big bad wolf's house of barbeque

great bbq/bad sides. big badwolfhas a ton of potential. their sauces are amazing, the meat (from pork, to brisket to ribs) are all top quality and smoked to perfection. they only have two things running against them. first, the location is very small and cramped, but i heard that they may be thinking of expansion. and second, their sides are not good. in fact the only good side that they sell is their fries. their corn bread is the worst in town. their mac n' cheese is oily, their cole slaw is tasteless. and their potato salad has a strange taste to it that turns most off. so please follow my advice if you are a first timer. get any and all pieces of bbq, but stick to the fries when it comes to sides.

ribs. they are the way i like my ribs,with out the fat,and i like potatoe salad made with red potatoes.the potatoes are kind of big ,but not bad.my first time eating at big badwolfand it was tastey.keep the ribs just the way they are and i will be a customer for ever ,thanks for cooking good food.god bless!!

it's like a desert oasis that serves mostly-potable water. before you read this, let me clear: big badwolfis a perfectly good restaurant and you should try their food. moreover, it's clean, reasonably priced, and the service is very good.

that said, the rest of this review is really written for serious barbecue lovers. if you are one and have some real cue experience, when going to big bad wolf, you should temper your expectations. there is good and there is less so, and i will try to analyze accordingly.

a good place to start is by telling you how it was recommended to me. a neighbor said, "big badwolfhas the best barbecue in baltimore." that is probably a completely true statement, but it has much more do with it being in baltimore and less so with the cue; hence the title of this review...

the biggest problem: the meat has little merit on its own. that is not to say it's bad - it's perfectly edible - but just that it lacks the smokey goodness and/or quality rub of real, time-consuming barbecue. the love was just never added (or the hickory, mesquite, or any other particular wood from what i can taste).

so how do you solve the biggest problem? with their best feature: a good sauce. a real barbecue lover will tell you that even a great sauce can never wholly save flavorless meat, but big badwolfreally puts that maxim to the test with some of theirs.

the good:
- texas bbq sauce - they do a very good job with this one, even down to cooking the onions right into the sauce
- carolina mustard - this was the most pleasant surprise of my sampling! they do an honest-to-god south carlina style mustard-base sauce, and it's pretty damn close to the real thing!
- bourbon cherry - this isn't even really a barbecue sauce of any specific tradition, but damn if it doesn't just taste good! unfortunately, it was billed as a "seasonal" sauce at the time, so it may not always be available. still if you find it, go for it.

the "bad is too strong of a word":
- anything they refer to as a kansas city-style sauce - both the sweet and the spicy... if you have been to kansas city and had real barbecue there, this will simply disappoint you. if your kc experience comes in a bottle from safeway, then these will probably fit or just slightly exceed your expectations. they are acceptable sauces, but pretty run of the mill overall.

the ugly:
- north carolina vinegar - there is no excuse for this one. nc vinegar sauce may be tricky to get right, but they could not have possibly even tried! i'm pretty sure they put some apple cider vinegar in with a few red pepper flecks, watered it down, and called it sauce. this is the worst of their offerings, hands down.

anyhow, like i said, this is a perfectly good restaurant. and, for baltimore, it's about as close as you can get to legitimate barbecue. unfortunately, everything except the ribs is put on a sandwich, but i recommend the "big bad wolf" sandwich anyway. toss the bread aside, eat the brisket with the texas bbq sauce, and the pork with the mustard base sauce. the bacon is a nice little treat too even though it has nothing to do with barbecue. as for sides, the mac-n-cheese is decent, but avoid the greens; and fries are a great way to taste more sauces (and they give pretty serious portions when it comes to the fries!). and, be sure to wash it all down with some half-n-half, since these guys clearly give their sweet tea and lemonade appropriate levels of sugar (i.e. diabetes inducing, but deliciously sweet!).

overrated. i don't think big badwolfis as good as some reviewers say. i got the pulled pork and beef ribs. i did not find them to be exceptional. the beef ribs were good and the sweet sauce i got with them went very well with the ribs. but, these are short ribs. my half rack of ribs only came with three. the pulled pork was disappointing. it was not tasteful and at times did not taste like pork.

