BlackBear BBQ Blacktown — Restaurant in Sydney

Facebookers and Instagrammers are raving about this place so I thought I'd give it a go. It is set up nicely. The shop is positioned perfectly to cater for the mostly tradie clientele. It's the perfect blokie type of food to keep them happy. It was supposed to be the perfect food to keep me happy also. I love my meat. So I ordered the 'Hungry Bear Box'. The website says $25. The shop says $27. Still I thought, it looks sensational - I'll have a go. The meal came swiftly.

In the box: A slice of super fatty pork (possibly 70% fat) which wasn't rendered properly at all. There was a slice of brisket that was fairly dry - not juicy like the photos suggested. The taste was not a good as I was hoping. The link was super tasty and so was the small tub of bbq sauce. On the side was an ordinary slaw with a few sliced pickled gherkins and what looked like a kids school sized packet of potato thins opened up and dumped into the box. I expected a whole heap more for $27. On the plus side, it is an 'Instagram worthy' meal for those wanting to make their friends jealous "Look I'm eating meat and, at this very moment, you're not...probably". If that's what blows your skirt up then go for it. But if you're looking for value, look somewhere else or learn to do it yourself at home cheaper.

Really poor value and really disappointing. I give it 2 stars. 1 star for the marketing and 1 for the swift and smiley service. They honestly seem like a great...

For some bang-up American barbeque, head straight to Forge Street in Blacktown. You’ll find Blackbear BBQ fronting some low-lying factories in the suburb’s industrial area. The electronic menu board flashed by too quickly for a balanced assessment, but the hangry bear platter for two ($90) still managed to jump out. It’s a beautifully presented lunch, perfect for dissecting together at one of the picnic tables out front.

Barbequed meats are the focus of the platter, which neatly lines up two thin slices of wood-smoked, stretchy beef brisket, two juicy slabs of pork belly, and a thick beef short rib for your shared eating pleasure. A pork, jalapeño and cheese hot link is secreted between the slices, with burnt ends buried under the rib bone. Golden cornbread, tangy fresh coleslaw, luridly orange mac’n’cheese are all good sides. The potato salad was so-so, but the housemade pickles are excellent, as were the smoky beans tangled with long strands of beef brisket. Two sauces—both great—were also included.

Getting any meat you can’t finish wrapped up to take home wasn’t a problem. Even the drinks, like the sugar-free Born Dry sour cherry sparkling water ($3.50), were thoughtfully chosen to counteract the meat-sweats. No pretensions here, just good, well-executed barbeque in a format that makes it enjoyable to eat. They also do barbeque classes if you happen to have bought a smoker you’re not yet...

Okay, first disappointment, I purchased the full rack of pork ribs and a regular chips and paid $94.00, I thought at least the servings would be generous, definitely not the case, regular chips were okay but you could count them and for $9.00 a serve, yes I was expecting a more generous serve, I proceeded in opening the box of a full rack of pork ribs and was I was underwhelmed with the serving, I thought at $85.00 for the box, on seeing the portion size, I thought what scabs, pork rib serving was minimal, it was a great big box served in but not an abundance of food, small serving of ribs a scoop of coleslaw crisps chips, quite unpleasant really, just a useless box filler, the coleslaw was the nicest thing in the box, the pork ribs were dry and very unappetising and tough not succulent as what I thought they would be, I often buy the pre-cooked pork ribs from Woolworths and I rate them way more than what Black Bear offered up, terribly overpriced, a horrible eat overall, if I have saved someone else from getting ripped off and left disappointment, my review has served a purpose if not. yes try it like me and just don't bother to go back and one more thing, there was no other customers around, that should of been a warning...