The Forking Truth is that All Restaurants have potential. They have potential to do well or not to do well. I am purposely  not mentioning the name of this restaurant because they are newly opened. It is NOT my intention to bring negative attention to them. It is my hope that they work things out because this restaurant certainly has potential that can go either way. I am not a professional reviewer by any means and  I pay my own way just like you when I go out to a restaurant. I am not treated special and I walk in like anyone else. I can’t cherry pick my stories and only tell the good ones. I can only tell The Forking Truth.

Somewhere in metro Phoenix a New BBQ Restaurant opened and I had to try it for a few reasons. The chef is a known competition BBQ Master……so that means his BBQ should be great. The Chef was also skilled enough to make it on to the Food Network Grill Masters TV Show and the other reason I had to try this place was that pastrami was a regular item on the menu and no other BBQ restaurant that I know of in the area offers pastrami regularly on the menu. I’ve been working on my own pastrami recipe so this was of special interest to me. Pastrami is a lot of work and a very difficult thing to prepare correctly. Things do go wrong even if you do things correctly because each brisket is different. That is why (not all) but nearly every deli out there does NOT BRINE Corned Beef or Pastrami in house. The majority of places that serve corned beef and pastrami pay a professional company to brine by their own recipe. Pastrami sort of is an art. Speaking of art there’s artsy kind of decor in this tiny restaurant.

The dining room is very small with very limited seating and some stools on the other side.

When I arrived on the patio there was five outside tables but then they removed one for a DJ to set up.

Back to coming in……

As you enter your at the counter.

You see BBQ Awards to your left and a Pig Mural to your right. In front of you is the menu.

We made our orders and sat ourselves on the patio. In about fifteen minutes my husband goes to pick up our order…..

We orded a New York Style Hot Pastrami Sandwich that was suppose to contain a PTG Slaw (…..oh initials of Chef Guy) Russian Dressing and Toasted Marble Rye.

My sandwich was missing the slaw….not a deal breaker but someone should have told me that they didn’t have slaw ready yet. The Pastrami is barely warm but is tender, a bit fatty with a few fat chunks I have to remove. It’s very different……..Mildly seasoned and mildly smoked…Not much of a crust but it’s a different unique style………It’s more like corned beef but with a very slight smoke……The dressing they used is sweet with chunks of pickles in it ………(technically more of a Thousand Island Dressing and not the savory, spicy Russian Dressing)  …..The bread was toasted nice but I would have enjoyed the sandwich more with thinner bread….. It’s a lot of bread….like a double portion….I make a big 1/2 sandwich out of it and it’s still a lot of bread to eat with the meat. Makes it hard to taste the meat with so much bread. Maybe the ratio would have been better if my sandwich contained the slaw it was suppose to have.

We also tried the Two Meat Plate with an added Hot Link. I have to be FORKING Honest here……The Brisket had really good flavor but was just barely warm with hard fat and the beef part was chewy like rubber. This meat wasn’t ready to be served to people.

After I tried a bite my husband asked me to try more and I said, “NO.” My husband said the pork was good and he said the Hot Link would have been good if it wasn’t dried out…Usually Hot Links are juicy.

The Forking Truth is that the Cheesy Jalapeño Grits were inedible.

Again another thing served next to being cold and the grits were still hard and crunchy in a drippy thin watery sauce. It was like trying to eat sand mixed with water.

We told someone about the grits and she ran away. (Wow, I found this baffling…no I’ll tell the chef or I’m sorry or I’ll take that off your bill or anything……we didn’t get to say anything else….she just ran away….who does that?)

I will say the Waffle Fries were Delicious…..Seasoned nicely, seemed oil free with a fluffy interior. Shame they were also almost cold too.

To sum things up – The only thing that was served at the correct temperature was the Hot Link. All the other hot items were served next to cold.  My Sandwich came out without slaw. The Brisket and Grits were served to us before they were ready to be served to people. That is NOT Professional or OK UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES……..(that is something a child might do)…….and lastly……….We started to tell someone about the grits and as we were talking she ran away….

We cleaned up our stuff and left. No Thank you for coming or come back again or anything.

The Forking Truth is that all restaurants have potential….to do well or not.

Hopefully they will work things out……… but I’m not going back.

Every FORKING THING Everyday Anywhere is subject to change and YOUR Experience may or may NOT differ.