it took 20 minutes for us to phone-in our order because we kept getting a busy signal. when we arrived to pick up our order we found out why: the staff only has one person working the phone and will put callers on hold in order to service customers who have come in. not very efficient. this isn't the reason i was not satisfied with the place.

unique and tasty sauce selections. ms. classy and i were jonesing for a cheap dinner and i also felt it high time to grace my readers with another pulitzer-worthy post (oh mark my words, when the people from the pulitzer board come down to the baltimore, get hungry, then realize they have little more than pocket change on them, who do you think they'll come to for advice? hmmmm?) i hopped onto urbanspoon.com and checked my wish list and barbecue ribs seemed to hit the spot. we had been to andy nelson's twice (blog post still to come and i'll link to it as soon as i bother to post it) and we wanted to try some place different. so we set sail (read: hopped into my little ford focus) and set our navigation equipment (read: dashboard gps) for the exotic harford road.


we arrived at the little yellow shack unscathed. we stepped to the ordering area, which also serves as the waiting/seating/dining area and pondered the menu. like every barbecue shop, the aroma alone would turn any vegetarians who are questioning their lifestyle choice. ms. classy even noted they could increase their profits if they figured out how to package and sell it. we had read the sides were not good at all, but we don't go for ribs for the sake of the sides. however, we were intrigued by a limited time only sauce: blueberry barbecue. we inquired and the gentleman said they were out for the day and it was his brother who concocted the recipe, who was also out for the day. on a happier note, their carolina mustard sauce was in ample supply. we placed two half racks of spare ribs, one with carolina mustard sauce, the other with kansas city sweet sauce. since the "cozy" spatial arrangements of the dining area would require us to be more intimate with strangers, we decided to take our order to go.


when we got home, i hit that meat like a lawn mower. i had to remind myself to slow down, savor the meat and sauces, and put my eating experience into soul-moving, unforgettable prose (pulitzer, remember?). after removing the meat from the styrofoam package, we sopped up the sauce drippings with the cornbread (not the greatest cornbread, but good enough). the carolina mustard sauce was my favorite. if you've never tried such a thing, i suggest you go out and try it. a half rack of spare ribs is only $8.49 and enough meat for a full meal. the kansas city sweet sauce was also perfect for that style: smoky and sweet! as far as the meat goes, i found it on the not-so-tender side: no falling off the bones, no pulling into little shreds. i prefered the meat from andy nelson's, but liked the sauce selection at big bad wolf's house of barbecue better than andy nelson's. ms. classy endorsed big bad wolf's all the way.

maybe if andy nelson's utilized those plastic pigs in some sort of big bad wolf's unique sauce smuggling ring, or if the big badwolfhuffed and puffed and stole andy nelson's piggy meat, then either place could brag the best ribs this close to the mason-dixon, but not this side of the mason-dixon.

does anyone have any suggestions about a barbecue place that can rival the meat of andy nelson's or the sauces of big bad wolf's house of barbecue?

-mr. cheap
cheapeatsincharmcity.com

big badwolfgives away sandwich for donation to haitian orphanage. i just got an email that thewolfis giving away a free pulled pork sandwich tomoorw (jan 18) for a donation to wings of hope and orphanage in haiti. so go to thewolftomoorw and have a greatr sandwich and make a difference at the same time.

big badwolfsandwich. def. best barbeque sandwich's i've had. if your questioning what to get, it's the "big bad wolf". pulled pork and brisket toped w/ 2 pieces of bacon and whatever sauce you'd like. sauces are excellent (kc sweet, kc spicey, sweet honey, blueberry (seasonal)) and i wind up always buying sauces to go as well. even my parents ask for sauce and they've never eaten there. the pork and brisket are also very good alone. only good side order would be the fries but beware of "family size" of fries...it's def. for a family. seating and size are two issues but i will glady deal w/ it for the taste.