Red's True Barbecue — Restaurant in Leeds

Oh how I wish I had read the recent reviews before booking. The AI review on TripAdvisor sums it all up quite adequately. But if you care to read my review, strap yourself in.

I have dined here once before, many years ago, and was under the impression that if a place is still open so many years after the fact, it must be doing something right. I was mistaken.

I called earlier in the day to book but received no answer, so I booked online, which was a simple process and perhaps the best part of my overall experience.

We were greeted warmly upon entry and seated on a sizeable table with decent leather sofas. We breathed a sigh of relief that we escaped the pokey tables for two near the entrance. It took a good ten minutes before our drinks order was taken and I made sure to have my food order taken at the same time. During the wait for the food, I had ample opportunity to look around and I notice a visible build-up of dust and a cobweb on the neon lighting above our seats.

Drinks arrive and at £4 for a Whiteclaw, I'm happy enough with that. Food arrives a short moment later and my review can get to the "main meat" of the issues, namely portion size and missing items.

My wife's order was missing her side order of macaroni and cheese. Both our orders were missing the side sauces.

Her PitMaster sandwich was just fine. I would suggest a larger bread choice to accommodate the pork and slaw wanting to slide around. The brisket had a bit part appearance and was insufficient given that it is the first item listed. One sausage cut in half.

My Three Meat Medley was lacking. Three finger size cuts of brisket, blink and you'll miss it burnt-ends and the pork did not stand out. The quality of the food was good enough. They did provide an abundance of slaw to fill the tray so take that as you will.

Now we did mention to the wait-staff we were missing certain items and we were told they would be "looked into". I suppose the investigation did not proceed much further than that as we did not see these items at all. The next time we heard about that was when we brought up the issue again at billing, and we were told that the waitress would speak to the manager about a "small discount". Quite correct in small as we were refunded the exact amount a side order of mac n cheese would be and the charge for the missing sauces quite rightly omitted. Nothing else.

Reds True BBQ have taken it upon themselves to enact the, in my opinion, scummy move of adding a "discretionary" service charge, preying upon peoples kindness and wish to avoid awkward conversations. How can I in all nicety inform my waitress that she was not up to scratch? Why is that my duty? When a waiter/waitress does everything right, I tip far in excess of the measly 12.5% you want to extract from me. But I have been in her shoes and waited tables, and I know what a lifeline tips can be when the hourly rate paid can be so insufficient.

So Reds, that was my experience. I don't wish for an invite to email you directly and receive some potential discount on a future meal, because there isn't going to be one. Perhaps you can take onboard some things I noticed and make some changes. Perhaps I'll look at your reviews a year or two from now and see some glowing 5 stars and I will return organically. I...

One of the best BBQ Joints EVER! I have only been a fan of BBQ for a short period of time after leading a sheltered life, but BBQ is my new love and Reds True BBQ is not lying when they say the home of true BBQ.

The food was amazing, the staff were attentive, I am a fussy eater as is my daughter and they had no trouble with customising menu items, remove this and that which some places cannot do as they are not fresh.

We watched the "Pit Masters" at work and the food coming over the counter all looked amazing, not just ours.

When out food came there was so much and it was all cooked to perfection, we all had starters and a main our only comment was the adult starter came before the childs, the server explained it was because the child's was fully prepared and cooked to order and the adults was already prepared so was a few mins quicker, I hope they pay attention to my comments that kids don't like to wait especially when the adults have food and they don't thankfully my daughter had a book with her and she is not the type to complain but some kids would scream the place down if they had to wait.

After the starters we had a short break before they brought out the mains, all at the same time, my plate was perfect, I had the Doughnut Burger and there was about 2 mouthfuls too much food for me, I couldn't eat a pudding which was weird as normally that's what I go out for.

My daughter was over the moon with the hotdog, the bun was smaller than the sausage, which she loved as normally she has bread left over which she never eats, again she could not eat a pudding, my wife ordered the Birdy Plate and got extra Turkey, it came with 2 sides of her choice, she got Mac N Cheese, as she wanted to try proper Mac N Cheese and also Onion Rings, the onion rings alone would have filled me they were huge, the Smoked Turkey was great, my wife let me try some, it was far better than the Smoked Turkey at Tesco, sorry Tesco but I won't be ordering any more smoked turkey from you. My wife also had so much food that she could not eat it all either, in the end we opted for a doggy bag to take some food with us to eat on the way home. All in all the food was great, the venue was great, there was a constant smoky bbq smell in the air, just like having a proper BBQ at home, it's easy to see why they are always so busy, the smoker was outside, but did not seem to be on but it was still a great photo piece and helped to draw people in. I would highly recommend this BBQ Joint to anyone looking for Great Value BBQ in Yorkshire as so far these are the best I have tried and I have tried a few in the...

We were really looking forward to this as a bit of a retirement do for a good friend of ours. All of us spend more time using our BBQs than ovens throughout the year and use real BBQs and smokers from Weber, traeger, masterbuilt etc. so we know what BBQ food is really about.

A cross between disappointed and cheated is probably the best way to describe how we felt. We had a couple of the "big BBQ blowouts", a couple of burgers and a BYO(IB).

The big BBQ blowout is not what that should be called. Firstly, it was not big. I was expecting a mound of meat that would give me meat sweats and indigestion just looking at it. There were a couple of wings which hardly had any meat on, some burnt ends which were ok, a few chunks of cheese and jalapeno sausage which was ok, a chunk of brisket which was probably the best bit of meat, and some pork, all piled into a 10 to 15cm diameter and 5 cm tall slop, on top of the Texas toast. The Texas toast was nice to be fair.

All of the meat had same strange smell and taste, not what I would normally expect or experience many days out of the year when BBQing or smoking food. I couldn't quite put my finger on it and neither could the others until one of the other guys pointed out that they were bringing things out of the back in small sealed plastic bags and throwing them onto a hot plate for a couple of minutes. This explained a lot. The burgers were also cooked on a hot plate and not over coals, as you would expect a BBQ place to cook, unless they were smash burgers obviously, but they weren't.

By far the worst bit of meat on the plates were the ribs. I have never had a tougher set of ribs in my entire life. The texture was exactly like beef jerky from a packet. It was honestly awful.

I had Mac and cheese and pit beans as sides and they both had a skin on and were luke warm like they had been sat around.

A couple of the others had desserts which we asked to be removed from the bill as two were sent back due to the donuts being raw stodgy mess, and the fried Oreos being covered in raw batter. One of them was actually supposed to be refired but it was clear they had forgot so we just asked for it to be removed from the bill.

Positives were that the drinks and atmosphere were good and the servers were polite and friendly.

But please, for the love of all that is holy, remove the words "True BBQ" from your name, as what we had last night was not even close to being BBQ food. If I'm honest, I'm astounded at the good reviews and can only think that these people have never had real BBQ food.

Spent £240 and left...