Filed under: Food
Our final BBQ tour stop for the week was at J&W BBQ located at the corner of Montgomery and Landsdown in Norwood/Pleasant Ridge. Unlike the other “brick-and-mortar” BBQ joints we’ve visited, J&W BBQ is a trailer in a small parking lot along Montgomery Rd.
Upon exiting the car, we were greeted by the sweet aroma of BBQ as we made our way over to the trailer to place our order. Wanting to sample as much as we could, we ordered up a full slab of spare ribs, some beef ribs, a whole chicken, some pulled pork, mac-n-cheese, collard greens, candied yams, coleslaw, and potato salad. Hey, there were five of us! Since J&W BBQ didn’t have anywhere to sit and enjoy our food, we went down the road a bit to Drake Park where we picnicked under the shelter and enjoyed the fine of view of beautiful I-71. I started in on the beef ribs first. Picking the massive rib bone up in my hands and gnawing the meat off the bone made me feel like I was in a Flintsones episode and thoroughly satisfied the carnivore in me. The beef ribs were the only item we got in the mild sauce, which was a little sweet for my taste. The beef ribs were very chewy and required a lot of effort to separate the meat from the bone. Fun to eat, but not especially tasty — no surprise it isn’t offered at most of the BBQ places around here.
Next I started in on the spare ribs. The hot sauce was a definite improvement over the mild, although it was at most a medium heat. The spare ribs were a little on the chewy side and had little, if any, smoke flavor. The chicken was a real bright spot — crispy skin on the outside and tender, juicy meat inside. If there was anything wrong with the chicken it was the fact that it, like everything else, was absolutely drowning in sauce. We each shared a bit of the pulled pork sandwich and all agreed that it was a step up from, say, JTM, but still nothing special. I thought the mac-n-cheese was pretty good, but I was alone in that opinion. The collard greens, potato salad, and slaw were all unremarkable. Good, but not great. We all found the candied yams to be delicious.
The general consensus was that of disappointment. I was the lone “I liked it!” vote from our group. While I did enjoy my meal there is no doubt that it comes in a distant 4th out of the 4 places we’ve visited thus far on this year’s BBQ tour. It’s worth a stop if you’re in the neighborhood and craving BBQ, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to return.
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