Sibley's Bar-B-Q — Restaurant in Virginia

Let me preface by saying the wait staff were friendly and attentive and the restaurant had a clean, tasteful interior. My sole problem was with the food.

My wife and I had never been here before so we stopped in for dinner. The restaurant had some customers but not what I'd call overly busy and we were seated immediately. I decided to order a build your own platter with pulled chicken, brisket, and 1/4 rack of dry rub baby back ribs with mixed greens and Mac and cheese as sides. My wife got the fried chicken livers with corn fritters and string beans with tomatoes. Our food came out quickly and everything looked good. My plate was stacked with brisket and pulled chicken and I'd say a bit more than a quarter rack of ribs. My sides looked pretty good and my wife's food did as well.

I went straight for the brisket which was piled up pretty high and it looked moist and tender. Unfortunately, it turned into the blandest, driest, brisket I've ever had once I took a bite, and it was barely room temperature. It was like eating a pot roast that someone boiled in unsalted water. Not so much as a hint of smoke on it. Being a bit of a brisket fiend, I was sorely disappointed. The only way to salvage it was to drown it in their "Virginia Red" BBQ sauce, which was actually very good.

The ribs looked slightly less promising than the brisket (which again, looked good) but I withheld judgement at first. They had far more flavor than the brisket (but the same could be said for shoe leather with a bit of salt sprinkled on.) They were somehow dry but tender at the same time. Almost like they were a couple days old or something. They, too, were barely room temperature (a running theme). The thing that stood out to me the most was this odd taste that I can only describe as a "funk" but not necessarily bad. Maybe it's a flavoring or a herb or spice I'm not familiar with but it gave me pause to eat any more of it.

The pulled chicken was a very slight redeemer. A huge portion was given so points for that. It came already coated in some kind of sauce (not quite a NC vinegar sauce but maybe a derivative). I took a bite and it was stone cold BUT it was tender, mostly moist, and had pretty good flavor. The running themes for the meat (bbq) here seem to be that it's served room temp or cold and that the typically smokiness you get from BBQ is missing entirely.

My mac and cheese was pretty good. I don't know if it's made in house or not but I was able to eat it. It too was room temp, as were my greens which had zero flavor. No salt, no smoked pork seasoning, just straight up boiled or simmered mixed greens. My wife said the chicken livers were good, her corn fritters suffered from the same temperature issues mine did but she said they had good flavor. The string beans and tomatoes were warm but again, flavorless.

Maybe they were having an off day (we did show up on a Tuesday night) but much of what I had was bland, cold, and honestly tasted like it had been made days in advance and heated up not with an oven, stove, or even a microwave, but rather the warms thoughts of the staff. Again, all the staff were friendly, attentive and courteous (our waitress was very sweet) but my past experience with BBQ joints is that first impressions are usually a good indicator of future visits and at $63 dollars for 2 people after tax and tip (granted I got probably the most expensive thing on the menu), I was expecting much better.

Maybe I'll give them another shot when I'm not so hungry and on a busier day where the food would need to be made...

I had my sister in law up from North Carolina to see me after my surgery. She wanted some BBQ. In the Richmond area there is fierce competition. We decided on Sibley's because we would pass it going home RT 10 to Prince George. I wanted to eat inside but the chairs did not have cushions and since I had fusion surgery I needed to have the extra support.

The baked beans, macaroni & cheese, and corn fritters were phenomenal. The BBQ was not as moist as I remember (before the fire) and the bread was stale. Bread is the cornerstone of any sandwich. The bread takes away from the BBQ. It was suppose to be a compliment. I tried zapping them in the microwave and it didn't help. We should have gotten the hush puppies.

Please either rotate the bread or change your par. If you keep it in the walk-in the bread will go stale quicker due to the collected moisture. I was a bread vendor for twenty years and I know how hard it is to train staff on proper rotation. For takeout orders a restaurant should give the customer the best.

Beware of any bread company that tells you bread is going to last 10-14. It does not! When I started the dates were less than a week. All bread was pulled from the shelf on Monday and Thursday. Restaurants gave a par based on their usage. Mark the date on the package. If you see it three days later you ordered to much. A good rule of thumb is have enough on hand for three lunches and two dinners. But because bread companies force restaurants to eat their stales the restaurant will usually keep product to the limits of the printed date.

The price is not a object(for my family) of concern when the food is good. This was a special treat for me after my surgery. My guest will not remember the phenomenonal food but she will remember the stale bread. Why didn't we call or come back? To drive round trip an hour was not worth the gas and a call usually will not fix the problem unless you delivered the buns to my house. Please keep an eye on your bread dates. If the bread is guaranteed then tell the bread vendor...

Let me start positive. The service and staff were absolutely perfect, smiling, explaining the menu, even added extra sauce before I asked. The atmosphere was a nice hometown non-chain vibe. The only reason for the 4 star here is everything a patron opened up the front door I saw a poor couple near the front jump with the cold air coming in.

The food. I ordered a brisket platter with baked beans and Mac and cheese for the wife and a brisket / pulled pork platter with mac and cheese and slaw for myself. The sides were good, the hushpuppies were good, the meat not so much. The brisket was very tender but very blank, almost like they cooked the brisket sous vide and just broiled the lack of bark on for 10 minutes. I expected smoked brisket and this was never smoked and lacked flavor. My wife who NEVER uses bbq sauce put some on her brisket and said I could have the rest, which she has never done before. Now for the pulled pork. Again, zero smoke, zero flavor, zero seasoning, zero bark, extremely dry, tasked like and old porkchop left in the fridge for too long. They either cooked the pork un a crock pot or sous vide, even the sauce couldn't help the pulled pork, extremely disappointing especially when the meal cost $50 all together. This was our first time and our last, there can be zero redemption from this culinary experiance disaster. If you like bland meat then go for it, if you like traditional bbq, this is...