5 Splats -

Pappas Bar B Q
Throughout Texes


So I asked my students where to find good BBQ in Houston and I got a variety of answers. One that seemed pretty constant was Pappas. This student support, plus the fact that there was one close to my hotel prompted my to give it a try. I have to say that, for a chain, this place does a pretty good job. It was good, commercial BBQ, served at a reasonable price. Everything I had was good (except the damn sauce :( - although I wouldn't call anything "great".
I had the sampler plate (like always) which allows me a little taste of a lot of stuff. I added to tamales to the mess because I .. um … really like tamales. The meat was all well smoked - none of it was dry nor was it too overly overcooked (a common problem with cooking BBQ for a restaurant.) Three things stood out:

1. The BBQ sauce was bland, and had an after taste of being burned. This always kills a restaurant for me, since I *really* like sauces.

2. This was a very juicy brisket! The bark didn't have much flavor (again, just a burned taste, not a rub taste,) and the sauce did nothing to enhance the meat, but it was really good.

3. The smoked ham was GREAT! I never order smoked ham - this time it was just included in the sampler plate. Holy Smoke, here's a taste that will knock your socks off. I'm wondering if this is really good, or if I've been missing great meat by ignoring the ham at other places!
RIBS - 3 Splats
Nicely smoked, had a nice fire-ring, and a good amount of meat on the bone. This would have been higher, but they didn't remove the silver skin from the back of the rib - thats like eating plastic.

Tamales - 8 splats!
I know this isn't BBQ, but like I said, I love tamales! These were much better than I was expecting. (and cheap too!)

BRISKET - 6 Splats
I can see why they sell a lot of their brisket - it was actually very good. It had a good fire ring, was moist, and had a nice smokey taste.

HAM - 7 Splats
I'm going to be trying more smoked ham - this stuff was great!

SAUCES -2 Splats
Just nothing here ...

I probably won't go back - not because anything was bad - but because there are so many other interesting places to eat in Houston