WOW Barbecue

WOW! It was so cold inside the restaurant, my family ate with coats on. I looked around and other customers didn't remove their jackets either.
Hostess was a bit grumpy in the beginning (maybe she was frozen from the below freezing temperature). Stay away if you don't like fatty food - my husband spitted out a a lot of tendon and fatty bits from the meats. Similar to most reviewers, the seasoning tasted the same (shit ton of cumin and oregano) but at least the meats were tender and juicy. Mostly tendons and fatty meats in the noodle soup too. Broth was flavorful. Corn was meh, no taste at all. I was still hungry at the end of the meal but i wanted to leave because my body was still cold after eating. Very uncomfortable. Glad the food came out quickly, ate and ran to car for warmth.

I have tried their sister location, Wu Er, in Brookline and must say, the Brookline location has a more robust menu and variety. If you like WOW Barbecue, definitely try their sister location. See my review for that location also.

Now, Wow Barbecue in Malden is definitely not in a central location. It is located in a residential/business area on Salem Street. There is street parking on both sides. The restaurant was empty when we came in at 2:30 pm. We were immediately greeted and seated. The waitress was extremely polite and welcoming. She took the time to explain the menu when we had questions about a particular item.

A good starting appetizer is the fried bons. There is four pieces of fried dough glazed with condensed milk. It's similar to fried dough but served with condensed milk instead of powder sugar. The dough is not sweet which is why it is served with sweet condensed milk. I know it may seem like a dessert and strange to start with this but it's actually one of my favorite item. I remember having it for the first time in their Brookline location and was addicted. Glad to have a location close to home.

For appetizer we also ordered garlic cucumbers. You may think that it's not worth $5.00 but compared to other restaurants that sell this dish, this place makes it well. Right amount of garlic and sourness. Come to think of it, yes it is expensive, however, you should try it at least once. It's a great side to cleanse your pallet while also eating other dishes.

We ordered lamb, chicken heart, chicken gizzard, and chicken skin skewers. I wish the chicken skin was more crispy but everything else was good. Definitely eat these while they are hot and came off the grill. Unless you have that annoying friend like myself who has to takes pictures at multiple angles.

The grilled pork feet comes with gloves because you will be doing some gnawing. Just so you know, food with hair on it, I would avoid this dish. Our pork feet had a bit of hair remaining on it which I just didn't eat that part. I can understand that this is a big turn off for most so be warned. Also, you can expect very little meat, as it's mostly skin and tendon. Overall, well marinated and tasty. Minus points for the pig hair that was not cleaned off.

Of the appetizers we ordered, we don't recommend the beef tendon. Way too chewy. The only edible part was the peanuts.

We had the grilled fish with bean curd, lotus root, and mushrooms. I recommend ordering this dish to share. There is enough to share with at least three people. It's one fish but cut in half. This is not a fillet of fish type of entree. You get the whole fish, head with bulging eyes, fins, and bones and tail and all. Be ready to pick out bones and fish scales when ordering this dish. You can choose the sides, up to three. Additional sides cost $3.00 more per side. These sides gets cooked in the spicy broth. You can chose less spicy, medium spicy, and very spicy.

Overall great service and decent food. I would, however, rate their Brookline location higher, as it had more on the menu. See my pictures.

From street food truck to actual store front Wow Barbecue has been delivering great Asian style meat skewers for a long time. This location is on a corner with lots of street parking nearby. When I went on a Saturday night it was pretty empty. The food was great though!

The staff speaks English so don't worry. The menu is a checklist of different meats and veggies you can order on a stick. There's more normal things like beef, chicken, lamb but there's more traditional things like chicken heart and liver. The chicken heart was sliced thin and very tender. I loved it!! There's red spice on the table, beware. It's very very spicy. Use at your own risk. It definitely enhances the average though. I tried lamb but it was too well done and chewy for my taste. The flavor was still good, lots of cumin. It went gamey though. We also got a fried mantou dessert with is doughy and topped with condensed milk. Worth a try to get the feeling of street food back in China!

