Tony's the Pit Bar-B-Q — Restaurant in El Paso

BBQ is a very personal thing for a lot of people - Often, it's hard to get a consensus on what's good. As a dedicated, horizontally challenged food reviewer - I KNOW BBQ and this is the best I've had west of Kansas City.

First off it's a family business that's been around since the 1950s. Secondly, the menu is basic and offers real BBQ. At lunch, when I went, a sandwich seemed to make sense.

Then a lovely, kind, and patient woman named Marina was helpful in explaining the menu and how things worked. She was patient and very engaged in what she was doing. She wanted me to have a good experience. When an employee is that sold out for her boss, you know you are in for a treat.

My secret way to test BBQ is to get ham or turkey. I picked the ham at Tony's and it was fresh, cut off the bone (not lunch meat) and the portion was generous. It was served on a moist, hot, soft and tasty bun with pickles and mustard. BBQ sauce is optional and available for patrons to use as they see fit.

I am actually not a big BBQ sauce fan but I have studied it and tasted it all over the country. I added some BBQ sauce to the ham sandwich and was immediately taken with it's rich, smokey flavor - it's not super sweet like store-bought sauce and according to Marina it's a house speciality.

I also tried the macaroni and potato salads because these are my favorite sides at a BBQ joint. Sadly, the mac salad was not to my liking but the potato salad - wow - I have very high standards when it comes to potato salad and this was the best I've had in years. In subsequent visits (yes there will be subsequent visits) I will order two potato salads. I got a soft drink and while I don't remember the price it was very reasonable.

It's not a fancy place to eat but I like the BBQ joint vibe. There was plenty of street parking and about 10 spots in their parking lot. It's a great downtown location and I'd say I was super happy with...

I am actually from out of town and it was my fathers birthday on Jan 11. I wanted to do something special and send over a nice dinner for my parents as well as extra for left overs for the coming few days. Everyone kept telling me to order from Famous Dave's but working in the restaurant industry myself, I understand the importance of making sure family owned businesses stay open in these unprecedented times.

That being said I shot a late email to Tony's asking if someone could contact me possibly the next day to help me place an order. In all retrospect I actually didn't expect a response so soon. Martha Vargas whom I believe is part of the family that owns this amazing spot personally emailed me back with her phone number early in the morning. We spent a little bit of time going over what my parents might like as well as what would be good to store for later in the freezer. She truly went ABOVE AND BEYOND let me tell you. She had her take out team not only pack a hot dinner for my parents for the evening but pack all the extra in freezer bags already separated and ready to store.

I got to see my parents reaction on Facetime when the received the food and although im not from the area and do not know restaurants in El Paso, I know I ordered from the correct place when my father exclaimed "OH MY GOD TONYS??!!!! WOW!!!!!!"

I cannot express enough how much the staff went out of their way to make my father feel so special even through a pandemic bday. As you can see from the picture, he was walking on cloud nine. From the bottom of my heart from a daughter not able to hug her family in over a year that as lives in Los...

Walking in, it looked like a BBQ joint should. I loved the decor and the fun facts they have up.

The food was... ok. I had pork and beef, my husband also had the chicken. Nothing was dry or over cooked and you could truly taste the meat, but that also meant there wasn't much of a smoked taste. The brisket's smoke ring wasn't very deep which may explain the lack of smoked flavor.

I liked that they didn't have a ton of sauces and their sauce had good flavor. Chili was ok, but I expected more of a kick and less tomato flavor. I wasn't a huge fan of the potato or macaroni salad, but more because it was a different flavor profile than I prefer. The macaroni and potatoes were right on point in terms of how they were cooked and the dressing to ingredient ratio was spot on.

All in all, I'll likely go back. Sometimes smoking can not go how you expected, so perhaps this was just an off day in their pit. The staff was super friendly and overall it was a...