Dinosaur Bar-B-Que — Restaurant in New York

So my wife picked up beef short ribs from Dinosaur BBQ in Brooklyn on Union Street tonight. For me. Cause she loves me. We’ve been fans of Dinosaur BBQ for years. We’ve eaten in at this place and the Harlem location many times. But… These beef ribs were incredibly disappointing. When I went to open the big, not-cheap-looking plastic container they came I anticipated large tender knobs of juicy beef short ribs. What I saw when I opened the container was two round containers. One had mashed potatos with dark brown gravy, the other held mac & cheese. There was a small cup of BNQ sauce. But I didn’t see any ribs. Where were the ribs?

I picked up the potatos to find flat, very dark, pieces of meat. So dark I couldn’t see them until I moved the mac & cheese. And so my disappointment began. The look of these Skinny, fatty, pathetic pieces of overcooked, bones with shards of meat. The short ribs looked bad. They looked unappetizing. And it looked as though there wasn’t much meat.

There wasn’t. There was hardly enough meat for a small sandwich. Most of tge pieces were like remnents. Small chunks of meat you might find in the bottom of a pan of cooked ribs. You know, the remnents you might throw to your dog.

My diappointment only increased when I tasted the ribs. They were not tender. Not tough. They were somewhere in the middle, texture wise. They were definately overcooked. Way overcooked.

They tasted bad. They were too fatty. And way too sweet. I ssked for sauce on the side because I don’t like sweet BBQ sauce slathered on the meat. These short ribs do not need sauce, if you like sweet BBQ sauce. As I said, I don’t.

I couldn’t take more than a few bites. I don’t have a dog, but I have a young son. He finished the ribs. Yuck.

The mashed potatos were good. I finished it. The mac & cheese was very good. I ate some of it and gave the rest to my son.

Oh, corn bread came wuth the meal. But I’ve never cared for corn bread so I can’t speak on that.

So, my wife paid $35 for a very disappointing meal. I gave the restaurant two stars because of the two sides I liked. I would give the ribs zero stars.

I’ve had beef short ribs at Dallas BBQ. They’re always huge. Never sweet. The right amount of fat-to-meat. They taste great. It’s like a decadent treat. I haven’t been there in about a year. I’m going this werkend to see if the beef short ribs are as good as I remember (and their wings… love ‘em). Dinosaur is supposed to be a step up from Dallas BBQ. Yeah. Right.

I’ll go back to Dinosaur, to eat in, no take out. But, I won’t be ordering the beef short ribs....

I do not recommend this place at all! We arrived on a Sunday at 7pm and waited 1 hour to be seated. After we were seated we instantly knew there was going to be bad service. As we were giving our waitress our order she gave us a list of things that were already unavailable which was already a bad look. Our order consisted of 2 of the same 3 meat combo platter(one to eat now and one to go), and we completed our order with 2 drinks. We waited and waited and waited for our food. It was starting to feel like the DMV! Eventually our drinks were brought to us but only one of the two. We had to remind the server. After our food was brought to us it looked horrendous. Only a couple slices of meat for each of the 3 meat combo. The meats were burnt and dry and was just awful. We quickly ate our food with disappointment and hunger. We wanted to order something else but were told the kitchen is closed. We waited all this time to be seated and wait on our food to find out the kitchen was closed when we wanted to order more. In my head I was already telling myself im going to McDonalds because this place was a load of bologna. But heres the best part! We asked for the bill and our to go order. Keep in mind we ordered our to go the same time as our food and when our waitress brought our food at the table she had mentioned our to go order was made and ready for us when we leave. So we asked for our check and the waitress went to the kitchen to get our to go order. 2 seconds later she came back and told us the kitchen staff probably took our order apart and gave it to other people. Holy moly I cant tell you how furious I was! She went to get the manager and she came to us and made up some excuses and said that if we ordered something to go it would be given to us when it was ready. She didnt even offer to make it right with a free dessert or a discount. Probably the worst customer service and food experience ive had. Avoid this place and go to a more organized restaurant!!! 0/10 never...

Ambiance (5/5): The venue is very spacious and nicely decorated. Be careful of the steps that elevate the bar area. Rustic décor. Large private dining area available in the back as well. Full bar with bar seating to the left. Service (2/5): We came on a weekend at 1pm and our party of 2 was told to wait on availability when the restaurant was almost a third empty. We were seated, patiently trying to make eye contact with the wait staff to place an order and even walked up to the takeout ordering window after mistakenly thinking we were supposed to self-order there, that even the table seated next to us almost 10 min after us was serviced before us. Luckily after our drinks and food were ordered, the food came out fairly quickly! Food Overall (2/5): Both the original sauce and the habanero sauce were not good. I preferred to eat the meats without which is such a shame because I usually like to eat my BBQ meats with the variety of sauces! But that also meant that the meats were deliciously seasoned and did not need any sauce accompaniment! Pulled pork Bahn Mi (5/5): This was way by far the best meat and sandwich by far that we had here. The meat was super soft and flavorful which was doubly balanced with the Korean bbq sauce, pickled vegetables, and the unique bread. St. Louis Ribs (4/5): The next ribs were cooked to be fall off the bone and wonderfully seasoned! The serving size was only 3 ribs but it could have used a little more fat to meat ratio to make it even better. However that much complaints to it. Brisket (2/5): The briskets were seasoned through but were they dry as heck. I couldn’t even finish my first piece of the 3 pieces. Mac and Cheese (2/5): nothing to write home about Cajun Corn (4/5): I liked the Cajun seasoning but still felt like it could have need some more of a punch or seasoning but not sure what Mashed Potatoes w Gravy (2/5): nothing to write home about Corn bread (2/5): nothing to...