Award Winning BBQ??? Nah, Just So-So BBQ

BEHOLD!!! The place that became the source of my BBQ ire a little over a week ago. This is Buckingham's BBQ, allegedly the "Worlds Greatest". Uh, be careful when throwing out claims like that, someone like my self will call you on it and if you disappoint, I WILL fix your logo as you see pictured. I figured one disappointing job deserved another. Yesterday, I took the liberty to except Buckingham's invitation to give them another shot(now that the whole communication fiasco has been resolved). The result was still a bit of a let down.

Have a nice day? I guess enjoy your meal is out of the question.

I ordered a 1/3 slab of ribs, a count of 4 ribs, but they were a bit generous and they gave me 5. Last time they gave me 6. This is exactly the same order I got last time, including the fries(regular and sweet potato), so I did a redo of my last meal with them. As you can see by this photo, it doesn't look bad, although I did notice that it could have been trimmed better as there were gristly cartilage still attached and I know they didn't trim of the underside membrane that most rib aficionados usually do:

As I stated earlier, it could have been trimmed and prepped better as I know they didn't remove that very thin white membrane that is on the underside of the ribs. Here they left it on and it cooked into the bone. Some smokers(and there are very few of them and they are usually dry rib smokers) say that in doing so it will hold in the moisture, I have a hard time buying that. If you leave it on, you get this 'consistency of paper' film on the bottom of the ribs that really doesn't sit well with me. Here is a look at the underside:

Now for the real test, just how tender were these ribs? They were better, so on a scale of 1-10, I'll give them a 7. The point here was to see if I could take one finger from each hand and be able to separate one rib from another with the least amount of resistance. This next photo shows how it was fairly easy:

If you notice, there is a hint of the smoke ring, but it's faint. If you don't know what a smoke ring is, it's a layer of pinkish colored meat towards the surface of the meat. It's a chemical reaction that you get when you cook meat using the low(heat)and slow(time) method. You here this a lot from great pit masters, "Low and Slow." It is the ONLY way to cook good BBQ, PERIOD. Back to the ribs, there was a bit of resistance but this was CLEARLY better than the last batch I got. I also want to make this clear, they have the BEST FRIES going. I really enjoyed the sweet potato fries, they were awesome. A true test of fries is if you can eat them without wanting ketchup, honey mustard, BBQ sauce, etc...These bad boys were seasoned perfectly(I hate over salted fries). But of course, as always, the sides shouldn't out do the main part of the dish and again they did.

I did this whole picture show to show proof of my findings rather than giving an angry rant like some old fart nearly getting knocked on his ass by some hyperactive skateboarders. In this case here, I think I clearly busted the "Greatest BBQ" claim made by these people. Are they terrible, NO, but there is better and I will say that I've had better at some chain restaurants. If you want an overall score of this place, I give the ribs a generous 7/10, the sides hit the mark, so 10 there. The place was also very clean and smelled great like a BBQ joint should, so 10 there as well. I thought I was VERY generous with my ribs score and I still have some money left on the giftcard that was given to me by management, so I may go back to try their brisket...and MOST DEFINITELY their fries.