Brew Hawg BBQ & Root Beer Co. — Restaurant in Orange

From the street, Brew Hawg is hard to notice and you could easily drive past it and not even know that BBQ could be found in the little business strip. The place is located back from the street and the parking lot; without much signage, even when you're standing in fron of it, you're not sure.

Out in front of the restaurant, there are a few tables for dining and relaxing outside. Once inside, there are a few table scattered in front of the walk up, counter service.

The menu is comprised primarily of sandwich plates and meat plates. My wife and I decided on the sandwiches and chose to give the brisket a try. The meat plates with two meat choices seemed like a lot of food for lunch. We were looking for a meat plate with just one BBQ choice, but it wasn't on the board. The staff was friendly and was helpful in describing the menu choices. She was also provided excellent service offering refills and servicing our table.

The brisket sandwhiches were amazing. Good hunks of smokey BBQ flavor. The combination of the tart cranberry slaw and the brisket was delicious. Based on just the meats, Brew Hawg would rate another star higher. I really wanted to give this place a higher review, but the side dish was a bit of a disappointment. The rather small helping of garlic mash was a bit bland, with the consistency of instant mash potatoes. A strange after taste followed each mouthful. My wife ordered the coconut creme corn. The corn looked like the soft consistency of canned corn and looked a bit watery. As a do over, I'd pick beans, fries or potato salad next time. I was a bit disappointed with the rootbeer. I found it unflavorful and a bit dilluted. After having one, it isn't something I'd look forward to ordering again.

Competition is tough because there are lots of restaurants in the area for BBQ. Improvement could be made by offering a single meat place and excelling at fewer flavorful sides to improve the quality and overall experience...

Awful awful awful. Dry hard beef ribs, what a waste of meat. I really loved the pork belly and the brisket, but the portions are so tiny! Even though I bought 1lb each (it came in tiny to go boxes), not what I expected for what I paid. I spent a lot of money for what didn’t seem to be very much food. The macaroni n cheese was spiced weirdly? Like Cajun or something? Not good, (totally unnecessary didn’t even taste like Mac n cheese). Counter person was not friendly, seemed overwhelmed and was borderline rude. Zero customer service. My food was sitting on the counter (phone order) and it was barely warm when I got it home. I live very close (within blocks). I made the biggest mistake and parked behind the building…the shared trash cans there behind the restaurants there are beyond grotesque. I was appalled to see the way those restaurants keep their trash. There is were trays of rotten food (from this restaurant and their neighbors) dumped out in the open. For those of you wondering why the baked beans are so bad…they’re canned beans that are probably doctored and re-served to us. I’m really disgusted and regretted buying food there after seeing the mess back there. To be fair, there’s 2-3 restaurants there but it’s gross to see how they toss things out. If that’s any indication of their cleanliness standards I do not want to see their kitchens 🤢. Go back there and see for yourself. Even Del Taco has disposed of & keeps a cleaner trash area. It’s absolutely putrid back there. Baked beans cans littered outside the trash containers with food receptacles thrown on the floor. No trash bags…gross gross gross. I won’t be eating at any of these places again. Wish I’d taken a picture…the second star is for the spicy bbq sauce and the stuff...

I wanted to give this place a 5 stars I really did cause like a pregnant women I was craving awesome beef BBQ ribs.

Since it was my first time visiting here is my take aways.

The Menu is awesome, well thought out.. cute names. Great selection, etc. The decor is cute and cozy.

I ordered a plate with three meats, pulled pork, brisket and one beef rib. Coconut creamed corn, and peanut slaw.

The coconut creamed corn was very good! The slaw was good but it needs less lettuce and more cabbage, the dressing needs a little more acidity like from an orange or some apple cider vinegar.

The BBQ pork was pretty good- I love that they make their sauces. The BBQ Brisket was moist and very good flavor - my one complaint was the giant pieces of just FAT in the brisket. Those could of easily been removed. I came for great BBQ and not 25% of my brisket being pure chucks of fat.

The Rib broke my heart - both bottom and top were burnt with black crisp char on the top and bottom. That ruins the experience completely.

My palette doesn't need charred meat taste when I want juice ribs cooked off the Traeger grills ( I saw them out back when I was parking)

If you go through all the trouble to make Ribs on a Traeger, either use less sugar in your sauce so it doesn't burn, wrap the ribs so they retain flavor and juice and watch them... the rib wasn't free and I expect an awesome rib to have the first time memorable experience so I can come back when I want ribs... this rib was mistreated. If it wasn't good enough it shouldn't have been served.

So overall needs to attention to finer details but it's certainly not the worst...