the hammered hog

horrible hogg more like it. subject: visit impressions

wrote the following letter to the restaurant. never received a response. the place is ill managed in our view.

dear owner and/or kitchen manager:

my wife and i visited your restaurant for dinner 21 february around 6 pm. i am not in the habit of writing letters to restaurants, nor making reviews online, however this time there seems to be a real need. we and our families are longtime residents of the area where your restaurant is located and like to see local non-franchised businesses flourish. we think it’s good for our community, and patronize these types of restaurants nearly exclusively.

the wait staff / server was seemingly fresh to the job, however very pleasant and reasonably attentive and desiring to provide a good experience for us.

the menus provided were stained and not clean, and also very hard to read. beers were ordered and brought quickly, and were nice and cold as well as attractively priced. i ordered a hammered hogsandwichwith coleslaw and corn, my wife a barbeque platter with cowboy beans. the meals appeared simultaneously.

the meat in mysandwichwas very flavorful and obviously prepared with care. the bun was non-descript – it could have or may have been from a grocery store. the coleslaw cabbage was very plain with a dollop of flavored mayo on top. i’m glad i ordered it on the side instead of on mysandwichas the server suggested – perhaps the inclusion in thesandwichis “carolina style”, however this would have really this would have decimated the quality of the meat. as it was, i tried the coleslaw and could not get past the dollop of mayo, so i declined eating that. the mini corn cob was evidently boiled to death, waterlogged, flavorless.



my wife’s platter included “cowboy beans”. she and i tried what apparently was pinto beans with some shredded barbeque meat. not very flavorful. boring, perhaps. my wife asked for some small buns so that she could make some little barbeque sandwiches. the buns appeared, as cold parkerhouse rolls straight from the refrigerator. my wife asked if the rolls could be toasted, and they were taken away and blackened on one side, still cool on the other.

lastly, a barbeque restaurant two choices of bbq sauce: kansas city style and habanero. really?

in closing, the meat stood on its own merits – this is the heart and soul of a bbq joint and it performed well here. everything around it either failed miserably or did little to improve the dining experience.

we hope that you take our review in a positive manner – hopefully your restaurant will succeed in getting better reviews in the future.

pulled porksandwichwas excellent.


-----29 may, 2012-----

i tried the brisquit sandwich. the meat was tender and light smoke flavor. i don't know if i ever pulled brisquit before but it was good

now the "hammered hog"-same great menu!. fantastic! went for lunch today on a groupon promotion. had the standard pulled-porksandwichthat was great, with flavors not found in the typical sandwich. great cole slaw, too. then, to use the balance of the groupon, took home a half-rack of pork ribs. haaven't consumed them yet, but a sample made it hard to save it! you'll be hard-pressed to find better. note: this is the former "notorious p.i.g" at this location, no longer affiliated with the desert ridge location of that name. they changed ownership and the name to differentiate themselves, and they stand out!

haterz of the pig. so i went and tried out this notorious pig place when she first came out about 5 months ago, food was alright, service not to bad. i would have given it 2.5 stars. i have recently taken my father, from kansas, there and they have made so many step-ups in quality of food and service. best ribs i have ever had. there pigsandwichis literally mouth-watering. i recommend this place to anyone and everyone. cannot find better quality smoked bbq anywhere in az and that i can gaurantee you.

first and last:. let me start by saying this was my first visit to this place. i consider myself somewhat of a tenderloin expert, i have eaten some of the best around the country. unfortunately this was not one of them. you claim your establishment got their recipe from iowa. if that is the case then you got it from the wrong person. the tenderloin was greasy and was very boring. a tenderloin should be large but large in the round sense of the word this was a bulbous piece of meat and not tenderized to thin perfection as most are. our table ordered three all together and everyone agreed if you want a real pork tenderloinsandwichgo to the iowa cafe in mesa or to boomers sweet home chicago. the fries were limp and undercooked. my wife and daughter had the notorious p.i.g. sandwich. they said the meat was dried out and the meat also tasted strange. neither of them hardly ate any of their sandwich. now mind you this is supposed to be a rib joint and they were out of ribs? i have never in my life been to a rib place that ran out of ribs and i've been to many rib joints. do yourself a favor and if you want bbq go to famous dave's, stacy's or shane's rib shack. you will find great food and they will have ribs as a rib joint should. this is the first and last time i visit notorious p.i.g. did i mention we were there for over a half hour before we even got our appetizer. what a terrible experience.