Big Joe's BBQ

 

2

5

Lor M.

Citrus Heights, CA

I took my daughter to Tangles for Kids next door to Big Joe's and decided that picking up BBQ for dinner sounded much better than having to cook that night!

I have tried a few other places in town, and Big Joe's by far has the most tender ribs I have tasted. Excellent flavor and good BBQ sauce. I ordered the hottest sauce they had. I could have gone hotter, but it was still good.

Besides the ribs, I ordered their $5 meal for my daughter. I selected the 1/4 chicken and Mac and Cheese for the side dish.  This was a great deal! The chicken was really smoky and moist. My daughter loved it.

I also picked up the baked beans and potato salad (which they let me sample first). The potato salad was simple, but sooo good. The baked beans were good -- they had a good texture and good flavor, but they didn't knock my socks off.

Overall, I feel that Big Joe's was a very good value and very good food. I will definitely be picking food up from here again. I'll remember the cornbread next time, though!

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Elite '08

26

127

Greg S.

Sacramento, CA

Dipping your mop into the world of barbecue can be a precarious business. Other than pizza and burgers, there is no other food that Americans are more opinionated about. Some folks insist that your cooking vessel makes all the difference, whether it's a kettle smoker, a barrel smoker, an egg shaped smoker, a flux-capacitor based meat vaporizer or just the back of an '84 Celica. Other barbecue Einsteins insist that it's all about the sauce, whether it's a mustard sauce, or a tomato sauce, or a molasses sauce, or a vinegar sauce, or a tears-of-a-dolphin sauce. Don't even start me on dry rubs.

So, suffice it to say, interjecting an opinion about anything barbecue is dangerous. That being said, I'm going to stick my neck out here. Are you ready for it? Can you take it?

Big Joe's BBQ is the best barbecue in Sacramento.

Owners Joe Dunlap and Kathie Pine know what they're doing. The menu sticks to the basics-pork, hot links, tri-tip, ribs, chicken-with the standard compliment of sides-beans, potato salad, macaroni salad, greens, and cornbread. And every part of that menu, at least every part I tried, was flawless. The hot links were smoky and juicy, the red potato salad was dense and flavorful, the beans were sweet and spicy, and the cornbread was just about perfect, neither too sweet nor too plain.

The one element of the meal that could have been improved, and we're talking only a fractional improvement here, is Joe's sauce. The spicy and hot sauces were just a little too two-dimensional. I tend to like more sweet undertones in my barbecue sauce, and at least four dimensions-sweet, hot, spicy, and space-time.

More than anything though, more than the warm reception from Joe and Kathie, more than the myriad compliments that diners all around me were making about the spectacular ribs, more than the glory of the MLB's opening day, what really swayed me in favor of Big Joe's BBQ were the answers to three simple questions I posed to the owners:

Q: How hot is your hot sauce?
A: Depends how I'm feeling that day.
Q: You make the corn bread in house?
A: We make everything in house.
Q: Vehicle Voltron or Lion Voltron?
A: Vehicle Voltron...duh.

Ok, I made up that last one, but there's no doubt that Joe and Kathie are doing the lord's work in their little corner of Citrus Heights. Speaking of Citrus Heights, I'm sure I'm not the only one that would love it if their storefront were a little closer to home (my home that is), and I'm sure I'm not the only one who would love this type of food in a more fleshed out restaurant with a bat rather than the small, bare-bones storefront that Joe's currently calls home.

Other than the ambiance, or lack thereof, of the small strip mall location, there's really nothing more you can ask of Joe's. That is, unless you have some burning questions about Ultra Man, or my favorite, M.A.S.K.

www.sacrag.com

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2

19

Andrew P.

North Highlands, CA

My wife and I went there on Saturday for lunch. The place is quite small and hard to find, we got there around 2 something.

We were hungry so we ordered one dinner sampler to start. The $ 24.95 dinner sample included ribs, tri tip, chicken, shredded chicken, 3 sides.The food was good especially the tri tip and the ribs, the sauce was a bit sour through and the sides could use lil more flavoring but  love the cornbread. After we finished the sampler, we could eat more. We end up taking some home, it was great.

overall, good tender BBQ but the place needs more room, more room and more room. AP

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45

55

D P.

