Sunday, June 28, 2009

Junior's Bar-B-Q


RED OAK: Junior’s BBQ
251 E. Ovilla Rd

Red Oak, TX 75154

972-617-5362

Open M-F 11-8


Bubba Q might get all of the attention from passers by coming off the highway just up the street, but Juniors seemed to have a good share of the local crowd at lunchtime on a recent Friday. The parking lot was full of trucks bulging just beyond the painted yellow lines beneath them, and the booths inside struggled to contain some of the bulging customers voraciously enjoying their meals.

My sister and I shared a generous two meat plate of brisket and ribs with a decent version of potato salad and crisp, lightly crusted okra. Hunger overcame us before I remembered the camera in my pocket, so the photography did suffer. The brisket slices we dug into first had a good crust, a handsome smokeline, and well rendered fat. A smoky flavor permeated deeply beyond the crust, but there were crustless slices that tasted a bit roast-beefy. The overall flavor was pleasing, but not overwhelmingly good.



On the other side of plate sat ribs with a hefty rub providing a bold flavor to the meat. Despite the heavy rub, a decent crust was allowed to form which provided a good level of smokiness to the reddish hued meat. Layers of well rendered fat made for moist tender ribs worth savoring, but again our hunger didn't allow us to savor. The ribs were gone in a flash, almost as quickly as the okra disappeared. For all of you who usually stop in at Bubba's on your way to Austin, do yourself a favor and head up the road to Juniors for some quality protein.

Rating ***

Junior's Barbeque on Urbanspoon

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

WE have been practicing for over 33 years now,, come and get you some ,,,JUNIOR

DISCLAIMER:

Each joint is judged on the essence of Texas 'cue...sliced brisket and pork ribs. Sausage is only considered if house made. Sauce is good, but good meat needs no adornment to satisfy. Each review can only be based on specific cuts of meat on that particular day. Finally, if the place fries up catfish or serves a caesar salad, then chances are they aren't paying enough attention to the pits, so we mostly steered clear.

-THE PROPHETS OF SMOKED MEAT