I feel like our brisket wasn’t held the greatest and the cut is a bit dry. Opened a restaurant and we’re working the kinks out. This was about 2 hours after our soft open and pics stolen from a customer. All criticism is welcomed as we’re hard opening this week to the public.
by Bcalrissian
35 Comments
Where are you guys located?
Brisket looks no good. Mac could use some work too. Should bake it with cheese on top
Use pic 2 for the tacos in pic3. Pic 1 looks good – nice portion size of meat
Edit to add: maybe add something pickled for the plates, to cut through the heaviness of the meat.
Bbq place by me hoses their brisket down with a squeeze bottle of what I think is beef tallow when they’re slicing it. Works pretty nice.
Edit: Just adding more thoughts.
-Fries look killer
-Mac looks good to me, but you can’t go wrong with breadcrumbs or cheese or pickled jalapeños on top
-Can’t tell from here but make sure those tortillas are toasted over a burner or grill for a few seconds before making the tacos (you might already be doing this)
-The tray could really use a pop of color, something green (like pickled jalapeños for example)
All in all, looks great, I would destroy it, just gotta get that brisket figured out. Best of luck to you!
That brisket isn’t going to bring anyone back for seconds
Brisket is making me thirsty
I mean, did you provide questionnaires or receive other feedback from the customers? It’s really hard for us to tell you how the food actually was without tasting it.
The tacos look a little busy, angle or height of the picture could easily be weird and make that seem overblown.
I’ll second or third were others have said, the brisket looks a little dry. It’s practically impossible to cook to order and this kind of setting, so consider beef Tallow squeeze bottle trick or soak. You might need to throw it under a broiler for a moment to get a little bit of crust back on it if you soak it fully. I think the squeeze bottle is a better option.
No fucking clue what others are on about the mac. Looks good, but it could be God here or absolute dog s***. Mac is impossible to tell from a picture outside of obvious atrocious exceptions.
Make the small improvements, fine tune, and GET LOCAL FEEDBACK on what THEY want. Make them happy and you’ll pull a larger market.
Looks insane. If there is room for a texas toast on the plat, it could be a bump
This will probably not work out for you my guy
I don’t do chopped BBQ, so whatever tf that first thing is is a hard no from me.
It looks great
Whatever is in pic 1 put on a sandwich. Could also be good mixed into one of your sides but a plate of pulled meat isn’t really bbq.
And yeah the brisket looks dry. This is stuff you need to have down before you open though!
What’s your holding method during service for picking up the brisket??
Coleslaw is a must
plate 1: looks good, would add pickles, pickled onions and jalapeños on the side for color and extra flavor/freshness
plate 2: fries and mac and cheese look good. Brisket looks dry
plate 3: tacos look good, just toast tortillas if you haven’t. jalapeños and pickled red onion would also be a great addition on the side
You forgot your location!!
I’m not gonna judge your food until I know your town. Whether it’s Dallas or Dalhart makes a big difference
Agreed with everyone else about the brisket. I’d rather you tell customers that you’re out of briskets until you iron things out…
I feel like your tacos should be cilantro, onions, and lime. Sauce on the side. No tomatoes. What is the sauce anyway?
Business first. I agree the brisket needs work and if it’s a sit down place your sides need some finishing like seasoning on the potato salad to top it like paprika for color and finish your Mac n cheese with a splash of freshly grated cheddar to give it a pull. But more importantly, make sure your margins are correct and you can cut yourself a salary after a year. Marketing is huge, invest in more than social media, cater events and weddings and push people to your hopefully good location. Make sure your meat and food source is reliable and negotiate long term price agreements
That brisket looks flat out terrible. None of this looks good honestly. It’s possible it tastes better than it looks I suppose
spray or pour broth on that I got cottonmouth
I wanna see that pulled pork on a damn samwich that would be fire
Ditch the checkered parchment paper unless you are going for a 50s retro diner feel, and also serve a great milkshake
That potato salad looks like room temp mashed potatoes.
