The big thing at this Texan BBQ joint is authenticity. It’s serious stuff, with a focus on hefty hunks of precision-cooked animal (and a sign announcing what wood they’re currently smoking with). Add in unusual sides like bone marrow or cheese-stuffed, bacon-wrapped jalapeños and, basically, it looks as Texan as rodeo dudes trying to sit on angry cows.
Or it sort of is. On one hand, dedication to the Lone Star State’s cuisine is such that mains come served with a slice of limp white bread. But then there’s the beer selection, which hails almost entirely from, err, Camden.
Which begs the question: if it’s ok to compromise your ‘authenticity’, why not do it at the right points? A dish of insanely soft pork belly was beautifully cooked, but would have been so much better with a little more sauce to cut through the grease (rather than a few dozen millimetres of condiment squirted into a tiny paper pot). And would it really kill them to add some combo or half portions to the menu, to let you mix and match? All in all, Texas Joe’s is a good BBQ restaurant – but it could have been a great one.