Slow Hand BBQ — Restaurant in Martinez

Saturday April 6 2024 Ok... Here we go Scale from 1-10 review: Food purchased was 3 meats 3 sides $58.00 American Dollars.... I say American dollar because this was such a rip off... Food= Pork ribs...zero flavor 3 score/only cause it was the best of the three meats

Brisket... 1 score/ because WOW, THE ABSOLUTE MOST DRY UNFLAVORFUL meat I've ever had in my life. Not too mention two pieces for three adults WOW unbelievable

Links... 2 score/ zero juice to them, literally nothing good to say about them

That was the meat... Here the sides!

Beans... 1 score/ Omgoodness not good, not gonna lie I ate them but literally added BBQ sauce from my fridge to them (sauce score is after sides) incredibly ketchup flavored and beans were undercooked, shameful

Mac n cheese... 1 score/ ok ok ok this is sad, the flavor is straight Kraft flavored although kraft itself is better than Slow Hand Mac n cheese

Sweet potato tots... 2 score/ the sound of them is better than the actual dish. Was very disappointed to see they were soggy and moist BTW I took these items to go... I literally live approximately one block from Main Street, so the drive was 2 minutes

Sauces... 0 score/ if you've read this far youve read that I've been gracious enough to give scores between 1-10 but the sauce at SlowHand is a zero... One sauce is a ketchup based sauce or at least thats all I taste, while the other is a molasses style sauce both equally as undesirable... As I previously mentioned I used ketchup from my own home to offset the beans nasty sauce and to give the meats some moisture and flavor.

Overall, as my order was completed the gentleman whilst a nice kid accidentally brought my food out on a tray. Realizing it was to go, bagged the order and I was gleefully leaving the business hopeful to fulfill my desire for BBQ... And considering the place was packed I was sure it was going to be a great meal. WRONG it was the worst BBQ experience EVER. If you know BBQ then you would understand this statement I'm about to write. The BBQ joints that give out plain white bread with meals are not only better but this joint doesn't even compare. I was burned over 60 dollars for food that was not good on so...

The smoky smell a barbecue from the street drew us in...a very friendly man behind the counter greeted us warmly invited us to sit and look at the menu. This is a very popular spot with three or four groups of people coming in as we looked over the menu. We were offered free drinks with our lunch purchase, a very nice touch. We opted to try the Tri tip sandwich. The meat was amazingly tender, bread nice n soft. It came w pickles and onion on the side. However it lacked a super smoky taste we were hoping for. Still delicious and worth the mention. The loaded potato was hearty and my husband enjoyed. The potato salad was on the mustardy side it really took over the taste profile. Personally I didn't like it that much. I didn't finish it, but if you like it mustard, you'll probably love it. I believe they're barbecue sauces are made in house. They have 2 different kinds of sauces, one sweet and 1 spicy. However, I will mention that I have never had a barbecue sauce like these before. They were not bad but the taste disappeared quickly. I dont really know how to describe it. Disappearing taste sauce , it did not linger on the palate , as barbecue sauce normally would?Not bad just kinda unusual. I also didnt find the spicy to be spicy ,As mentioned before, this place was super busy for lunch in Martinez and I can see why, with the friendly staff and super tender meat. I wouldn't mind trying something else again from here, I kind of wish I had gotten the smoked french dip which was on special on the friday we...

We decided to give them another try. Maybe they were having an off night. I'm glad we did. We had st Louis ribs, brisket, coleslaw, beans, and Mac and cheese. Once again, staff was great. They hire good people. Ribs were good, sauce was good this time. Brisket was fall apart, but not overcooked, more subtle in flavor which allowed the sauce to shine. "Mac" n cheese was a bit milky, but came through with the cheddar flavor. Coleslaw was much improved. Beans were great. Glad I returned, guess it was a bad night for the first experience, but the staff brought me back in. I raised my review from 1 to 4 stars.

No more anchovy flavor.

Staff was great! That said....

Quotes from our take home meal of brisket, corned beef, chicken, ribs, coleslaw, beans, potato salad, mac n cheese.

"Worst brisket I've ever had." "Who puts anchovies in bbq, and why is it so overwhelming?" "The coleslaw just tastes like cabbage. They should leave that all day to soak up flavors." "How do you mess up mac n cheese? It doesn't taste like Mac or cheese." "BBQ is about slowly building flavors, that didn't happen here." "The ribs were OK, but thats where the underwhelming sauce really fails." "It's like they looked up bbq on Wikipedia and decided to open a restaurant." "The kitchen still smells like anchovies."

Add to this that it's overpriced by about 10%-20%. Will not...