Moe's BBQ — Restaurant in Ottawa

We originally left the house with two potential destinations for dinner in mind, Moe’s BBQ and a new vegetarian place nearby. Am I ever happy we went with Moe’s BBQ. At time of review it is 4.5 stars with around 750 reviews. In Ottawa this is a good sign.

Admittedly this is my first experience with Halal barbecue, and definitely won’t be my last.

We walked in and were greeted with a restaurant that had some smoke lingering in the air. I turned to my wife and said “this is legit”. It turns out there was an issue in the kitchen earlier in the day resulting in the exhaust fan not working at full speed. The options were shut down for the night, or put up with a little smoke. I’m happy Moe opened as I liked the atmosphere it created. From the pics I’ve seen can tell this was a unique experience. It was 8pm on a Saturday and the place was packed. We sat by the door, which we didn’t mind, but Moe apologized for. It is clear he is customer focused as he wanted us to have the best experience. Even if it is the worst table in the restaurant it was still great. As we would find its less about the table and all about the delicious food.

Every barbecue place has their own sauce which kind of defines them. Moe’s bbq sauce is made in house and is delicious. I’m not a fan of overly sweet BBQ sauces so the mild sweetness of Moe’s recipe is perfect for my taste buds. I had to request a few extra servings as it was so good. I could tell is made regularly as it wasn’t vinegary as many in house sauces that sit for too long become.

We ordered the Sample Platter and beef back ribs. For sides we had corn bread, mac and cheese, beans, and coleslaw. As it is a halal barbecue restaurant there isn’t any pork on the menu. I didn’t miss the pork with one exception, the beans.

The sample platter was great. Introduced us to why Moe was about. The meats were beautifully cooked. The pulled beef and chicken were perfectly moist. The brisket was the weakest point as it was a little drier than I would have liked, but I’m getting a bit picky on that one. The mac and cheese was perfect, just the way I like it. Macaronis were slightly al dente, cheese was creamy. Top marks for mac and cheese. I saw a review comment on it being too rich, which is complete nonsense. Mac and cheese at a BBQ is all about comfort food. It’s supposed to be rich!

Coleslaw was also great and perfect recipe for BBQ place. It seemed fresh made which was appreciated. When I asked I was told it was fresh made daily, sometimes multiple times. Beans were a bit runnier than I prefer, but spiced well. As I mentioned before the beans were the only thing where I missed pork. Moe uses kidney beans, which while bigger than the navy beans I was expecting, are quite acceptable in BBQ.

Like BBQ sauce, corn bread is something unique to restaurants, families, neighborhoods, etc. I tend to prefer a dryer more granular corn bread over a more glutenous form. That said, the person I was with said I was crazy and loved Moe’s take. I would definitely order the corn bread again.

Now for the beef ribs. I was blown away. I was not expecting much from them as anyone with experience with beef ribs will tell you they can be tough. I can tell preparing them is a multi step process which results in a Smokey, tender, flavorfully delicious rack of ribs. I will go back for them alone... so good!

It seems in Ottawa if a restaurant is going to be halal the only option is shawarma. Moe’s bucks this trend and I couldn’t be happier to have found it. I will quickly become a regular. There are a few things that indicate it is still new (a little over 1 year old as of writing this), but those extremely minor and aren’t even worth mentioning as they will be quickly resolved with time and experience.

A solid 5 star barbecue experience that I know will continue to get better with time. Relaxed atmosphere, friendly and courteous owner/operator, great selection of drinks. Great for a family dinner, date, dinner with friends. I...

Used to be great once.. Came here with my son and his Muslim partner to break her fast during Ramadan. I cannot explain the embarrassment and humiliation I felt. Normally when I come here the food and service is great but this time around it was one of the most horrible restaurant experience I’ve ever had. We ordered about $200 worth of food and waited exactly 53 minutes until it was ready. They messed up our orders and when I addressed the two young hijabi ladies at the desk they completely ignored us at first then I said “excuse me you got our order wrong” one of the young ladies responded in a horrendous manner and tone : “no it’s not, what is wrong”. I explained to her and she sighed and told me to repeat my order then apologized and told me to wait. By this time my poor son’s partner had to break her fast but no food was on our table and we waited another 30 mins for the food to be ready. This time around, they messed up our fries… they messed up FRIES! Once again, the young lady at the cash sighed then made a remark under her breath and the other young lady laughed at me. I took the food to the table and let me say this, under cooked, full of fat and horrible. We ate some of our food as we did not want to wait another long time but once I went back after 20 mins to check on our fries, the girl said “ohhh sorry I forgot” and took a big box of fries from another customers order on the counter and gave it to me. At this point I did not want to deal with these young ladies anymore and quite frankly I was more than ready to leave. Left the fries, got out and never going back again. The service used to be great when the older lady used to work at the cash, she was so lovely and competent and the food was never an issue, I was truly taken back. I was a big fan of Moe’s bbq but this was pure embarrassment in front of my son’s partner who waited so long to break her fast and after I raved so much about the place. Please don’t waste potential with this great place by hiring incompetent staff who cannot handle the restaurant under pressure. I was a loyal customer but will no longer be returning after this...

I went to this place when it first opened with my brother and my friend. At that time, we really did not liked it. But we kept it to ourselves with no public review because it was a new place and thought it was growing pains. Portions were bad, food was not quality but I didn't want to harm their reputation.

Wait a few years and people are saying it's great, I tried it and it was ok. It got a bit better but it was still not that great. I've tried great southern halal BBQ in Detroit, New York, and Toronto. So I know what is good, but it was a local option so again, I said no need to say anything. I couldn't feel the passion in this.

Fast forward to today. Today was by far the worst experience of food I've had in years. We ordered it via delivery, and what we received was a joke. I spent over $100 on the food. The quesadillas had cheese loaded on the top with nothing on the bottom, to make it seem like there was a lot of cheese. The chicken tasted off. Then we tried the ribs and the meat was obviously days old, like it was obviously reheated and seemed like it was boiled to stop it from going bad before smoking it. Everything was overcooked but was old, so the combination was awful. There was no flavour beyond the outside layer (even though the flavours were awful), and the white bbq sauce isn't even white bbq sauce, it's just ranch. We are now starting to feel sick. There is no juices in the brisket, everything is DRY. I don't understand why you keep doing this, and I was hoping you would have improved significantly by this point. There is another halal option for BBQ in Ottawa, and at this point, I can't justify bringing myself here anymore.

It's haram to throw food away, so we are sitting here wondering what to even do with this. I'm baffled at how much we spent for what is effectively leftovers that was...