Haven’t been back recently. I’ve only gone a few times, and wrote up my first visit on my blog (I believe it was I was the first food blogger to “review” them, FWIW—a.k.a. not worth the paper it’s printed on). Enjoyed the ribs, thought brisket was good but not smokey enough. Disappointed in the mac and cheese. But I’ve heard that’s improved. Pricing has made me hesitant to go back but glad they’ve been tweaking that and offering combos and different options. Will definitely have to revisit.
Pork Ribs remain great to this non-blogger.
I don’t do the sides.
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This was my issue, too.
I went to Holy Cow recently (the SaMo location is very close to me). Based on one visit each, I would say that the food at Maple Block is significantly better, but the more palatable pricing at Holy Cow (subjective; I didn’t actually do an item-by-item breakout) made the overall experience more pleasant. It’s like Maple Block is Milo and Olive and Holy Cow is 800 Deg b/f 800 Deg turned to sh*t…
LOL your last sentence. I still like 800D’s $5 PotD. I think though the combo and platter pricing, rather than ordering all the meats by weight, should make Maple Block more competitive.
Agree that sh*t is relative and that $5 POTD is still good QPR. 
However, my heart belongs to the verde + prosciutto (+ other stuff), which runs like $11+. There were 2 older guys working the pizza oven at the Westwood location during my last trip (about 2-3 wks ago?). Crust is good again, but the people doing the toppings are as careless as ever and were stingy w/ the prosciutto (which she attempted to tear by hand… Um, NO).
Also agree that combo + platter would probably reduce the cost advantage of Holy Cow. Love the Texas Toast at Holy Cow, and I thought that their sauces were quite nice, too.
Did MBMC fix their disgusting BBQ sauce yet?
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Agree but I like their’s and any other worthy BBQ without sauce.
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True dat. I just can’t see why they continue to serve it. It is almost as if they serve you crap sauce on purpose just so you don’t use it on their meat. 
Hmm…
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Yup - I can’t discount the possibility that personal tastes of the owner/chef plays into the sauce, but the flavor puzzles me too.
Maybe it’s passive-aggressive? Customers demand sauce, chef doesn’t think it needs sauce, puts out bad sauce on purpose?
Oops, @A5KOBE beat me to the punch. 
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The tax special is a good deal. I had the sliced brisket sandwich (itself normally $11) and one of the house-made sodas (usually $3.50). The sandwich is the regular size and delicious. By the way, they finally added a sausage (beef/pork blend) to the menu–the flavor is good but I did not like the texture that much.
I was underwhelmed by the link as well.
I was randomly running an errand by Maple Block the other day and got some wings and Zinafadel. Super impressed. The fucking smoked wings were pink, and smokey, and fucking amazing with their super addictive white BBQ and laco-fermented hot sauce.
Wine with yo ghetto chicken:
Cumshot:
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Yeah, the chicken is outstanding. Also, their meat plates at lunch are a pretty good deal.
I save those little plastic condiment containers from take-out, and then reuse them for situations like this. Last time I had the smoked chicken (which I really liked), I was dipping it in Lucille’s original bbq sauce and Crystal hot sauce.
It’s my food and I paid for it and I’ll dip it in ketchup if I want to.
The platters are also a really good deal if you can get a group to go. Either $64 (serves 4-6) or $125 (serves 8-10). I went with a group of eleven for a lunch and got the bigger platter and had plentyyy of food to go around. I find the sides to be a bit enh, but you’re not really there for that.
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Their pickles are worthy.
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Maple Block vs Holy Cow
We’ve been discussing BBQ recently - consistency, meat quality, so on and so on. In the tradition of our predecessor Chowhound I am reviving an old thread… Perpetuity.
Holy Cow - Brisket, chicken, baby backs, potato salad, cornbread, Texas toast
Maple Block - Spareribs, brisket, chicken, Mac & cheese, creamy slaw
I’ll have to agree. As far as meat quality and cook goes… MB reigns. Holy Cow is a sweet spot. The service was friendly and there is nothing bad about the food (not worth mentioning anyway). I really like the creamy, not too vinegary or relishy potato salad, as well as the vinegary “t-sauce”. But Maple Block is the real. I took one for the team and had a bite of everything. Yes the spareribs have a big bone. But there is plenty of perfectly cooked meat on them! Thank you for nudging me to try the chicken again @bulavinaka, @Bigmouth and others. It was light, tender and the skin was perfect. The fatty brisket on the other hand was a little too fatty this time and had that charcoal fluid taste… Oh well. I felt they tried too hard with the Mac & Cheese, too many flavors, including a sweetness… and was that blue cheese I tasted? Love their coleslaw. I’ll call a draw between the sauces. I personally have given up on restaurant BBQ sauces. But will give the edge to a couple of HC sauces (not the mustard). But mixing the MB sauces with the chimichurri is the bomb.
HC’s Texas toast was whatever. But I dipped my cornbread in the BBQ sauce @CiaoBob.
P.S. On a girly note ladies - HC has purse hooks under the bar… MB does not.
This concludes my BBQ research 
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Hi @TheCookie,
But where’s Bludso’s in this comparison? Clearly you needed to try 3 giant plates of BBQ at once! 
(j/k) LOL. 
Very nice report @TheCookie. Thanks for the taste test. I agree with you and others that Maple Block’s Sauces are not what I go there for (we usually skip it). But I didn’t try their Chimichurri mixed in; might have to try that next time.
Great to hear Maple Block’s Chicken is much better this time.
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Nice work @TheCookie
Butter is better on corn bread, but I love to dip a little into BBQ Sauce.
I don’t think it is a fair fight to compare the quality of meat and smokning @ MB to HC. They are leagues apart. But so is a Plan Check burger and an In-n-Out.
To everything - turn, turn, turn
There is a season - turn, turn, turn
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