Heirloom Market BBQ — Restaurant in Vinings

This was a very disappointing adventure, based on the food, as my reviews are always food focused.

Non-Food Notes: The team onsite was extremely friendly. There is no seating, just outdoor stand up tables.

Back to the Food, and the rating. If you read this review and wonder how other reviews can say “this is the best bbq I’ve ever had,” I can only surmise that they have never had good barbecue, and that all their experiences have been in the Atlanta area. Atlanta/Georgia has arguably the lowest standards of bbq of any of the 15 other states I’ve had barbecue in.

1. Brisket - 3 out of 10; edible, but dry with a weak, almost flavorless bark. Distinct smokiness in the meat, but not necessary in a good way.
2. Pork/Carolina Sandwich - 3 out of 10; again, edible, but dry and none of the pulled pork flavor you’d crave with each bite that you find in a good Carolina bbq joint. The slaw isn’t good, 2 out of 10. It is an insult to the Carolina’s to slap the state on the name of this sandwich.
3. Korean Pork - 2 out of 10. Arguably the worst korean bbq I’ve had in GA (There are far too many places to get excellent Korean BBQ, to even try this in desperation).
4. Sauces - the spicy is probably the best, but they are all mediocre, really mediocre. Better than Kraft/Heinz, but you could easily do better in a grocery aisle.
5. Mac and Cheese - EXCELLENT consistency and gooey cheesiness. But, who forgot to add flavor? It’s probably a 6 out of 10. Chic-Fil-A is better, and that’s just sad considering this is a scratch made roux based Mac.
6. Collard Greens - slightly off mark. a little salt and pepper sauce goes a long way. Not bad though
7. Brunswick Stew - Brisket is STILL dry. It is a tomato forward stew and flavors are good, but the meat knocks it down. (More an indication of how bad the brisket is, rather than a statement on the stew itself).
8. Cucumber Kimchi - it’s pretty decent 6/10. Other Korean spots are better, but I’d eat it again.
9. Banana Pudding and Butterscotch Pie - both are ok, 6-7 ish out of 10. The pie crust isn’t good, filling is good though.

I wish I had ordered less, and given it a test first. I would not have ordered all that to be that level of disappointed.

Overall, I wouldn’t serve this and if there was any level of barbecue competition it wouldn’t survive. I personally am not that desperate for bbq that I am willing to experience this again. There are other mediocre barbecue restaurants that are better than this, with better sauce and as a bonus (though it wouldn’t matter if the food was good) you...

I am Korean but grew up in the USA as well as Korea. I was actually a huge fan of Jiyeon Lee in the 1980s in Korea (내겐 아픔이었네, 바람아 멈추어다오)! I didn't even speak Korean back then but liked her music. Pretty much every guy in school had a massive crush on her but I digress...

I came to Atlanta to visit my son at GT and made sure to stop by Heirloom for some BBQ. I knew that it would be sort of fusion Korean + Texas BBQ and the food was awesome!

I had the brisket, Korean spicy pork, and spare ribs. I wanted to try a lot of the sides so had the Mac & cheese, green tomato kimchi, fries, traditional cole slaw, bbq beans, and Brunswick stew.

For sauces I got table, kitchen, Korean bbq, and settler.

Price was good and not too expensive.

First the meats. The brisket was excellent. Good mix of fat and lean meat since I was served the point. Korean pork was more like chopped pork but marinated in gochujang Korean style. It was good but slightly overcooked and hard so I prefer the traditional Korean bbq pork. The spare ribs were good but slightly overcooked as well (so a little dry).

The sides were excellent. The green tomato kimchi was especially good and the perfect blend of Korean + southern! Bbq beans was full of meat as well as beans. Brunswick stew was new to me but also excellent. The traditional slaw was some of the best I have ever had. Fries were good and similar to the fries at 5 guys (which is a good thing). The Mac and cheese was soft and gooey the way it should be!

The sauces were also good. Table was pretty traditional as was the settler (nice vinegar sauce typical of south Carolina style, etc.). Kitchen was nice and spicy and was my favorite. The Korean bbq tasted like sweet gochujang...also good but I preferred the kitchen since it was less sweet.

Overall, a winner and I am so glad I was able to stop by. I placed an order for pick up on the website about 15 minutes before going there and when I got there I waited about 10 minutes. It was not crowded when I went there at around 6:30pm on a weekday.

Unfortunately I did not get to see Jiyeon Lee in person as I don't think she was there. But maybe next time?

So nice to eat some great BBQ! They should play some of her old music on the...

3.5 out of 5.

Ordered at 11:30am on a Saturday. First rating is "hot" out of the kitchen, second rating is as a leftover. BBQ is very different as a leftover, the flavors have time to meld.

Brisket - 4/5. Haven't tasted anything quite like this. It's very good. They don't seem to have trimmed it very much as the point we got was half meat, half pure fat. Brisket - 4/5. The flavors grow. The meat never lost tenderness.

Spicy Pork - 5/5. No sauce can help this, it's perfect as it is. Sweet, tangy. No real heat to speak of in our opinion. Spicy Pork - 4/5. It was quite a bit tougher later on. Still delicious.

Spare-Ribs - 3/5. Nothing to write home about. It's a basic pork rib. They did seem somewhat tougher than you'd expect. The table sauce helps the flavor immensely. These ribs also didn't have the back skin removed. Some places don't do this, but they make a point on their videos to say they do. Some quality control issues on the staff without the owners around. Spare-Ribs - 4/5. Much more tender.

Chicken - 0/5. This was a major letdown. No flavor at all that we could find. So dry. The only way we could try it after was with the kimchi mayo...just to have some moisture. Chicken - NA. Didn't try, just threw out.

Cole Slaw - 2/5. There's a hint of vinegar, maybe that's just the rice vinegar. No flavor of gochugaru. Crisp veggies, but flavor was just missing. Coleslaw - 3/5. Letting it sit in fridge overnight brought out more of the vinegar.

Mac and Cheese - 7/5. Oh my gawd, let this be what kills me. Absolute heaven. String pulls on every bite, noodles done perfectly. No chance of 2nd taste, this was gone.

Beans - 3/5. Very good flavor on the sauce, although this was a bean soup. Not baked beans. Beans were also undercooked. No 2nd taste.

Banana Pudding - 4/5. Very nice pudding. Actual overripe bananas, and don't know if it was toasted meringue or marshmallow on top...but it was a huge hit.

End Result - Worth a trip to try. Some of the better BBQ in GA for certain...surely the best I've had in Vinings. There's definitely room for improvement on ensuring that the owners vision is being handled when...