Bates City BBQ
Bates City BBQ is located in Appleton close to the Northland mall. Not only do I love eating BBQ, I consider it a hobby! I have 2 smokers and enjoy making ribs and pulled pork on the weekends. Between constantly tweaking my own recipes and learning from great sites like thesmokering.com I know what I like in BBQ. This week I am visiting Bates City BBQ on my lunch hour.
Atmosphere: As you look at the front of the building you see stacks of wood on either side of the front door and a large BAR-B-QUE sign in the window. It instantly got me excited for some real authentic BBQ. Stepping through the front doors you are greeted by that fantastic smell of smoke you get from your charcoal grill or smoker. You can choose to sit in either a both or at a table. Some of the walls have tongue and groove wood giving the place a warm and cozy feeling. You choose your meal from a large menu on the wall before placing your order. Food is served cafeteria style, served on paper plates and trays. Your meal is prepared behind the counter and you take your food to your table. After receiving your food there is a traditional soda dispenser and a condiment counter.
Food: The menu consists of everything BBQ, ribs, pulled pork, chicken and brisket to name a few. I wanted to try a little of everything so I ordered the brisket and rib combo plate. Luckily with a little persuasion my friend ordered the pulled pork sandwich. After ordering I was immediately not liking what I saw! I saw them take a large tupperware container full or ribs out of a refrigerator. The meat was put on my plate then popped into the microwave. A microwave? I thought at lunch time they would pull a rack of ribs out of the large smoker behind the counter and cut me off a few. Same story with my friends pulled pork, out of the fridge and into a microwave.
My plate came with 2 spare ribs, 6 to 8 thin slices of brisket and a bun. Sides and soda are extra, I ordered coleslaw. My friend received a decent sized sandwich and french fries. The ribs and brisket both looked good, ribs were juicy and they both had a good smoke ring.
The flavor side of things was a different story. The brisket was definitely on the dry side, without some sauce on these I would have just passed. The ribs were done just right, very tender but yet you had to bite them off the bone, just the way I liked them. Although tender and done right flavor was also lacking here. It was just plain pork in my opinion. I really enjoy the flavor from the rub and smoke to compliment the pork, I was not getting any of that. My friends comments were about the same as mine, without some sauce this sandwich it was just to dry. Both the french fries and cole slaw were very good.
My lunch combo plate, a side of cole slaw and a soda was $10.50.
Conclusion: I really like the atmosphere of Bates City and the service was great. Unfortunately I was let down by the food and left unsatisfied. This was my first visit and would love to hear your experiences either as a comment on this post or in our forums.
Bates Information:
Website - bcbarbque.com
menu (pdf)
Phone # - 920-882-2959
Address - 651 W. Ridgeview Appleton, WI
Hours - Monday - Thursday 10:30am - 8pm
Friday - Saturday 10:30am - 9pm
Sunday 11am - 6pm
Google map
I’ve heard about this place from people and have wanted to try it. I’m a huge fan of Pearson’s in Oshkosh - for carry out. I’m sad you didn’t love the food.
I was there as well and I was very disappointed int he quality of the food. The best part of my meal was the fries.
You have got to be the worst restaurant reviewer in the world. Bates city is an awesome restaurant and way better than anything you could find at Famous Daves or any other BBQ restaurant!
@You are stupid
I’m thinking you have some connection with Bates City. Overall, the flavor of the ribs were good and they had a good chew of them. I agree that the pulled pork would’ve been blah without the sauce. I also think the review is dead on and when it comes to the overall experience and you have to agree with that. You walk in and see this huge smoker behind the counter, smell the smokey environment and get excited. Your taste buds wake up and start getting ready for some Great Q. Then you watch as you get served ribs out of a refrigerator and “Nuke Them”. How is that an awesome restaurant? They need to do something about that. I understand it is difficult to keep things fresh and try to minimize waste all of that (I have worked in the restaurant business), but don’t nuke my food in front of me if that is what you have to do. At least put the fridge and micro behind a wall so the customer can’t see it. There has to be a way to keep a few ribs ready at peak times and keeping them warm some other way. Watching someone Nuke your ribs sets it up for a bad experience. I hope they can improve on it.