J&D Bar-B-Q — Restaurant in Westover

Authentic Carolina style bbq.

The sauce. It’s all about the sauce; which the owners have nailed. My personal preference is the thin vinegar based style. You have to have sauce for the meats or it’s like eating pb&j without the peanut butter, or grits without butter. The thin vinegar sauces add the moisture lost during smoking to complete the flavor and mouthfeel. They soak in. They have the mustard based sauces as well as the thicker, sweet tomato sauces. The cooking style definitely pairs best with the vinegars.

The fried catfish was perfect. Beautifully cleaned, breaded perfectly and cooked not a second to long. No muddy taste whatsoever. I don’t honestly know if I’ve had catfish so perfect before. I spent time in the Great Lakes regions and fried fish on Friday up there is like church on Sunday for a southern Baptist in Virginia.

The sides were all fantastic. The cowboy beans were a meal in and of themselves. I would stop in at lunch just to get an order of those. Coleslaw was decent. The mac and cheese was okay but Mac and cheese is my wine. I’m looking for Burgundy and it was a Napa valley. So don’t take me too seriously on this.

The deserts. We got one of everything they had to try. The pumpkin pie texture was on point, spice was perfect. The vanilla cake with cream cheese was top tier. my favorite. Bursting with flavor and the frosting perfectly balanced out the texture of the cake. The chocolate cake was okay. I’m not a huge chocolate person to begin with so take this with a grain of salt. It needed to be a little more dense and maybe a shot of espresso to help make that chocolate flavor pop more. But honestly with the other two 5/5 they don’t even need the chocolate option.

The place. We were originally going to take out but as we were sitting there waiting we decided to eat in as we really enjoyed the energy and cleanliness of the place. The owners were friendly, nonabrasive and excited about how thrilled we were to try the food. They are definitely passionate for what they do and the product reflects this. It was very clean. There was no sauce all over the sauce containers or fingerprints on the salt and pepper shakers. And this is bbq so that’s not an easy feat. All in all it’s a mom and pop place with the cleanliness standards of a well run corporate kitchen.

Will definitely be back here and this will be our new...

Stopped here to get a soda from the place next door and to grab lunch for me and a co-worker and get out of the sun. After we ordered our food we sat down to eat and we’re very rudely scurried out of the restaurant supposedly because we brought a soda in from the place next door, and that’s not aloud. If it was that big of a deal they should’ve not aloud me in to order in the first place but after they got my money now it’s okay to rudely wave me and my coworker out like you would a dog. I’ve never been treadmill like this anywhere I’ve been. As far as the food goes nothing special. I’m glad I didn’t have my family with me according to the reviews I’ve read now they kick a lot of families with kids...

Order over the phone and seemingly nice so I gave a service rating. Cute little restaurant for the atmosphere with little homemade cakes. However, the brisket was BONE dry, I am not exaggerating when I say it had a jerky like texture with the sauce. The ribs were the same, you could take the bone out and the physical shape of the meat was unbothered and dry, my partner didn’t even finish them they were that bad…. The cornbread — DRY and crumbly, mac and cheese was 4/10 “okay”, and the green beans 5/10 however there was a short blonde hair in it…. so yeah. I thought I was being adventurous trying a different BBQ spot in Morgantown and I have learned to stay on the safe...