Elk Grove, CA

Texas Smokehouse BBQ in San Jose used to be the BBQ standard.  Big Joe's is now the best in my book.  Big Joe's has the edge in BBQ'd meat prep.

My turn to treat for dinner. Stuck in the Roseville area due to Sunday return-from-recreation traffic, I suggested we go to Big Joe's in Citrus Heights.  Asking Joe for his best stuff, he rated the pork ribs and tri-tip #1 and #2, so...  I ordered the spicy (sauce comes on the side), 2 meat combo with collard greens and potato salad.  While I was waiting for the order, I read the eraser board, which I thought was a disclaimer for people looking for "well done":

"*To all of our Valued
Customers
Our meats are slow cooked,
wood smoked and as such,
will be pinkish in color.
Just like ham"

I was dreading the ribs and tips to be juicy on the outside and as you got the center, raw and tough to chew.  I WAS WRONG.  The rib meat was tender and remained that way, all the way to the bone.    And the meat easily came off of the bone too.  The tri-tip?  Excellent, but Joe's recommendations were correct; I was a little more fascinated with the ribs.  My friend won't admit how good it was (more on that later). There was NO conversation during dinner.  Every once in awhile, while coming up for air, I kept repeating, "OMG this is good."  Joe did lecture me on his cooking process, taking 7+ hours and identified what the others do.

Joe came around to ask how everything was and without having to think about it, I replied plainly, "This is the best BBQ I've ever had."   He handed me a KCRA card to make sure I voted for him on the ballot.  Just so he knew I was serious about my statement, we discussed who I was comparing him to:

Texas Smokehouse BBQ --- San Jose
Flint's --- Oakland
Armadillo Willy's --- Santa Clara County
Memphis Minnie's Barbecue --- San Francisco
Central Texas BBQ --- Castroville
J.R's Texas BBQ --- Sacramento
Texas West BBQ --- Sacramento
Everett & Jones --- Sacramento
Yunece 61 --- Sacramento
- Okay, I need to write more reviews?

Although I'm proclaiming Big Joe's the best, the side dishes were just a little above average.  The homemade collard greens were good but we gave the vote to Texas Smokehouse BBQ, whose greens were good and slimy, probably due to additional meat fat added to it.  The vote for potato salad also goes to Texas Smokehouse BBQ. Texas Smokehouse's potato salad has a little more greasier goodness to it.  Big Joe's homemade potato salad had a little too much pickle/relish taste to it.  BUT... even if you were driving a hybrid, would you make the trip from Citrus Heights to San Jose for mere sides?

Okay, after feeling more porkier than the ribs we ate, my buddy and I ordered and split a small peach cobbler.  Coming lukewarm, this sucker was sweet.  Not the best but very good.  Not knowing how a REAL cobbler should be, I'd prefer to have the cobbler hot with a gigantic scoop ice cream, just about melting on top of it.  My buddy was really impressed with it though and bought a large to take home to his family.

That decor is pretty unique.  The curved, wood-looking hard laminate booths weren't all that bad.  It served its purpose for chowing down.  The clear, dark gray smoked, folding industrial, paper towel dispensers mounted on the walls near the tables were very peculiar but highly effective in a BBQ joint.  With the hanging paper towels easily reachable, think of one of the alternatives:  having to worry about the previous customer's sticky grimy paws touching the typical stainless steel, paper napkin dispenser sitting on top of the table.  Also, this place is super clean for a BBQ place; the booths and dispensers were probably planned for the overall effective cleanliness too.

Situated in a not-so-nice shopping center in Citrus Heights, Joe would rather move to a better location.  He was turned down at the better shopping centers, due to his outdoor BBQ pit.  If you ask me, I think he'd be a threat to the big chain restaurants, such as [RHYMES WITH FAME THUMPER].    

My buddy didn't see my enthusiasm for Big Joe's.  A split decision, he's stuck on Texas Smokehouse BBQ in San Jose.  As we went home our separate ways,  we carried this conversation on via cell phone and finally repeated his known condition:  His known impaired sense of smell (sinuses) also impairs his sense of flavor.

