Jazzy's BBQ — Restaurant in Citrus Park

Bottom Line on Top: Solid BBQ with an unusual and delicious sauce; worth a side trip but probably not a trek. Standout: Amazing RIBS!

Jazzy's is solid, old-school barbecue/Bar-B-Que/BBQ joint. Why use all three? Because it's not a purist type of place, but takes good cues from every 'que tradition. The treatment of the ribs is phenomenal, and leans heavily toward southern Mississippi. Other components jump around a bit, with plenty of Bayou, KCMO, Red Clay and Low Country mixed in.

But back to the ribs. Mmmmmm. Rich, slow smoke without losing a single molecule of moisture; luscious meat and perfectly rendered fats that begs for gnawing down to the bone. Sensational. You would be hard pressed to find significantly better at most competitions. There's very, very little room for improvement, and I am usually brutal in my evaluation of ribs.

The sauce is worth noting because it really doesn't classify cleanly as any particular tradition, but it tastes wonderful with any of the meats, regardless of style. If forced, I'd say is was mostly Louisiana Creole with a healthy dose of eastern Georgia. It's worth the trip just to sample the sauce. It's not earth-shattering, but interesting nonetheless.

Other items: The beans are almost painfully sweet with more than a hint of blackstrap and would be perfectly at home across the Midwest. Very good for tat style. The fries are... odd. Almost like frozen fries with a dip in light batter, but a great pairing with most items. The slaw is fine, neither too tart nor vinegar-gummy. Corn is pretty good but (as seems required in Florida BBQ places) tragically overcooked.

For other meats: The chicken approaches perfection. Juicy yet still with enough smokey taste to satisfy. That is remarkably difficult to accomplish in a competition, much less a restaurant setting. The pork is chopped, but was tender and toothsome enough that it might as well have been pulled. The sausage is... sausage. Very few places do anything exceptional unless they are grinding and casing their own, and Jazzy's is no exception. I have a feeling the beef is normally great and that I got a dry end. I can't imagine that they can nail juicy chicken AND pork AND ribs, and fall flat on the beef. The flavour was excellent, at least.

Biggest complaint: pre-saucing the meats instead of letting me pick the right amount. The ribs, in particular, would likely have been knockouts with no sauce at all whilst the beef wept for added moisture. I get that you're a Bar-B-Que place with self-seating and a counter, but a one-at-a-time dispenser of fast-food-reject napkins? Fail. With pre-sauced everything and dripping corn on the cob? EPIC fail. Oh, and serving sad little white-bread soft rolls instead of cornbread or garlic toast (I noticed too late they were available for a buck or two extra) basically deserves its own (facepalm) emoji. I'm not being mean (much) but that's the definition of an unforced error in BBQ.

You'll notice I don't mention ambience. The three-wall mural (a really beautiful jazz motif) is a backdrop for bare tables and straight chairs ranked up like boot camp recruits. So what? If you're coming to a real BBQ joint for anything other than food, begone foul fiend! This place, like all true barbecue hot spots, is about juicy, smokey, wondrous meats. And you can certainly be happy with what you...

I was so looking forward to some great BBQ! The reviews that I read were positive. First off, The combo with any two meats does not include ribs - at least on the UberEats menu. I wanted ribs and pulled pork but I got my pork and the sausage that someone else said was great. Eh. I also ordered an extra 2 oz. of BBQ sauce in case there wasn't enough sauce - I thought that it would be on the side. Nope. I had those two meats swimming in sauce. I had the beans and mac and cheese as sides. The beans could have come out of a can - I don't think that they did, but there was nothing special about them. The mac and cheese was tasteless - I couldn't even taste cheese. OK, that's unfair because it is in a divided styrofoam plate and the extra BBQ sauce slopped all over it so it tasted a bit like BBQ. Deciding to spoil myself I also ordered the Loaded Pecan Pie. Pecan Pie is one of my favorites so again, I was looking forward to it except that it wasn't in the bag with my order. I had to drive to Jazzy's to pick up the dessert that was supposed to be delivered by UberEats. I went in, showed the printed out receipt to the kid at the counter. He had to call someone else over to deal with it. While I waited I noticed a bunch of tiny pecan pies, made in the small (4"-ish) aluminum pans and wrapped with saran wrap and I began to dread. Surely, the Loaded Pecan Pie can't be one of those - right? After waiting for someone I assumed was some type of management, said manager asked me again (the kid had already told him) what the problem was. He studied the receipt, verified that it was ordered/delivered today and said that he didn't think that he had seen that order. Then he finally picked up one of the 4" pecan pies and handed it to me. When I asked "THAT'S the loaded pecan pie?" He said yes. Not sorry for screwing up your order, not sorry that you had to drive over here to get your dessert, just yes without even a smile. The secret of the loaded pecan pie was revealed when I got home - it is loaded with crust. It was tasty but there was nothing extra about it other than the crust. The filling that is poured over the pecans only partially solidified so the liquid just oozed out making ir more difficult to eat. The google information on Jazzy's said that masks were required but apparently that is only of customers or actually, just me. There was one other couple leaving as I walked in and they weren't wearing masks, either. Not one of the employees was masked and I'm pretty sure that kid that first greeted me was not old enough to be vaccinated. Save yourself some grief and go...

We used to really enjoy Jazzy's - it was our second favorite place to go in Tampa for BBQ. Key phrase - "used to."

I don't eat very much meat anymore. Maybe once every couple of months and yesterday I was craving BBQ ribs. So I decided to go to Jazzy's, and that turned out to be a huge mistake.

I ordered a half rack and asked the young lady at the register to NOT give me the end of the rack that has the triangular piece. I've found it to be very tough and chewy. She laughed at me. Literally.

As I was sitting down to wait for my order, a young man handed me my order. I immediately noticed that it had that tough / chewy triangle section. Against my better judgment, I accepted it. BIG MISTAKE!

The other ribs appeared burned and dry. Turns out my eyes were right. I ate 2 ribs and they were HORRIBLE. While a guy was cleaning up the dining room he noticed that I wasn't eating the ribs. He asked if everything was okay. Something tells me that one look at what was on my plate and he knew...

I told him I wouldn't give them to my dog to eat and they were horrible. What a nice young man. He got the manager on his cell phone and asked me if I wanted to speak with him. Truth is, I didn't.

And the reason why is that my last visit to Jazzy's was just as horrible. The ribs were tough, chewy, dry and burned. I had no desire to get another plate of over-cooked, tough and dry ribs.

Ribs properly smoked should be tender, fall-off-the-bone delicious and these ribs were nowhere close to that. What I was thinking was that first of all, my request was ignored. Second, no one in their "kitchen" cares. And third - they were serving end-of-the-week overcooked and burned ribs.

And if that's their attitude, I'm never going back. Not once was I offered a refund.

I want to stress that the guy cleaning the dining area went above and beyond. He even came out to the parking lot offering another plate. What a great guy! He obviously cared a lot more than the folks in the kitchen. I thanked him again, and told him I wasn't interested.

I told him that "Jazzy's is out of gas with me" and that "I'll never be back." I'm on a search again for an excellent rack of ribs in Tampa - ribs that are moist, fall-off-the-bone delicious. Not burned. Not dry. Not tough, chewy ribs that Jazzy's has now served me twice.

Pitiful... And even more pitiful that the young lady at the counter laughed at me for my request. I'll never forget how she...