Big Pig Canteen — Restaurant in Melbourne

Allow me to set the scene.

My fiancé and I were at home, Sunday, early evening. outside it is cool, blustery, Raining; a busy week, it was, for both of us at work, like most people.

As they always seems to do, hunger pangs started to affect our (up until that point) extremely relaxing evening; demanding our attention like a neglected cat.

It was swiftly established that neither my fiance or I wanted to cook, that it would be a better idea to eat out and spend some quality time together and that there were plenty of eateries local to us that we should try out.

Now, both of us have travelled to The USA, have eaten the BBQ food over there and thought that Big Pig Canteen looked great, it certainly had whetted our appetites, the mere thought of pulled pork and brisket was enough for me to quickly scrub up and wait hungrily whilst my fiancé finished getting ready.

We pulled up outside the establishment, a group of diners were outside, convivial, rosy of cheek; they looked happy, well fed and watered. This was a good sign.

Upon opening the door to a 2/3 full, nice, open, modern ,faux-industrial dining area, my fiance and I stood, anxiously, for more minutes than we wanted to (or, indeed, should have had to) to be greeted. Now, I realise it was a windy night, but I certainly didn't expect to feel like a stray leaf which had been blown over the threshold whilst the door was opened.

One, two, oh wait! Three staff members, glide silkily past us. I looked at my fiancé, asked her whether "I looked like a mirage?" - She answered in the negative.

I didn't know whether the staff had been told to adopt a taciturn approach to their customers? You know, let the food speak for itself..

Either way I needed to know whether we should seat ourselves or wait to be seated.

My impatience grew and we ended up just sitting on the table closest to us, messy, besmeared, covered in drinks and plates, which I cleaned up and moved onto another messy empty table next to ours.

Eventually, a senior staff member, an authoratitive looking gentleman, happened to be ambling by, (no eye contact with us, however) I asked him what the standard procedure was, do the waiters take our order?do we have to order at the bar?

No pleasant greeting came from that gentleman, no "how are you doing guys? No "let me explain to you how things work here" -He just pointed and said we were to order at a bar, which wasn't viewable from our table position, and said "if you could see around corners you'd know where to order from!" Very strange; almost perplexing by this point.

We were then, awkwardly, ushered to a more pleasant seating area by the gentleman, another messy, grease-smeared table, with water spills and tissues, so I thought, "I may aswell stay true to form and clean this table up for us, too?" No wait, for them?... Hmm I was extremely confused now, where were the staff? where were the standards?

A few minutes passed, The same gentleman came and offered to clean the table, to his surprise it was already cleaned.

We hadn't even looked at a menu yet!!

We quickly arrived at our choice of meal, I went to the bar (thanks, mate! - I now know where it is 😉) ordered our meal. It came out very quickly, and was very, very tasty.

Not once did a staff member come and ask us whether everything was ok with our meal. I would have loved another slice of white bread with my pulled pork, but, alas! The same poor service prevailed.

We ate our meal, and left, nobody thanked us for coming, wished us a good night - nothing!

Maybe I wasn't raised correctly and maybe I put too much emphasis on good service and manners. But to have literally no service and no manners beggars belief.

These guys must have a turnover of punters eating here en masse, day in - day out that results them not caring about wanting to create a loyal, returning customer base from good service.

Very tasty food, but the only taste I had in my mouth at the end of our experience at Big Pig Canteen was bitterness.

Want good food? Eat here! Want better service than here? go to the drive...

Dinner tonight was at Big Pig Canteen - American BBQ style food at reasonable prices.

We ordered: 🍴 New Jersey style poutine 🍴 Plate for one 200g (beef brisket) 🍴 Kids cheeseburger

🍨 Chocolate brownie w/ cherry ripe ice cream

The chips were crunchy and well seasoned. Combined with flavoursome gravy & stretchy cheese, the hot chips turned into a rich, delectable entree.

Plate for one included 200g beef wasbrisket, 2 chicken wings, coleslaw, pickles, bbq sauce. The brisket was tender and the wings had a delicious crispy exterior.

The cheeseburger was devoured by Finn. He loved every bite of it.

As dessert, we shared a chocolate brownie with cherry ripe ice cream. The moist, warm brownie with intense chocolate flavour was a tad on the sweet side but the sweetness was balanced out by the creamy ice cream. What a beautiful, decadent dessert!

————————————

Big Pig Canteen is an American BBQ restaurant located in the industrial area of Moorabbin that serves a variety of smoked meats and side dishes. There’s also a bar inside the restaurant that has a decent selection of beers on tap and other drinks. We eat here often and generally the food is great and affordable. Lots of space if you come with little ones.

📸 Dishes presented: 🍴 Jalapeño Cheese Balls 🍴 Mini Cheeseburger & Fries 🍴 Mac n Cheese 🍴 Plate for one: • Beef Brisket 200g • Two Southern Fried Chicken Wings • Hot Sauce, BBQ Sauce & Pickles

The jalapeño cheese balls had a crispy exterior and soft and gooey inside. There was a mild taste of jalapeño, personally we would have preferred if there was more jalapeño flavour coming through. Great little snack.

Mac n Cheese was creamy and seasoned well. Perhaps some crispy element (e.g. crumbs) could have elevated the dish.

The mini cheeseburger had a good bun, a great patty and the fries were crispy. Finn loved his meal.

The brisket was a bit dry. It happens with cuts that don’t have the fat integrated with the protein fibres. Personally we would recommend the burnt ends, but brisket can be amazing too depending on the cut of meat available on the day. The rub definitely made the brisket taste better. Great flavour and crunch on the...

Tasty American BBQ joint serving up some authentic cuisine. It's definitely one of the better BBQ joints we have been to in Melbourne, but I still left feeling it just didn't deserve 5 stars compared to the real deal. The brisket was nice, but a tad dry beyond just the burnt ends. Pulled pork was my favorite, but lacked a vinegar based bbq sauce, which is my preferred sauce. Charging for extra sauce is criminal in the BBQ world, especially if you are daring to serve up something a bit dry! A variery of sauce bottles sitting on the table is standard in a true authentic experience. Fried chicken was pretty good but nothing out of this world. The jalepeno cheese bombs were flavourful and moist. The corn bread is massively overpriced for a muffin and it's an odd way of serving corn bread, but it was tasty none the less. It makes me think it may not be made fresh daily. The onion rings were delicious with a nice crispy batter. The slaw was enjoyable and had the right amount of creaminess and tang without being too heavy on mayo. The fresh pickles are a bit boujee but a nice touch to cleanse the pallet. That would typically be a stacker slice or a full on pickle, not a few token slices. Mac n cheese was OK, nothing special in my book. Would be great to see it smoked or served up with a little twist.

Edit: returned for another visit. Still stand by my comments, the Mac and cheese is worth skipping. Tried the burnt ends ends and they were tasty! Some didn't quite have enough fat and ended up quite hard, but loved the sauce and flavour! Slaw was a less impressive this time, lacked vinegar. Service was much more attentive this time - 5☆ for service. 4.5 overall!

Environment was spacious, not too loud, felt very American, and wasn't too busy. Keen to try the all you can eat on a Thursday night and see how the quality holds up. Next up... time to...