they were not going to get good Chinese food in this town. I asked them how many non-white, non-Hispanic people they saw in the two days they'd been there and the answer was zero. BBQ, yes; Mexican food, yes; steak, yes; Chinese food? highly doubtful. I knew I didn't stand a chance as I was completely outnumbered and the TripAdvisor reviews for this restaurant were out of this world, so we went. The restaurant was not awful, but boy were they disappointed.
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I checked TripAdvisor for the one dedicated barbecue restaurant in town (claiming to serve Southern BBQ) and it has 181 reviews and the overall rating was 4.5 stars. On a good day I would give it 3 stars.
 
Gore said:
I've had BBQ there. I believe I tried three places. I've had worse, but not much worse. It was consistently bad. It actually came to mind as one of the cities with the worst BBQ I've experienced. It has been a few years, and these things change. I'm guessing from your comment that New Orleans ranked pretty high.
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Get boiled crawfish or shrimp. Get an etouffe. Definitely get chargrilled oysters.

I don’t see getting ribs or brisket as logical there, they rely way too much on seasoning.
 
thirdeye said:
I checked TripAdvisor for the one dedicated barbecue restaurant in town (claiming to serve Southern BBQ) and it has 181 reviews and the overall rating was 4.5 stars. On a good day I would give it 3 stars.
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BBQ is very regional and people have expectations based on what they are used to. I frequently visited North Carolina and the reviews for BBQ there are horrendous. Basically, things like, "This isn't what BBQ is supposed to be like. The sauce is supposed to be sticky and sweet. The sauce is sour and runny! If you want good BBQ, then go to the BBQ Closet in Podunk, NY. Best BBQ I ever had!" I love it when a reviewer will recommend a restaurant 1000 miles away. Anyway, about the only thing good about TripAdvisor is the pictures. I can only imagine the 1-star reviews for Franklin's, stuff like, "I had to wait 3 hours to get lunch? Don't people work here?" or "I waited since 8:00 in the morning and they ran out of brisket and all I could get was chicken," or my favorite type of TripAdvisor 1-star review: "I refuse to wait in line just to get food." It always reminds me of the Yogi Berra quote: "Nobody goes to that restaurant anymore because it's too crowded."
 
SweetHeatBBQnSC said:
Just a little erroneous. Dare I say these off the wall places have people ranking them who don't know good bbq? Some of the well known places may suffer because their customers know good bbq and judge harsher?
Click to expand...

I think that's a lot of it. My first reaction that San Antonio, Houston and Memphis have the highest number of low rated restaurants was surprise but as I think about it and what they were tracking, that actually makes sense. First, it's about volume -- so places with a lot of BBQ are going to have more low rated places than locations that don't have many to start with. Second though, people in those areas know which places are good and which aren't. A city like LA is large enough to have a good number of BBQ places but isn't going to have the critical clientele that I think you'd see in the south.

It's not really wrong, you just have to think about what they measured.
 
The list with most high ranked bbq joints in town seems to be closer to what I would expect the top list to look like. It seems like some of these cities aren't known for bbq get a few places and get great rankings from the people when maybe they don't have great que to compare them to.
 
Los Angeles has a very small handful of BBQ places I've heard are good.

But really, BBQ here sucks.

Just like most places with "good Mexican food" have never had GOOD Mexican food. We have that here.

Just like we have some decent Italian food, but really, Chicago laughs at LA's "good Italian food".

That Top 10 list has me scratching my head, for sure.
 
Whoo Hoo! Go to NOLA for the best BBQ joints in the Land! You beat me to posting that article TE.


PS: I too call Bullchit because I'm 13 miles from the Texas state line. :becky:
 
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