sampled 7/16/23 about 2 pm
As I threatened (or promised) before, I made it back with some friends on a Sunday afternoon for a sit-down dinner at Roy's. The line was short, we loaded up with a lot of good food, and tucked in at the ground floor dining space. Before we started, I had to get a photo in the elevator to the second floor dining room. That's the first BBQ joint elevator I have ever been in, so we just had to document that! I had planned to go upstairs later to check it out, but we visited so long I never made it. Next time!
I chose my usual Texas Trinity, plus some brisket burnt ends, one Armadillo Egg, 2 Texas Twinkies, and a small side of mac & cheese. They were out of pork belly burnt ends when we went through the line, but I grabbed half a pound before we left. The brisket was tender and moist with well rendered fat, but had no discernable smoke flavor. Same with the brisket burnt ends. Scott said he had smoke flavor in his piece. The sausage had big chunks of jalapeno and cheddar but was not particularly spicy. The ribs were undercooked and very chewy. There was nice pork flavor but no smoke. Even gnawing on the bone I could not get all the meat off. My friend Patti said her ribs were the same, but Scott said his were fine. Scott was ahead of us in line and certainly got his ribs from a different rack. My first rib was so bad I did not even attempt to gnaw on the second one.
I sampled 2 of their specialty items, the Texas Twinkies and their July special item, an Armadillo Egg. Texas Twinkies I have had before at both the Hutchin's in McKinney and at Roy's in Trophy Club. Last time I thought there was too much cheese and not enough brisket. Today was much better. They were much closer to a 50/50 mix. Mighty fine eatin'. I'm glad I got an extra one to re-heat and eat later.
The Armadillo Egg is a specialty item they are experimenting with and I dug it. They take a cream cheese stuffed jalapeno, wrap it in ground sausage, sort of like a little meatloaf, then wrap the whole enchilada in bacon. My friend Rhandy would call it diabolical. I don't know if I would call it BBQ, but I would call it delicious. They are pricey, at $15 each, but I think it was around half a pound.
I meant to try their Hot Links, too, but I already had a tray full of meat. Next time.
We sat and visited a long time. Almost 3 hours. The downstairs dining room stayed busy but we never felt rushed. Finally I went up to the front to check and they did have pork belly burnt ends. I got half a pound to go and we sampled them before we headed out. They cut their pork belly bites about twice the size of Don Green's, but they were every bit as tender. That's the only other place, so far, that we have eaten where the pork belly was melt-in-your-mouth. I would order those again.
The staff was friendly and helpful and there were a lot of them!
As I said before, I love the fact I can get Texas Twinkies just 15 minutes from my house. I will give them another chance on the ribs next time.
