The Shed Barbeque & Blues Joint

Reviews 3

CH

Christopher Atkinson

So I came here with four friends of mine in honor of my birthday. Two of them had never been here before. We hop off the interstate and are soon greeted by the rurally eclectic layout and decor that is The Shed. I hadnt been here in a few years, and I was so glad to find that not much had changed. Its hard to not feel right at home in this super comfortable place. I will admit that they do push all of their merch and barbecue sauce pretty hard, but I definitely cant fault them for that considering that I waned it all. So my friends and I band together and decide to just do it. We split The Family Feast (1lb wangs, 1 Whole Chicken, 1lb Pork, 1lb Brisket, 1lb Serious Sausage, 1 Rack Baby Backs, 1 Rack Spare Ribs. Your choice of 4 QT sides, 1 loaf of BBQ bread and 2 gallons of sweet tea). It was really hard to decide on what meats we wanted to try, so we ended up deciding to try all the meats. Lets just break it down one by one. -The wangs were the best thing in the feast, the best things Ive had at The Shed ever, and my favorite chicken wings ever. I could seriously eat through a mountain of these things. Theyre so tender and juicy and they fall right off the bone. They remind of me of sweet, succulent smoked ribs. If thats hard to imagine, you gotta just come try them. -The whole chicken I actually didnt touch. My readers will know that I have an aversion to barbecue chicken, because most of the time its just too try and I dont feel right just drowning it in barbecue sauce just to get through it. Especially when there were other meats to be had on the tray. -The pulled pork was excellent. The heaps of pickles and onions that the fest came with made for a great sandwich with some slices of the loaf of bread we got. -The chopped up brisket was the second best thing about the feast. I ate more than my fair share of it, because it was just so good. It was juicy and you got that really deep, smokey, beefy smell and flavor out of eating it. No sauce even necessary. -Baby back ribs. The bomb. 10 times better than any Applebees or TGI Fridays (duh), but they were also better than just most barbecue places. They werent covered in fat and they didnt even think about staying on the bone. So good. -The spare ribs were good, too. Im not really a spare ribs kind of guy, unless theyre Korean sticky ones, but I ate a couple, and I liked them. For our sides we got french fries, sweet potato fries, mac & cheese, and the sweet potato casserole. The sides were sides. Nothing to shake a stick at, but a few things to mention. The mac was super peppery. Like black peppery. I loved it, but if you dont like too much black pepper, get something else. The sweet potato casserole was the best side, for sure. There were crunchy elements to it that might have been the crisp of the top of the casserole as it was being cooked. If not, Im not sure, because it definitely wasnt a nut in there. I dont know, but it was delicious. If you get it to go, you get the gallons of tea. If you dine in with in, you just all get drink cups. Btw. Overall, this place has the friendliest people as servers. This place has some of the best restaurant decor I have ever seen. Youll want to just roam around and look at things as youre waiting for your food to come out. But most importantly, this place has the best barbecue that I have ever eaten. And Im glad that the whole debacle with the TV show or whatever it was hasnt made them change their ways. I will be back, as often as possible.

JI

Jimmy Ho

Ambers birthday was in May and wanted to go somewhere fun and beachy but still drivable. We ended up picking Destin, FL for the white sands and we had not been before. I have heard of The Shed Barbeque & Blues Joint from social media and TV and knew it was on the way to Florida. We stayed in Beaumont, TX to shorten our drive, and The Shed was only about 5 hours away. It was the perfect stopping point plus we arrived there right around lunch time. I was really excited to stop at The Shed. It was my only planned BBQ stop of the trip. We ordered the Shed Sampler Platter and a banana pudding. The sampler comes with baby back ribs, spare ribs, pork, brisket, chicken, and sausage and three sides. We chose mac and cheese, sweet potato fries, and collard greens as our sides. The brisket came shredded so that was different. It was like eating pot roast. I really did not care for it. Both ribs were overcooked and coming apart when I bite into it. It was almost like eating pulled pork on a bone. The flavors and smoke across the meats were pretty good, but I just did not love how everything was cooked. The temperatures of the meats ranged anywhere from cool to lukewarm. That threw off the texture as well and did not make for the best eating experience. The chicken wings & leg, sausage, and pulled pork were solid. The mac and cheese was kind of weird. It had an interesting cheese sauce? drizzled on top. Our favorite bite of the meal was the homemade banana pudding. It was fluffy and tasty. The Shed is a pretty cool spot. I say stop by in the evening when they have live music, grab a beer, and chill along the river. I was definitely disappointed in this visit. Maybe I just went on a bad day? You guys might have better luck when you visit. I am only allowed one barbecue stop when we are on vacation. We stopped in NOLA for a day on the way back, and I wished I had picked a joint there instead.

MI

mitchell w

Im from the coast and have heard raving reviews about the shed over the years but never went. My wife wanted to try somewhere new while visiting my relatives so I suggested here and mentioned its national attention. We wanted to try a few things and were suggested the combo plate, so we got pulled pork and chicken (they ran out of brisket)with their new pastrami sandwich. We were up charged $5 for the plate so I thought we would get respectable portions. When the plate came out, it was meager on the meats, handful of pork for a sandwich and a breast. My thought was "okay, pretty small but I guess the flavor will be awesome." The pulled pork was acceptable but nothing special, and the breast was not smoked properly so it was disappointing. My personal measuring stick for good BBQ is how well is it smoked and if I can eat the pork without sauce and be happy with out it if somehow there was no sauce. The pork needed the sauce to help it along. The pastrami sandwich was a tad dry but still good. I would imagine not too many people get the pastrami so it probably sat all day in a warmer, but thats fine, still a good sandwich. I probably would of given it two stars based on the food, but the restaurant is a unique building and the service was great so that bumped it up a star. We came between the holidays, Dec. 27th, so the main pit master may have been on vacation. The wall has checks from winning competitions from the BBp circuit which is a serious thing. We just didnt get that when we went, especially for a $17 combo plate. Ill try it one more time in the hopes of it being a fluke but I cant help but think they have sacrificed quality in order to crank out meats quickly to meet demand. My brother had their BBQ a few years back and said it was unbelievable but has heard unfavorable things since then.