Dreamland BBQ — Restaurant in Mobile

unable this trip to get to the original Dreamland in Tuscaloosa, we jumped on the chance to visit the location in Mobile. Unlike most traditional BBQ joints, they are famous here for grilling pork ribs over hickory wood open fire pit and basting them with a vinegar-based sauce rather than slow smoking them. What a fragrance as you enter! Also available here is what they call Alabama Twang sauce, their version of the mayo-based sauce seemingly only a thing in Alabama. It appeared though that Dreamland serves this mainly as a dipping sauce rather than something they regularly apply to the meats. For our order we chose to share a combo plate of pork spareribs & chicken plus adding one ala carte sausage link. With sides of coleslaw and potato salad. The meats arrived thankfully without a pre service dousing of sauce as we are not really fond of the vinegar-based sauces. Served in cup on the side. It is a strong sauce IMO and didn’t really agree with our taste. But the ribs tasted very good so the sauce adds to the flavor as they are grilled without a doubt. The ribs have a very distinctive and enjoyable pull from the bone, unlike many we’ve tried that are overcooked and mushy. The hickory also imparts a nice smoky flavor to the ribs. We enjoyed these very much. The chicken came as a leg and thigh combo which was great for me but not so much for my wife who far prefers white meat. The chicken was even better than the ribs IMO. Not sure it gets the same sauce basting the ribs do (should have asked) but the dark meat works so well with the hickory grilling that it almost tastes like it had been smoked. And the Alabama Twang sauce was an excellent compliment to this meat. The sausage was a bit of a disappointment, not very hot, bland, and low on any discernible spice. Our potato salad was of a variety similar to a baked potato with what appeared to be a sour cream base rather than a mayo/mustard/pickle recipe. Good but not my preferred style. The slaw was interesting as it included celery seed in the dressing which we found quite tasty. The indoor open fire grilling pit is really impressive to observe. Racks of ribs, half chickens, and numerous pork shoulders for their pulled pork all looking very succulent. A nice young man tending it answered our questions very easily and seemed to enjoy his work. But oh my, it was very warm spending just a brief time in front of that fire. Not a job for me. If you are anywhere near a Dreamland location, I suggest you seek them out and try their unique take on BBQ....

We dined at Dreamland BBQ tonight, around 6:45 is when we arrived. We were told to sit where we wanted, which is how Dreamland operates. Our waitress, whose name I didn't get, took our drink orders, that took forever, and I should have known that just from that alone that every single thing we asked for was going to take ages before it was brought to our table, assuming that it was brought to our table. In between the time that we ordered drinks and the time that we ordered food, a family of 5 came and sat down and immediately had their drink orders taken, immediately had their drinks given to them, and then immediately after had their food order taken. We didn't get asked what we wanted to eat until after the family of 5 got all of their food. We ordered our food, and food takes a while I get that, so waiting on the food didn't bother me. What bothered me was the fact that our waitress offered different things throughout our visit, such as refills on our drinks, which alone took probably 10-15 minutes, additional sauce, which was never given to us, the second time we got offered refills it took another 10 minutes. Also, important to note, that while all of this nonsense is happening, the family of 5 is being provided service like they're the president of the United States. We finally ate, and the food was amazing, no complaints about the food. Our waitress then offered final refills, which I declined due to the fact that previous times had taken longer than anyone should care for. My fiancée's drink was mostly full so the waitress offered a lid for the drink before we left, and we never received that lid. Instead the waitress went around and texted on her phone, and mopped (I overheard this from the family of 5 that she and 2 other waitresses were tending to) what I believe to be barbeque sauce that she had spilled previously before any of us came in to eat. My fiancée and I have collectively decided that if we do ever eat here again, it will be through a pickup order, never again will I dine in this place. I'm sure that some of the other waitresses are better, but this sealed the...

Definitely not the same Dreamland that I remembered as a kid. From the minute we walked in, up until we left, it was a train wreck. My family walked in and waited at the hostess area since there was no sign saying if we needed to see ourselves or not. After a few minutes, I finally found someone working that could speak to me and they told me to just sit where we wanted to sit. It would have been nice if the chalkboard near the hostess area said “Please seat yourself“. No menus were ever brought to us even after ordering our drinks. I got up and walked around until I found two available menus to review with my family. Everything that we had to eat tasted OK, but not as good as it used to be when I was younger. The ribs were dry and did not have much meat on them, but the baked beans, potato salad and banana pudding were very good. The cutlery that was brought to us was inside of plastic bags (which I was fine with) and they did not even bring enough cutlery for everyone at the table. I was told that more cutlery would come later but it never did, so I went to the bartender and asked for more cutlery. The very worst part was watching a gentleman that never moved from the sweet tea station and all he did was just yell at people coming in the doors that “we will clear y’all off a place to sit as soon as we can”. He would then yell at the waitresses to go clear the table and then turn around and continue standing there doing nothing. We could never understand why he was not helping the waitresses by helping to clear, bus or clean any of the tables for new visitors coming into the restaurant. Apparently, his name was Vern or something like that. If anything, he could have at least helped clean the nasty floor because there was trash all over the place and under almost every booth that was being used for patrons. This was my very first time coming back home to Mobile in a long time and wanted to introduce my new family to Dreamland Barbecue. Unfortunately, we will not be revisiting this location, but instead going to the location in Tuscaloosa for hopefully a better...