On the recommendation of a few friends we tried the new Southwest Pit BBQ on Friday night. This is in the infamous location over the new O Street bridge on Sun Valley Blvd. They kept a lot of the menu from “The Restaurant”, but added a few BBQ items on the back menu. I was surprised to only see a few BBQ options; Full Slab, Half Slab or Sandwich of either Pork or Brisket. I tried to make things difficult and I wanted the sandwich with half pork and half beef. I assume it was one of the owners that was around and our waitress got approval for this. Here is my assessment.
The Good:
- The meat was of great quality. I would definately get the pork again. It was cooked well and I had little to no fat in any of my pieces. The brisket was good as well, but I have to give it up for the pork this time.
- The side items were fantastic! I try to just stick with reviewing the meats, but in this case, I had a hard time choosing. I had one of my daughters broasted fries and they were great.
- The happy hour beer prices. $1 draws of Miller Light, enough said.
Constructive Criticism:
- The Sauce. True Kansas City BBQ Society Rules state that the entry cannot have sauce that “pools” in the container. The reason is, they want you to judge the meat, not the sauce. In this case though, it would be difficult to have the sauce not pool. It was a little watery for my tastes and it didn’t add much flavor to the well cooked meat. I didn’t ask, but there really only seemed to be that one choice.
- Expand the BBQ Menu. Ribs are great, but that’s a lot of food (a.ka. money) for me to spend on a dinner. I’d love to see what they could do with chicken.
Overall I wish them well in this location. They had reasonable prices and I’ll be back for happy hour if that continues. They also seemed to have a lot of lunch specials that I want to try.