The restaurant
My wife and I arrived relatively early at 12:00 on a Sunday (German style), so we could immediately get a table since they just opened. The mouthwatering aroma of their food was not annoying as standing in the middle of the kitchen, but just enough to create a big appetite. The decoration is nice with contemporary graffitti on their walls. Don't forget to leave your tag/mark on the restroom walls - pen is provided by the restaurant!
Service was nice and chatty not only to us, but to other patrons joining the restaurant later - yet leaving enough room to enjoy the food. Not sure whether it's normal, but since my wife is on a special low-carb diet, he was flexible enough to swap fries against more cole-slaw. Just a minor favour, but still leaving a positive impression.
Juicy pulled pork and tender ribs!
We started off with their delicious house-made lemonade, which was just right. Many others add too much sugar and others add too much acidity or bitterness. I liked it, because it was really well-balanced in sweetness and tartness. The owner explained to us that they will introduce some spiked drinks later.
Our original plan was to order a portion of pulled pork and then a portion of their ribs, which were only available at 13:00 since they smoke those fresh over hours to get them really tender. That pulled pork was amazingly juicy and tasty! We've been tasting pulled pork around the world, including "Fette Sau" in Brooklyn (featured in NY Times, etc.), which is famous for their pulled pork and where many dozen people queue up just to get seats. 85 South's pulled pork is right up there or even better in juicyness and taste.
The pulled pork can be accompanied by three different sauces, each with their very own delicious taste direction and compliment the pulled pork very nicely. Since there is a full bottle of each sauce on every table, there's definitely no need to ration - go full in if you want! The cole-slaw is not based on mayonnaise, but as ha very tasty tomato-base, which feels much lighter and has ha nice tanginess.
We loved it so much, that I somehow messed up our nice plan and went for another portion of pulled pork, but this time with fries for me. They have steak fries and while I'm rather a fan of thin fries, they use a special Southern Californian seasoning, which give those fries an extra kick. Some might say it's too salty, but for me it was just right.
Already quite full, I had to convince my wife to taste the ribs. She didn't want to taste even one single piece because she was so full off the pulled pork already. But when the ris arrived and after she tasted only one single bite, she was literally hooked! I was already quite stuffed as well, but couldn't stop eating more of those delicious ribs. They don't come out glazed with any sauce, but come instead with a very nice and unique spice rub. And that's perfectly fine, as you can still add any of the three sauces if you like. But we just enjoyed the ribs as they were.
Totally stuffed after those three portions and deperately wanting a digstion nap, we were already thinking when we could come back to have more. But next time, we will stick to one portion per person - at least that's once again only the plan...
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