Tin Hut BBQ DuPont — Restaurant in DuPont

I recently dined at Tin Hut BBQ in DuPont, WA. I arrived at 1130 for lunch service expecting the food to be quite fresh since they open at 1100. I ordered the Meat Trio Plate along with a beverage. With a tip, my total bill came to $26.03.

The food was delivered to me in approximately 4 minutes. I noted the promptness because I own and operate a food establishment as well and was astounded at how quickly the turn-around was. Tin Hut BBQ is a walk up, counter-service food establishment with all their cooking appliances located in the front of the restaurant.

For my trio, I chose the beef brisket, the pulled pork and the ribs. The first thing I noticed upon opening my Styrofoam box (I chose to dine in, so I found the use of a take out box odd) was that there was only 1 rib.  The menu and the receipt read, “ribs”, plural and what was received was a singular rib. Ok, maybe they are running low that day? The beef brisket was not what I was expecting.  Majority of places I have ordered beef brisket, it arrives on a plate sliced.  This beef brisket was not sliced, chopped, and I would say that it wasn’t even shredded.  I don’t know if I would call it mush, but it was shredded more than the pulled pork and was extremely greasy. The pulled pork was ok, not my favorite, but with the help of a tremendous amount of bbq sauce, it made it less dry. The singular rib was the most tender of all the meats and had what appeared to be a smoke ring. There were still some connective tissues, and it didn’t quite have that “fall off the bone” texture that you look for with barbecued ribs. The taste would have been ok, but the apple-cider vinegar sprayed on it to keep it moist was overpowering. The macaroni & cheese was probably my least favorite item on the plate. The steam table had elbow noodles with nothing on them.  To make the “mac & cheese” the young lady in charge scooped a small number of noodles into a bowl and brought out a bag of Tillamook cheddar & just stirred it together. That was it.  There was no creamy element to it that is generally associated with macaroni and cheese. Just noodles and a few shards of cheese. The pineapple coleslaw I was most excited to try as coleslaw is one of my favorite foods and I have never had pineapple coleslaw. The cabbage was limp and soaked and you could tell it was days old by the overwhelming acid taste. There was only 1 piece of canned pineapple in the serving. The plate was supposed to come with a slice of Texas toast, but they were out and had to give me cornbread in its place.  It was ok.  Not bad, not great. It was just generic cornbread. The Pepsi. It was AMAZING! It had fresh carbonation, I could refill my cup as many times as I wanted, I could put as little or as much ice as I wanted in my cup, it was divine! The Pepsi was on point!

The cleanliness of the restaurant was quite lackluster. The floor had a thin layer of grime on it that would cause your shoes to stick to it as you walked around; so you could tell the floor had not been mopped properly in quite some time. The bbq condiments were dirty and had blobs of goo on them and the utensil/condiment station had not yet been refilled.

The staff. When I walked in, I got nothing but stares. I was not greeted with a friendly “hello” or “welcome”, just stares. You have no way of knowing who the employees are as none of them wore an apron, a work shirt, work hat or name tag. The young lady behind the counter had her very long curly hair down and not tied back like is required by the health department, she had extremely long acrylic nails and I only witnessed the young man wearing gloves while handling food. There was a very young child stocking beverages in the drink cooler, he looked to be 6 or 7 years old. Upon leaving, I was not thanked for stopping in.

I hate to give a bad review for a small, local business. But I am leaving Tin Hut BBQ a 1-star review based on my experience.  The food wasn’t my favorite, the staff not friendly or welcoming & the...

If your strategy to find this place is to drive through Dupont looking for a tin hut, you'd be mistaken. It's actually in a small strip mall. This qualifies it to be a BBQ restaurant versus the coveted "BBQ joint".

Walking in, it smells of BBQ which is a great sign, though I did not see any indication of a pit, nor was there any evidence of any smoke anywhere.

I received a very friendly greeting from the people there and was made to feel quite welcome from start to finish. Big props on the customer service, and definitely a star earned here.

The food was good. Not great, but good. I ordered a pulled pork sandwich plate with sides of green beans and baked beans (I wanted the spicy baked beans but they were out). I very much enjoyed the green beans, nicely salted and cooked with bacon and onions. I'd like to duplicate this at home. Well done! The baked beans were good as well. My guess is that they were canned and then doctored up, which is fine. I've been to BBQ places where they just take them straight from the can, so the extra effort here was appreciated. They also had a little bit of a kick despite not being the spicy ones.

Because I ordered the pulled pork sandwich plate, I was expecting the traditional southern style of pork on a white bun with pickles. They may have mistaken my order for the pulled pork plate versus the sandwich plate because I got a pile of pulled pork with a single slice of Texas toast cut diagonally in half placed on top with pickles. Not too easy to make a sandwich out of that.

The meat was not sauced which I appreciate...apply your own. That gave me the opportunity to taste the meat "naked" which I did. I found just a bit of bark, no pinkness that would indicate smoke, and no taste of smoke.

I had gotten a small cup of their house BBQ sauce which I enjoyed. Had a bit of kick and not too sweet. They should consider selling their sauce by the jar. It's that good and I would definitely buy tons of it. It has a nice balance of vinegar and sweetness, and of course that kick I mentioned.

As a veteran myself I appreciate that this place is veteran owned and the pro-military, pro-veteran, atmosphere is apparent almost immediately.

All in all I did enjoy my meal, and I likely will be back, I just know that I'm coming for meat with BBQ sauce...

Not satisfying at all. We have it a try tonight at the Movie Night in the Park at Habitat Dog Park. Food truck Not sure if there dine in location is better but hard pass. They are over priced for their portions and definitely will tax you on top of it. We got a plate of the pulled pork (8oz) supposedly, it was barely sauced and the portions of sides were nothing like 4bites for any person. My husband sent my oldest son over to go get two additional sides they must only sell one size side cup a extra small for Mac n cheese that was super peppery and yes seemed like it came out of a box or frozen idk $4 same with beans $4 extra small cup and then charged 10$ even not how the correct math works. They ran out of foods early and we have had diarrhea since we got home. Not sure that the host did there review check on this food place. But definitely need to go back to the learning board and help improve there quality of food and...