Kansas City is known for its steak and BBQ. Tonight, my brother and I tried a bbq place that popped up near our house recently. Dickey’s BBQ near 119th and Metcalf was a delicious change from the normal BBQ that we go to.
BBQ places in KC really seem to only have two configurations. There is the Jack Stack ‘fancy’ style with table settings, a good table cloth, great food and an all too proper (and usually out of place) waiter. Then there is the Arthur Bryant’s grease pit hole-in-the-wall with wooden chairs and benches, crap on the walls, and fantastic food. Not to say that Jack Stack is bad, it just carries a pretty nice price tag to pay for those table cloths.
Dickey’s is firmly in the second category with a menu placed over the kitchen, medium sized wooden benches, and wooden chairs and tables throughout the restaurant. We ordered our meal, a slab of ribs, the large order of waffle fries, and the large order of fried okra, and went to work.
The Good: The ribs tasted fantastic. I’ve noticed that ribs have a tendency to dry out if cooked improperly but these were just awesome. Very juicy, flavorful, and fall off the bone delicious. The fries were crispy, not soggy. The fried okra was some of the best I’ve tasted in a long time outside of the Deep South. I used the spicy sauce on my ribs and it was just the right level of spiciness.
The Bad: The ribs were small. For 20 bucks I expect a bit more meat than what they gave out. In KC we usually see about 10 bucks per pound of ribs which is plenty to feed my brother and I so that we are quite sated, and we are not the smallest of people. The slab of pork ribs that we got was about one and a half pounds and just a bit underwhelming for the 20 dollar price tag. In addition, the level of BBQ sauce on the ribs inherently was lacking. I much prefer to have a saucy slab than a dry one so this was a negative point for me.
The Ugly: Super tiny cups and ladles for the BBQ sauce. It was so good, but the cups…they were inadequate!
All in all this was a great place and we will probably end up going back there. Instead of getting the slab and sides, we will probably get the family meal which includes 2 pounds of meat (which can be ribs) and 3 medium sides with rolls for 30 bucks instead of the 40 we spent total. The size of the ribs was a real turn off but the quality was good enough that it was somewhat offset. All in all, good place to eat.
Dickey’s on Metcalf gets 4/5 Fatty Rolls.