Oklahoma Joe's Barbecue — Restaurant in Owasso

Took a shot on Oklahoma Joe's Owasso store for lunch today. At 12:15 the place was almost empty, so that should've told me something. You place your order at the bar from a fairly complicated menu. Since I wanted to sample a couple things for a review, I went with the 2 meat plate (pork and bologna) and an extra rib ($2.99), beans and potato salad. That's about as BBQ as you can get without brisket. Food arrived lickety split, which it should for a BBQ joint, since nearly everything is precooked. I was a tad surprised to not find a rib on the plate, but when I checked my order, I saw the guy didn't ring it up. So okay, no harm no foul on that one, I just don't get a rib to try. In order of tasting, and by someone who's eaten a good deal of BBQ over the years: The beans had a really great smoky/sweet flavor. Lots of depth to them, but sadly they were undercooked. Not crunchy undercooked, just a tad too chewy for my tastes. The potato salad was pretty much a generic representation of what you'd find almost anywhere that figures potato salad is the runt of the sides litter. Bland, lacking any tang or tartness and also undercooked. A couple of bites were quite hard. The pickles.... pretty good pickles. OJ's much buy a good brand, so at least there's good judgement on that one. The toast.... easily the star of the meal. Lightly toasted, hot, just like I like it. The bologna... undersmoked and undercooked. Unless you're making it from scratch yourself, all you really have to work with on bologna is the seasoning and smoke, and this had little to none of either. I estimate the slice was 1/4" thick or so, but into four quarters, because I imagine one thin slice would have looked embarrasing on the plate. By my estimation, there was probably less than $.50 worth of product there. The pork... I've had some really outstanding pulled pork and I've had some liquid smoke-cooked in a crock pot pulled pork, and this was about a half step above the latter. Lacking any richness at all, very little flavor and barely warm, it was an outstanding disappointment. The water, however.... was wet, cold and plentiful, so there's that. Rumor has it the food is smoked at a location in Tulsa, then trucked out here. That alone is a huge red flag for me, but I decided to give them a chance to shine, which they did not. For a total of $18.50, I cannot in good conscience recommend this place to anyone. There are just better places around town. OJ's managed to make even Rib Crib look good, and I never thought I'd...

From the outside, this place looked promising. That was as good as it got for the rest of the evening. It was nearly empty for a Friday night. There was one person taking orders with only one group in front of us. Despite the lack of customers it still took almost 10 minutes to order. We got our drinks, found a table, and waited for our food for over an hour. You read that right, over an hour. At no point did any employee offer an explanation about the delay. I counted at least five people who "work" here, though there may have been one or two more in the kitchen. No apologies for the wait, no communication. When our food arrived it was lukewarm, except the beans. The brisket (both sliced and chopped) was the driest and most bland I've ever experienced. Being cold when it was delivered didn't help. If there is one glimmer of hope, it was the onion rings. They were excellent. That being said, we came for barbecue not onion rings. What a massive and expensive disappointment from...

Tried the brisket, turkey, macaroni, green beans, and onion rings. Brisket: came out cold and had dried out. Texture was decent. But the smoke flavor wasn’t great. I suspect it goes in with everything else at the same temp and wood mix. C-/D+ Turkey: flavor was good but again cold. Looked like processed instead of bone-in carved turkey. B-/C+ Sides: Green Beans: if you grew up eating canned great beans then you know the flavor I’m talking about. But they were hot. C- Mac and Cheese: cooked to mush. Way way way overcooked. F Onion Rings: Star of the show. A+ Service: not bad but nothing memorable. Felt like the staff were just observers. Disengaged, nobody checking on anyone. Cleanliness: A Total cost was $25-$30 before tip Value:...