Mad Ox BBQ — Restaurant in Mississauga

Went here with a party of 13 ppl for my bday

First thing that left a very bitter taste for me: no water offered. You have to buy bottles of water. This makes no sense. They have glasses, they serve fountain pop… so why can’t they serve tap water? Seems like a sneaky and disingenuous cash grab. I’ve never seen a restaurant not offer water before.

Service: unfortunately terrible service. After being seated, it took 20-25 mins before anyone took our order. No recommendations, no greeting or welcoming feeling. Then after ordering, they brought out the apps with no plates, not nearly enough cutlery, 4 glasses (for 13 ppl) and no napkins. When my wife asked our server Morgan to bring the appropriate amount of plates, cutlery and napkins for the table, she was met with a rude response. Halfway through our service our server was switched to Sachin who was much more friendly and helpful. Unfortunately though, the wait staff and kitchen needs a lot of training to a) improve speed and b) learn about cadence and timing of bringing items out for a proper dining experience.

Food Birria tacos 9/10 - amazing. Great flavours, the included comsommé is packed with rich flavours and the portion and value was good

Lemon pepper wings 10/10 - great Smokey flavour, great crisp and nice meaty wings. Never had smoked wings before and these were excellent.

Brisket 6/10 - unfortunately had a lot of fatty inedible parts, was brought out lukewarm and did not have much of a smoky (or any) flavour. Had to douse it in the birria consommé or other sauces for flavour. Disappointing considering this is what we ordered the most of and we expected this to be the specialty here.

Waffle fries 7/10 - solid, good crunch and good portion size

Corn esquite appetizer 8/10 - very nice mix of flavours, texture and again nice smoky aroma. Portion size is weak.

Garlic bread 2/10 - completely underwhelming. Soft white bread with burnt grill marks on them. Not even toasted and barely any garlic flavour.

Mashed potatoes 3/10 - completely bland and a bit runny

Jalapeno Mac and cheese 5/10 - uninspired, nothing to write home about. Just OK.

Ambience 3/10 - our party was placed in a semi-secluded “party room” at the back which for some reason was extremely dark and dingy. Could barely see our food and the lack of lighting made for poor photos too.

More about the service: a 15% auto-gratuity is added to any party of more than 5. This is common and it is fine if the service at least meets some minimum threshold. But unfortunately that threshold was not met for us.

Overall, Mad Ox has the potential to be great if the service is vastly improved, and the brisket is brought out hotter. Until then, I will not...

I was searching for some BBQ and was surprise to find one in West Mississauga! Apparently, this place just opened in November. I ordered the Angus Brisket with Waffle Fries and Rustic Potato Salad. In addition, I ordered the Smoked Mac n Cheese on the side as it sounded good on the menu. The food is also Halal (if it matters to you).

The location is located at one of the newer plazas in the area and it is ALL restaurants. If you are a foodie, you'll have plenty of choices to choose from.

Due to COVID, they are only doing take out. I arranged at around 4:30pm on Friday to place my order and left at 5pm. A little slow, but not deducting point since they just opened. I recommend pre-ordering it online or calling ahead (but they were on the phone the whole time taking orders while I was waiting). Staff was very friendly and quick at taking my order on the tablet.

Angus Brisket - The brisket cost $25, but comes with 2 sides, which is on par with pricing at Cherry St. Cherry St is $15, but no sides. The portion comes with 1/2lb of mean, half lean and half moist. I wish they a choice of either moist or lean as well. It tastes good. The rub was tasted pretty good, but not as strong as other places I had brisket before. Especially on the side/skin of the brisket, it just didn't have strong taste as other BBQ places. If you're not a big fan of the saltiness of the rub/seasoning, this brisket is for you. I also wish they offer 3/4lbs option, though this seems to be more offered in the states, not in the GTA. I had the Wild Berry BBQ sauce and it was excellent. They also have a bunch other sauce to choose from.

Waffle Fries - This is a hit for me. I liked it, seasoning is good, not as much as like Cajun fries from Five Guys, but enough seasoning to taste good. Would recommend.

Potato Salad - This one was okay. It comes with Dijon, herbs and relish. The problem I had with this dish was that it didn't have any ingredients that made it a bit crunchy, i.e. celery, so the whole thing was just a tad too mushy for me. It started having a bit of mash potato feeling after eating it for a way. It's a pass for me.

Mac N Cheese - This was decent. If you like the taste of cheese sauce and cheddar, you can really taste it in this one. The panko was not spicy at all, but I'm not a big spice guy, so I enjoyed it regardless.

Overall, is it a good BBQ place to get your brisket? Yes, especially the lack of these type of restaurants in the West Mississauga. Is it as good as Cherry St, no, and no where near Rudy's or Feast BBQ in the states, but it is a GOOD BBQ restaurant and I would go back. Hence the 5/5.

I look forward to going back, especially when they have Dino rib on...

Summary: a place where you will be served meat that is half inedible, by the laziest service staff you’ll ever experience, by cooks that know why they are doing.

After searching for “the best ribs in Mississauga” we found this place dead last but it was the nearest so we decided to give it a try.

The aesthetics of the place are weird and it tries too hard in the wrong places. Some of the furniture are pieces that would cost thousands of dollars next to other pieces that look cheap. The place tries to match its food prices but falls flat. The gladiator burger next door looks better.

We ordered the the backyard bbq which came with the ribs, the brisket and the chicken. It does not come with any sides but we wanted to try a few so we payed extra for the coleslaw and waffle fries. Although the meat serving were normal, the sides were tiny, specially when you consider how much you are paying. As we started eating the taste was not too bad albeit it was dry and chewy. As we could not finish we took home the rest. Once home we took the left overs out for dinner and found that what was left was cartilage, connecting tissue and fat. This amounted to over half of what was brought to us. The picture above show the connecting tissue that came of just one bone of the ribs. Half the meal was inedible. It seemed like a cheap trick done in order to sell at a higher poundage.

On to our experience with the service staff. Bad would be a compliment, as the service we got was lazy. We saw the server three times; when we arrived and sat down, when we ordered, and when we were ready to pay. The first two times she was absent minded and seemed to not care, then on the last time she seemed to be all smiles with a great attitude that’s is for a few seconds while she handed us over the bill and the machine, hoping to get a bigger tip. In between sitting down and paying we attempted to call the server a few times but she was either too busy on the phone or talking to someone else; we needed more napkins (aside from the two already on the table), our drinks needed to be refilled, and we needed condiments. Before paying we asked for the food to go, then she brought containers, then we after payed we needed a few more containers which we never saw even after trying to call her again.

If the kitchen staff was given good meat, and management retrained the service staff this place would be great. But as it is, it’s not good. It receives an F for misrepresenting the weight of the meat, and for having the worst service staff I’ve ever had the displeasure of encountering.

I had high hopes for this place, and although I was harshly disappointed, I...