I stopped by and took some meats to go. You pick up a tray and order at the counter and ask for sides after. The meats are weighed right in front of you and laid atop your butcher paper lined tray.
Half rack of spare rib
Really average tasting and the rib tip that was left on cooked unevenly with the rest of the rib because of the thickness. Kind of shows the lack of knowledge in proper BBQ as the rib tip has more connective tissue which needs to break down more than the rib meat. With such an uneven cut, it cooks at different temperatures and gets color at different rates. They should procure a much more evenly cut of spares to avoid this problem, such as the ones served at Maple Block. A downgraded Maple Block and Bludsos is still better than this place as far a spare ribs are concerned. Slab has very little smoke flavor which is sort of an ingredient in this style of Texas BBQ. The color of the ribs say it all as they are pale, not the mahogany color I think of with properly smoked ribs. The ribs were meaty, albeit unevenly cooked made for quite a chew in rib tips. Hopefully the pit master cares about the product and fine tunes them. These are about the same quality ribs as Rays, which were not good either.
Half pound “lean” brisket
I specifically asked the guy serving the meat for lean brisket as he said they had it. He basically turned around the fatty end and began slicing from the same piece instead of getting a flat section of the brisket. The brisket was really fatty. This is probably the best meat they offer for me at least, it had a nice meaty flavor and a bit more smoke flavor, although still mild. The meat was cooked nicely and was moist. I wish they would trim the brisket better as there is a lot of fat that did not render out. I can deal with 1/2” to 1” of fat but this was in excess of that. Perhaps I didn’t get the smoke flavor since I scraped the fat off and only ate the meat section. Either way, Ray’s and Maple Block serve up better brisket than here for me. Ray’s is using Creekstone Beef brisket and I can tell Slab is not.
Whole smoked chicken
Pretty crappy, rubbery chicken with hardly any smoke flavor. Not sure how they smoked this but look at the color and you can see why there is no smoke flavor. The skin was also very rubbery and still thick, I doubt they slow smoked this. This is just some sad ass chicken.
The place was semi crowded although I walked in second in line. No phone orders. The bbq sauces were very uneventful, which I needed considering the lack of flavor in the chicken and ribs. I ended up using Sweet Baby Rays because the sauces were not my thing. The pickles and onions were great.
To me, the BBQ seems rushed and lacks the care and attention that quality Central Texas style BBQ needs.
And for those wondering what Tony’s ribs are, they are oven baked baby back ribs which are not smoked. I didn’t order them.
Here is a picture of Maple Block BBQ for reference, notice the much more visibly darker mahogany color on the ribs and chicken. I had this back in August.
In the end, I hope they get better but wow did this suck, especially compared to how spoiled we were when Maple Block was at its best.