Critic's Review
I'd been to East Coast BBQ when they first opened and I thought it was pretty good. They didn't even had a sign yet. Nearly a year later they still don't really have a sign, and the parking lot is still a work in progress. I'm sure the parking lot isn't their fault.
This is a pretty handsome place for a BBQ joint, particularly when many of them are no more than trailers with picnic benches. This is a storefront in a Publix anchored strip mall. They have a stainless steel open kitchen and table and chairs that remind me of 5 guys, with ketchup, mustard and BBQ sauce in squeeze bottle on the tables.
Their menu is about they same as are the prices; they do have a couple of combo offerings now but with no babyback ribs it really doesn't appeal to me. I was in the mood for ribs so I ordered another half rack of spare ribs with baked beans and mac and cheese. The beans were pretty interesting the first time I tried them.
My first order looked like this:
The ribs were good, the cole slaw very good, and the beans had an interesting, spicy flavor. I was surprised that the food in this order; largely the same except for the mac and cheese was quite different.
The ribs were a bit saucier; and the beans were completely different. What I find interesting is that their menu describes the beans in exactly the same way as before, but the beans no longer match the description. These beans were not sweet or spicy. They were bland and boring. The Mac and Cheese was pretty good; made with an unusual choice of Penne instead of macaroni, but I didn't like that they were plopped into the container with the ribs on top of them. Packaging remains an issue here.
Most disappointing were the ribs; the ribs I got were very fatty. I'm not sure if this is random bad luck or because of lower quality. (The owner has contacted us and assured us that it's random bad luck).
The fat was limited to 2 ribs; they're pretty good ribs,but not the fall off the bone sauced kind. You can taste the meat on these.
I'd had some pretty good ribs since my last visit here, and I wanted to refresh my memory on East Coast BBQ after New Times named them the top BBQ in Broward / Palm Beach. I can't agree at all. This place wasn't nearly as good on the 2nd visit.