As I voted for Big Joe's on the KCRA ballot, I'm discovering that there's a total of 18 BBQ joints to vote for?  I had NO idea of the abundance.  Yikes.  Overload.

Update 3/28/2007
I've been to Big Joe's now, this many fingers:  9
On visit #3, I ran into a snag.  Ordering the 1/3 slab pork ribs dinner, 2 ribs were tough.  They were they END parts of the slab.  I alerted one of the girls of this, that it was tough and they replaced the bad ribs.  Tip:  Make sure that you DON'T get these end parts and that each rib shows the "pinkish" meat on both sides of each rib.

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Elite '08

22

330

Mark G.

Elk Grove, CA

Having recently moved up from the Bay Area, I am using Uncle Franks' and Texas Smokehouse as points of reference. Yelp reviews inspired my visit here.

Big Joe's certainly offers great "Q"! I had the 2-way combo of pork ribs and Tri-Tip for $14.95 (came with 2 sides and cornbread). I had the collard greens and Mac Salad.

The pork ribs were excellent, perhaps a TAD on the dry side (I think that's because I ate here at 2pm, off hours for any restaurant), but you could taste the slow-cooked goodness and see the telltale red rings which indicate expert slow smoking. The Tri-tip was cooked well also--and tri-tip is a really hard meat to BBQ well, in terms of slow-smoking.

I wholly recommend Big Joe's if you enjoy deeply-smoked and flavorful BBQ.

PS...beware of the hot BBQ sauce--it ain't for novices....while it retains excellent flavor, you will feel the heat, literally, and you will sweat from this sauce. It is hot as a muthaf***ah!!!

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Elite '08

36

289

Matt C.

Applegate, CA

Best BBQ (barbeque) I've ever tasted.  You could pass right by Big Joe's BBQ on Auburn Blvd, because its located in an ordinary looking strip center, right next to a Bank Of America branch....

Joe slow-cooks his meat on a Locomotive style smoker, for something like seven (7) hours!  The meats (particularly the pork ribs) are very tender, but not overcooked.

My first, second, third, and subsequent visits have all been excellent.
D.P. complains about the "rib end pieces" in his review, but I happen to like those parts (they usually compensate by giving you a larger portion).

I happen to think their potato salad is awesome, and their collard greens (served only on Saturdays and Sundays) is the best I've ever tasted, anywhere (and I normally HATE collard greens)

the pork ribs are incredible.........meaty, smoky, and delicious.
his BBQ sauces are da bomb.

-------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------

UPDATE 2-04-08

I'm glad to see that other Yelpers have discovered Joe's.
With our help, someday he'll be able to move into that bigger place everyone wishes for!

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16

99

Aslan L.

Fair Oaks, CA

I was in the mood for some BBQ this weekend and remembered Matt C's review of this joint and decided to check it out.  Hidden away in a grimy strip mall we found this tiny little place.  Upon walking in and looking around it was fairly clean and new looking but a little cheap.  Matt C is right about the uncomfortable booths, but I did like the paper towel dispenser located on the wall of each table.
The place was hopping, it was the lunch hour and people were getting their food very quickly. We also saw them bringing in more meat from the huge smoker outside, it smelled amazing.  After taking a long look at their menu, I decided to go with a BBQ Pork sandwich and opted for spicy BBQ sauce, the little one got a $5 meal that came with 2 pork ribs and a side which was the macaroni salad, BF got a 1/2 lb hot link sandwich and we also got a 1/2 chicken.  It took under 5 minutes for us to get our food.  We decided that we would get it to go and took it home with us to enjoy.
My sandwich was huge and piled with pulled pork, the spicy BBQ was on the side and I poured it over the top is was so good.  BF raved about his gigantic hot link sandwich too.  The tike's food was more than what she would eat, I was expecting tiny ribs but they were humongous, she ate about 1/2 the meat off of one and half of the macaroni salad.   That gave us a chance to eat a rib and it was amazing, the chicken too was super tender and seasoned wonderfully.  
I will definitely be returning whenever I get a hankering for some BBQ.  Next time I think we will get the sampler dinner for $24.95 you get a sample of all the meats, 3 sides, and 2 breads.

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