Perry's Original Roadside BBQ & Catering — Restaurant in Sarasota

I ordered delivery, so I understand there’s always a difference, which is why I order certain foods like BBQ. Perry’s had both high and low points, but they do have potential. I’m southern and I know the best BBQ is someone roadside with a smoker and a grill. Maybe my expectations were too high. I had the 1/2 chicken and it was really dry. I started with the thigh and it was hard to swallow. I didn’t even try the breast. May make good chicken salad tomorrow, so all is not lost. Flavor wise it was good. Second order was the rib and brisket combo with 2 sides. I chose collard greens and Mac and cheese. My favorites. I got 3 ribs, about 5”, 3”, and a little smaller one than those.The ribs were Smokey and tender without being soft. Nice crispy texture on the outside and good flavor. Their original bbq sauce is thinner than what I’m used to, but has a good flavor. The brisket was also Smokey and juicy and was the best thing I had. Delicious. I only wish there was more than 11/2 thin slices. Unfortunately, the chicken came with 2 slices of plain white bread. No Texas toast, or something to stand out like specialty Texas toast. Garlic butter, bbq, jalapeño, even sprinkle with some cheese. They could really find a little something special to stand out. It’s a missed opportunity, but at the very least they should serve garlic and/or bbq toast. I received a plain cheap hamburger bun with the combo. Mac and cheese was not good at all. Really had a thick texture and lack of flavor except for the paprika on top. I could taste paprika. Collard greens were cooked properly texture wise, but were too sweet. Sauté with bacon or ham hock preferably, and sauté in that before adding any stock and water. Season. Think about pepper vinegar on the side-no sugar. They could have been great, with more flavorful elements. Cornbread was really good. Very old fashioned in a good way. Nice course grounds of cornmeal, good flavor, not too sweet. Overall, I would go back again for the ribs and brisket, but hope to see some positive...

Small location not too far from the bay front area where we were staying.

Small parking lot, so parking maybe an issue if there are a lot of people here at one time.

Nice lady greeted us in.

To get a bit of taste of a lot of the items on the menu , I got the following it’s:

1/4 rack of Ribs Brisket sandwich Pull chicken Collard greens Macaroni Corn bread

The ribs were good. Wood grilled smoke taste to them. And to be honest.. these are probably the best Ribs I had while in Sarasota (go try for your self and let me know) most places I tried where all wood grilled. But some weren’t seasoned, some were tough, and one place just wasn’t good, but here I can’t complain, there good

The Brisket sandwich was ok at best. The brisket didn’t have much flavor like I hoped for. It was 2 big wide cut slices ( I have photos to show) that were marbled and moist but sadly didn’t have much flavor. Put BBQ sauce on this to help.

Pulled chicken was good. Not dry/but not moist. Had good Smokey flavor to it that I liked

Baked beans were good as well. I like the vinegar taste in them. Wish it had either some meat in here. Bacon, or beef.

Collard greens were really Good. I would add a lil vinegar to it (or a lil more vinegar) sense I like mine with. a lil tangy to it. I highly recommend this

The macaroni was disappointing.. I seen a review where it spoke highly on the macaroni but I guess the probably enjoy Crafts macaroni a lot because that’s what this taste like. Now you can obviously tell this was marked with the crust and cheesy texture on top… but it just taste like crafts.

Now lastly the cornbread.. this was a gem I was happy I got. I never had cornbread that had this creamy type of honey/peanut butter taste … it’s kind of hard to explain but its fully flavorful and this was different from other cornbread I have tried

I recommend stopping here to give them...

Probably the best bbq in the Sarasota/Bradenton area, but that's a real low bar.

Before I get into the food aspect, the biggest reason for the low score is because of their systems. The lady at the front manually writes everything down and when the time came to pay she just gives me a price and I pay it, thinking $50 seems expensive for 2 meals but I didn't do the math until later as their food is somewhat expensive ($17- $20 for a meat and 2 sides). After I paid the bill and while they're bagging the food, I approached and asked to review the bill as I was confident I was overcharged around $10. The lady is elderly so it was a bit frustrating/nerve wracking/ tense but she had hand written under the 2 meals $48 when it should have been $38 and she started to bring up taxes and drinks ($1 each) and the tip and it just got confusing and she was getting frustrated, I didn't want to have the conversation to begin with and although I had left a 20% tip out of kindness for a mom and pop takeout business, I just let it go.

I assume the mistake was not intentional but it certainly left a bad taste in my mouth.

But that was the only bad taste.

We had the brisket, pulled pork, mac and cheese and beans. Brisket was slab not your traditional shredded, like the pork was, so it was less flavorful. Pulled pork was absolutely delicious. I really enjoyed the mac and cheese, wifey thought it was very ok...but hers is the best: creamy with white cheese, bacon and finely minced jalapeno. Beans were rich in molasses flavor, I liked it, wife didn't care for hers. We used the spicey sauce and it was fantastic.

Food was worth the money, but the money management...