Saturday, November 09, 2013

Restaurant Review: Moe's Original Bar B Que

Went down to Moe's Original Bar B Que down in Matthews, NC this afternoon for lunch. Was supposed to have a lunch companion, but I got stood up. Nice location for a restaurant, in a safe, yuppified area. The Matthews branch of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Library is just at the end of the little drive, there are shops on both sides.



Inside the restaurant was clean and well lit from numerous windows; there are actually glass-enclosed garage-style doors that can be opened in the warm season to allow people to eat in the open air. They were close on this cool November day, of course.

I ordered a pork plate, which comes with two side items and corn bread; I chose mac 'n cheese and Brunswick stew. The mac 'n cheese was oven baked and good, although not very cheesy. The cornbread had a good flavor. The Brunswick stew was tasty, although most of the small bowl was taken up by a couple of huge potato chunks, which I had to cut apart with my spoon. The pulled pork was moist but without much in the way of smoke flavor or evidence of a smoke ring; I guess it was cooked on gas or in an electric smoker (there is a woodpile at the back of the restaurant, which was covered by a tarp, for what that's worth). The pork came from the kitchen with some barbecue sauce on top, a red tomato-based sauce; once I determined that the pork itself didn't have much flavor, I helped myself to the sauce bottle to add some additional flavor. The sauce was undistinguished, also. Here's what the food looked like:



All in all, although it's a great location and is a clean, attractive restaurant, the BBQ isn't all that memorable; I'll give it a 3 on my 5-scale of BBQ restaurants: 3 out of 5: average; reasonably good food, moderate effort by staff/management.

9 comments:

Murphy's Law said...

Sigh. Rub it in, why don'cha?

Bob said...

@Murphy's Law: This wasn't the restaurant that Keads had in mind. That one is down on Monroe, closer to where he lives (and not far from the airport you were supposed to fly into). I've eaten at that place, too, but it was long ago and I can't recall how the food was. Sorry you couldn't come down.

Keads said...

If I had to pick one just on history and the fact I have been going there for decades in my home town, this one.

http://www.ncbbqsociety.com/trail_pages/hills_large.html

Murphy's Law said...

There was supposed to be time to try a couple of different ones, darn it. I want to sample them all!

Stupid wind.

Bob said...

@Keads: I haven't eaten at that one. Only one I've eaten at in Lexington is Wayne Monk's place, Lexington #1. I've eaten BBQ all over NC, though. Here in the Charlotte area we have more than we used to when I first got here, definitely. My favorite in Charlotte is Bill Spoon's on South Boulevard.

Keads said...

I liked this one too. An institution in Winston-Salem.

http://www.journalnow.com/news/local/article_add71d48-6ed5-5b75-ae05-6f7dd15754c9.html?mode=story

Old NFO said...

Sonny's... Just sayin...

Bob said...

@Old NFO: Sonny's is my nostalgic favorite, since I was born and raised in Gainesville, Florida, where the first Sonny's was built, and ate there often growing up. Sonny's in recent years has gotten too far away from its traditional menu, even sells beer now. I still love their pork sandwich and especially their sauce.

Anonymous said...

I loved it when I went there. It is not NC BBQ, but Alabama-style. Everything is prepared in house fresh daily!