Dinner Review and 25 cent wing special

Wow BBQ is no joke! The meals are solid, the food comes out piping fast and the chicken wings are amazing(not your typical buffalo wing)!! This restaurant focuses on grill/fried foods with a lot of spicy... be prepared. Their lamb skewers are excellent and the Mala pot really hits the spot. The food is a bit greasy and there is a lot of fat and oil dripping from the meats but overall it exceeded expectation for the type of cuisine I wanted to try. Service was excellent. I liked that they gave us plastic gloves to wear when eating the pork knuckles. It was fun and barbaric.

Overall, If you're in the area and hankering for some Chinese BBQ, check this place out.

PS: they have a food truck

Chinese restaurant BBQ, never heard of it but it was really good! You're given a list of all the items and you can mark what you want. Some items (what we ordered) includes mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, pork belly, lamb, mini sausages, chicken, quail eggs. They bring the food items out on skewers and they are all seasoned with the same Cajun styled seasoning and then grilled and all so yummy. We also orders fried rice, great to go with the skewers and then the large grilled fish which came out on a large dish with a fire under it to keep it hot and the fish is sitting in a spicy chili broth topped with tofu skins and lotus roots. The fish is a entire fish, head and tail, it does contain bones so eat with caution but I love whole fish and it was perfect for me.

Service was also very quick and friendly. I have heard great things about the crabs they make here since they were out today, I'll definitely be back to try them.

I used to really enjoy this spot when it first opened a few years ago but my goodness the quality has dropped so much since then, as the service. They used to serve fresh cooked skewers bursting with flavors but when I went the other day it seemed they ran out of a lot of things. A shame, I love a good skewer spot. Maybe they will improve...

I love Chinese style bbq and the best I've had was from this food truck in nyc... they would have a huge line of ppl waiting and waiting... but too bad they are closed now. Probably because they've made enough money to retire lol

Chinese bbq is all about the aroma and flavor

Wow Barbecue is very close to the flavor I miss from the food truck in nyc, BUT it's not quite there yet bc it lacks a very important characteristic
The one I had from nyc would remain extremely juicy and flavorful even hours after it comes off the grill
The ones I had from Wow Barbecue were not quite the same... there were so much fat on the beef teriyaki after it cooled down and almost inedible in my opinion bc I really don't like fats
But it does taste very yummy when it is fresh off the grill and you can't really taste the fat when it's fresh
Other than the beef and lamb.... other meat selections like seafood obviously won't have that same issue and were very tasty

I've been to WOW twice, each time I ordered their large fish with mushrooms, potatoes, and other veggies (along with the hot peppers). The fish was great and came fairly quickly. It's perfect for two to share as they cut it in half and lay it flat in the pan. The fish was really moist and I loved the order of mushrooms that came with it. It's not the best I've had, but it was a solid meal that I'll gladly order again.

The lamb skewers were the best part. This place started out as the red food truck in Chinatown and this was their specialty. The lamb was cooked perfectly with lots of savory flavor (largely due to a perfect portion of fat on each piece). Any meat-eater would love this.

Parking nearby is fairly easy and there's usually an open table. The red walls and TV are a nice touch, especially on cold days there is a nice vibe if you order hot tea and sit by the window.

Time to upgrade WOW. I went for a friends birthday and we went all out. Fine Chinese street food. So tasty. BBQ'd vegetables, lamb, fish in a spicy sauce, quail eggs, beef tendon, and PIG FEET.
I don't care for chicken so I did not try and cannot comment. The Pork ribs were not so tasty (too dry, strange flavoring). But overall a great meal. And then JJ provided wonderful service (although one waitress for the whole restaurant is not enough).

This place is small. Off street parking. The food here are basically Chinese street food not a typical American Chinese food. The food we order were chicken gizzard, chicken heart, enoki, and pork belly, which were on skewers. We also order spicy clams and crabs. Everything that were on skewers tasted like cummin spice, each skewers were $2, which is kinda expensive. Clams were very small and crabs barely had any meat in them. The owner was very nice, she was also our server. Place is clean. Dessert were ordered from a company, which tasted okay, not the best.