Heads and Tails Barbecue — Restaurant in Berkeley

I was in Oakland and thought that Q sounded good for dinner. There wasn't anything open in the entire area except back over the bridge in SF on the way home but I saw the map entry for this place and decided to give it a try. I knew it was new but it looked promising.

The place is roomy, nice, and welcoming. There are large TVs so you can probably catch something that interests you. I didn't get her name but the host/waitress? was so pleasant and nice. There's a nice full bar ready to serve your favorite libation. I was here with my daughter and we split a two meat platter which is more than enough unless you're a big eater. They made a Shirley Temple for my daughter and she was thrilled because they don't use the common bright red Maraschino cherries, no, they use tasty gourmet ones like I have at home :).

We had the pulled pork, brisket, and Mac and cheese. The included pickled veggies are a nice twist. The Mac n cheese was container licking worthy, the pork was tender and smoky, delicious. The cut of brisket that I was given was a mistake by the kitchen, given that it's fairly new I wasn't mad, the bark had good flavor the moist ends were good. The problem was I was given the very end of the flat and was obviously a misunderstanding. A gentlemen walked by and asked if everything was good, I went to him at the bar and explained what my concerns were and he knew there was a problem and said he would never serve that part and would talk to the kitchen.

I'm telling you this because it's important to know that this owner is genuinely concerned with what he's serving and it's our responsibility to help them by providing honest and respectful feedback to help them if we want to have a nice place to come and enjoy a meal. We want the small business to thrive, not cut them down by giving a bad review without talking to the owner. Shortly after our talk he came back from the kitchen with some replacement brisket and it was simply delicious, worthy of your consideration for sure.

There were three sauces to choose from out of the traditional ones I preferred the spicy version which is actually mild. The star though was the Carolina mustard style one. I don't normally eat brisket with much sauce let alone mustard but this was so tasty, my daughter loved it too. This place is open fairly late which is great, there aren't many places to get Q at night, unfortunately I live on the other side of the bay but I'll come back here without hesitation.

If you live in the area, please make plans to stop by, give them a try, and have a nice sit down meal. You're lucky to have them, you have an opportunity to contribute to their success, there is...

We ordered 1 lb of brisket, half rack of pork ribs, and 3/4 lbs of pastrami burnt ends as takeout on 1/13/25.

The brisket was so bad that it's borderline inedible. We ordered the "fatty" option, assuming that it would be the point end, but instead, what we got is a mix of literally untrimmed fat from the outside and thin strips of, very very surprisingly, the flat end. The pieces aren't even from the same chunk of meat, just random bits.

The pork rib was better but it was clear that they were roasted for a fairly short amount of time, rather than a nice slow roast. I say that because the connective tissues in the ribs haven't broken down at all. They are quite hard to chew so you have to spit them out basically. I will say that the meat itself still had a good amount of moisture and the seasoning is good.

I haven't had pastrami burnt ends before so I don't have a strong opinion here. The seasoning is good but the lean portion of the meat chunks are quite dry, which I'm guessing is not how it's intended to be, based on my experience with Kansas-style burnt ends.

I rarely leave reviews but this meal was truly one of the worst BBQ meats I've had in a long while and I can't wrap my head around how any chef would be OK putting out this kind of product. I sense that the owner cares about the customer experience from other reviews/replies. I hope my experience with the food is constructive and helps them improve.

(Edited to add date...

I want to be as honest as I can when dealing with food it's our lifeline If you can ever be robbed with words or tooking advantage of this was it , two days ago I spent $42 on trash at this place, ribs and links i ordered the only thing I got was 5 short end pieces not even a whole link that was cut up to look like the went together with no BBQ sauce at all I had more garlic on top of the dinner roles that looked uncooked then any one person can eat 5 roles for that box of trash is to much and the cook gave me a special services announcement about the style of cooking it im sorry it was worst than there neighbors down the street and to make matters worst they ask for nothing less than a $7 plus tip the only tip that they do deserve is... now if this was the services that they offer I will take the lost and never come back , on the other side of the coin everybody doesn't like the same stuff and all of the staff doesn't give out the end pieces and more bread than you can eat, there customers might be all first-timers if they are smart the won't be back because I know I won't. Ps. I gave all of it to the dog next door I hope he doesn't bite me the next...