The meats look dry as a bone my dude. Like there’s not a single bit of juice or moisture left on either the pork or the brisket. And the fact that there’s no sign of any juice on the tray tells that story fully.
I’d seriously recommend taking a look at your methods and trying to fix them. Maybe use a higher grade product, and then rest for at least half as long as you cooked it.
The fries and tacos look good. But that ain’t what a bbq place should hang its hat on
Running restaurants is difficult especially barbecue restaurants. Do you have a network of business associates, mentors, local BBQ championship competitors, gourmets, etc that you can bounce ideas off of? The first year of any business is crazy difficult and you’re going to want some help and honest feedback.
You already know it, but that brisket is not going to be popular until you figure out what part of your process is off. The sides look great, and I’d definitely try those tacos.
Tallow for the brisket, add some color with pickled sides and please NO checkered parchment paper.
Brisket is dry, the pork is dry. Id definitely eat it though. The Feeeixins looks really good though.
I’ll let the more versed good folks address the meat.
Change the color of the checkered paper to red for added visual appeal at no additional cost. Pickles and/or pickled onions would also address color and are relatively low cost. Tuck the edge of a few napkins under one of the side dish bowls to make the whole thing look bigger.
Plate coverage could be better. Texas toast or white bread would be a possible low cost addition. You might also consider changing the cups/bowls to something lower and wider to match the size of the serving tray.
Generally speaking, when food is separated into very distinct grouping on the plate with space between, it tends to feel like an institutional meal. Get with your food service supplier rep and ask him/her for time with their executive chef or business developer manager. They should be able to do a menu/food cost analysis to help you understand how much wiggle room you have. It is typically a complementary service if you are spending enough.
A bit of a random but important tip, DO NOT try and lower costs by going with lower quality food. It backfires 101% of the time because customers can tell. I can’t begin to tell you how many places I saw go under because they got into this mindset. It is the food service equivalent of using Moneytree to buy a car from J.D. Byrider. Make your rep work for their paycheck.
You already know that the brisket is off. Personally, I like trying pulled pork at any bbq place that isn’t in Texas to see if they’re good. And your pulled pork looks pretty good at a glance.
Good luck with your place. Opening a restaurant sounds like a ton of work. I’m both envious and not. Hope it goes well.
For operations, have you considered disposable cardboard side dish containers? Eliminates the need for constant bowl washing.
Be careful on portions. Use a system. Dont want to go broke with bad cost ratios.
Throw some slices of white bread on your trays. Goes a long way
Too much in the tacos.
Overall looks good. I’d definitely try it. The potato salad(?) or mashed potatoes(?) could use some sliced green onion as a garnish. Ditto on the comment for the meat either being in a sandwich or maybe placed on a slice or 2 of bread. Or a piece of cornbread or somehow just adding some bread. Beans look good and a small chunk of ham added as garnish would be nice. Idk about anyone else but I always liked getting the serving of baked beans that had the ham chunk in it, so adding a chunk to each portion when serving might be a nice touch.
Fries and mac and cheese look good. Per others if you want to add some toasted bread crumbs, sure, but to me it looks good as is. You don’t need my comments on the brisket since everyone else has given you an earful.
Tacos look good, agree that a pop of color, or more of whatever the semi-hidden green (green onion or jalapeño, etc) on two of them would make them look better. I like that each taco has 2 tortillas so you can make another taco out of what spills when you eat it. Places that don’t do that when using corn tortillas are the worst.
Again, the presentation looks good (minus the issues with brisket) and I’d definitely eat it.
You keep saying “we” and “they”, who’s the pitmaster? If it’s your restaurant and you know brisket is gonna be the talk of the town, why leave your bread winner to someone else? If you have inexperienced staff manning the smoker, train them or put controls in place. If I got brisket like that, I won’t be going back. You gotta make that first impression stick to get repeat customers and build that reputation.