Malson's Barbeque — Restaurant in Kingsland

As a food blogger and a pit master myself, I was looking for a BBQ place right off of I-95 on my trip home from Indiana to try. My wife looked up this place and it has great reviews, so I decided to give it a try. When you arrive and get out of your car, you get this wonderful smell of smoke which wets ones appetite for BBQ! I ordered the half pulled pork and rib plate (not on the menu, but they will do it if you ask), since I can never decide on either ribs or pulled pork. This region, actually north of here is known for their pulled pork, so I wanted to give that a try. I got the potato salad and the coleslaw as my sides, with the sweet BBQ sauce on the side. The pulled pork was cooked well, and smoked with a mix of hickory and oak, but lacked flavor unless sauced. The ribs were cooked OK, some minor tough spots so they could have been cooked a little bit longer. The sauce was a good non tomato/molasses based, sweet with a slight tang from some vinegar in it. The potato salad was a mustard base with a heavy celery flavor, and definitely needed more salt and pepper to liven it up. The coleslaw was amazing, sweet creamy, and it tasted really fresh! One different thing that they did was to serve the BBQ over white rice. I've never seen that before, but was good, since it soaked up some of the leftover sauce and fat drippings from the meat. Overall, this was a decent BBQ experience, but with a few tweaks could be a little bit better. I suggest you give them a try and judge...

Food was good, but it wasn’t great smoked BBQ. The huge smoker and billowing smoke when I pulled up gave me high hopes, plus the reviews are awesome online. I got the 2 meat platter w/ pulled pork, brisket, potato salad, and baked beans. Ran me $19.25 w/ tax, good portion size.

I’ve never had smoked brisket quite like this one, not even sure it was smoked honestly? It tasted more like a beef pot roast and was torn/shredded rather than sliced or chopped like it would typically be served. It tasted decent, it just didn’t taste at all like smoked brisket that I’ve ever smoked myself or had anywhere else in the country. No bark, no Smoke flavor, just tasted liked pulled beef.

Pulled pork was decent, again, not bad but certainly not on my list of amazing pulled pork. Again, to me it tasted like it came out of a slow cooker not a smoker.

Their BBQ sauce was just meh. Potato salad was good, again nothing to write home about.

Baked beans were the highlight believe it or not, probably some of the best I’ve had. They had a sweet flavor to them, really good.

I don’t want to be too hard on the place, the food was decent, it came out quick, and it was a decent portion size. It wouldn’t be on my list of amazing smoked bbq, and tasted like it was done in a slow cooker and not a wood...

Disappointed. 4.5 star review is what we were hoping for. Convenient location off I-95. However, outdoor seating area in major need of repair and bird poop everywhere. No fries or okrah as a side item (lacking sides)!! We tried their potato salad and coleslaw, both mediocre, little flavor. Cucumber and onion salad was pretty good. Baked beans were overly sweet. Portions are small considering price. Pulled pork was on the dry side and lacked smoke flavor....you go to a bbq joint for flavor and moistness. Brisket was on the dry side too, but better flavor than pulled pork. It was remoistened w/ sauce. The sauce is nothing to rave about either. Platters come with rice....different....but makes sense. It makes the container feel heavy and when you open it up you think there is a lot of meat. The rice is obviously used as a filler, small portions of meat. On their menu...3 ribs for $12. That would make a rack $48😳. Also, platters do not come with bread. Again, "Very different" compared to all other bbq joints. Party of 5, spent $52, but felt like we were an inconvenience for them. I think family and friends are the ones giving 5 star reviews or people just don't know what good bbq tastes like, There was not a feeling of "pride" in the atmosphere in what they are...