MAJOR LET DOWN AT TEXAS WEST BBQ

Today for lunch I was all set to finally go & check out the Flaming Grill Cafe at 2319 El Camino Avenue. So around 10:00AM I gave them a call. No answer. Then I waited until 11:00AM & called again. I figured by 11:00AM certainly someone would be there getting ready for the lunch crowd. Ring... Ring... Ring... I must have let the phone ring 10 times. No answer!

Well, screw it! With that out of the way I decided to run a couple of errands & headed over to Texas West Bar-B-Que at 1600 Fulton Avenue.

Yes, they were open around 11:20AM & I was so happy. I had never been there before and was very interested in trying out their food. You never can't beat some good BBQ right?

I walked inside the very small but clean restaurant & looked around. Lot's of stuff hanging on the walls, decorations, license plates etc. Since I was going to get a "to-go" lunch, I went up to the counter & grabbed a takeout menu.

I took a seat at one of the small tables & started looking through the menu. In all honesty, the menu was loaded with a bunch of items including: Burgers, BBQ sandwiches, Brisket, Hot Links, Spare Ribs & Pulled Pork Sandwiches.

Then I spotted it! It was the Tri Tip Sandwich for $9.99. Now this sounded excellent. It came with a choice of one side. Potato salad sounded good.

So I walked up to the register & placed my order. With tax the total was $10.86. That was fine with me. After all I was getting a Trip Tip Sandwich.

The clerk took my cash, handed me the change & gave me a receipt.

I went back to one of the small tables & waited for my order. I looked at the menu again. I discovered that for 99 cents more I could add melted cheese, red onions & Texas pickles. Gee, should the sandwich already have this on it? I was puzzled. So I asked the cashier to add this onto my sandwich. He rang it up... $1.08.

I handed him a buck & he said that's OK. He let me slide on the 8 cents. OK, I'm all set now. So now I'm into my lunch for $11.86.

After a few minutes I heard the brown paper bag containing my lunch getting getting rolled up. The cashier handed over the bag & I headed home. I was really looking forward to this. I was hungry.

When I got home I started taking stuff out of the bag & putting it on a plate. The first thing I noticed was the potato salad. It was dry looking. Not moist at all. Then I took the Tri-Tip Sandwich out of the Styrofoam container. I notice the meat looked very dry. It had this bright red color around the edges. The cheese wasn't melted. There was a container of BBQ sauce, napkins & plastic utensils.

Let me tell you that I was very disappointed in this lunch. Despite the carryout menu saying things like "Voted Best Caterer" & "Continually voted Best BBQ" I was not impressed at all. They could have done so much better.

If this was true Texas BBQ, then I sure as hell will never drive to Texas to eat something like this. The meat had no taste. I was glad I had asked for the melted cheese, red onion & Texas pickles. This, along with the BBQ sauce was the only flavor the sandwich had.

The potato salad was equally as bad. It was probably the driest potato salad I had every eaten in my lifetime. It was as dry as the Sahara desert. I could make better potato salad using canned potatoes, mayonnaise, along with a little pepper & sliced pickle.

They should be totally embarrassed about their potato salad.

I had high hopes for this place. Even a half hour after eating this, I was saying things to myself like, "Jesus Christ, what a terrible lunch" & "Man, that was bad"

I give Texas West BBQ zero out of 4 stars.

Will I go back? Never.... Never again in this lifetime.