Famous Dave’s BBQ

Famous Dave’s BBQ
Several locations in the US
315 Route 206, Suite 502 (Location visited)
Hillsborough, NJ

I will be straight to the point of this post: the day after Delta’s, I wanted meat – End of story.

OK, OK, in a way, in this trip, I wanted to try as many different cuisines as I could – with the exception of burgers, you will find out why on Friday. Still, I wanted to go meat heavy and thought BBQ was the next logical option. But, just in case, I did have steak on this trip but it will be the topic of another post. Quickly browsing around, the only place that seemed “close” (and that is stretching it a little bit) was Famous Dave’s BBQ, a chain restaurant. While I had some hesitation, in the end, if they are ranked as one of the top 100 in Urbanspoon ranking, I must give it some credit, right? Now, since it is a chain, it shouldn’t really matter which location I went. So, rather than driving to the one with that ranking, I drove south-southwest to the location in Hillsborough. Did I mention I spent a lot of time driving around?

The waiter guided me to the dining room and was seated on a booth. Yeah, this time I wasn’t seated in the middle of the restaurant! Taking a look around, it was pretty much evident it provided a casual, family environment. Now, if sometimes the kids just behave… Why? There was one toddler who was screaming loudly while waiting for the food…

No idea what this has to do with BBQ – they were not selling any other meat outside of some fish, chicken, beef or pork…

While looking at the menu, I was reminded of my meal earlier this year in Bandana’s BBQ. The meal was priced in such a way you can get a decent portion but, if you want to go for broke, you can order a second meat and so on. In my case, while ribs are always a good proposition, I ended up going for brisket and pork.

After making my order, it was a semi deja-vu again. Again, back in Bandana’s, something similar occurred, i.e., they had several sauces in display, almost a bragging right. One in particular caught my attention: the Devil’s Spit (the squirt bottle in the middle), which was supposed to be the spiciest one. I have mentioned previously that me sweating after eating spicy food is my gauge to determine how hot/spicy the food is. I guess I would find out in a moment!

My full order.

Side #1 was mac-n-cheese. Unlike Delta’s which was a bit too (Cheddar) cheesy, here it was creamier, a taste I prefer for mac-and-cheese (once again, in reference to my homemade macaroni and cheese post). The addition of corn kernel gave it a different, sweet note, which was quite interesting. However, there was a component that I thought was MIA: the jalapeño. According to the menu, it had some jalapeño “kick” to it – I tasted none… Otherwise, I thought it was a good side.

Side #2 was baked beans or, as they call it Wilbur beans. Again, according to the menu, it has some additional goodies in the form of smoked pork, sausage links, brisket and jalapeño peppers. So, that is the reason why I “stirred” the beans a little bit, so you can see those goodies! However, similar to what happened with the mac-and-cheese, I did not taste that much of the jalapeño… As for the beans itself… I will rather not comment about it, as I am biased for almost anything beans. So, other than say I finished the beans, I won’t say anything else!

In the baked beans picture, you could see sneaking to the left a corn cob. So, here it is, the corn cob with a cornbread! The corn cob was quite good, as it still had some corn sweetness into it. And, fortunately, the kernels weren’t obliterated to a mushy point. So, I liked it! The cornbread was OK, not much to talk about, so I will leave it at that.

Now, to the key components, the brisket (top) and chopped pork (bottom). The brisket was a disappointment, worst of all, in several different ways. To begin with, it felt slightly dry. Second, it was a bit too uniform, you know lacking that smoke ring on a side. For some odd reason, I thought I was eating a thicker cut of corned beef rather than brisket. At least that served me for an experiment: that of the devil spit sauce mentioned above. My thoughts? I did not break a sweat… As for the pork, it was actually quite good. With all the pork goodness flavour and moist but, but… Did they have to put the sauce on top? Since it wasn’t mixed in completely, I would have preferred it did not have it and let me add it by myself. The last part I was curious about was… Sliced white bread? Hmmmmmmmm….

Overall, I was somewhat disappointed with the delivered product. Somehow, I feel it could have been better. Heck, I thought the offerings here in Vancouver (read: Memphis Blues) was superior to Famous Dave’s. I will give them the benefit of doubt it was an off day. But, given the options, I would rather try somewhere else.

Tagged under: BBQ • Beef • New Jersey • Pork