Critic's Review
The first Dickey's franchise BBQ unit to open in Broward is here; I'd tried their short lived operation in Boca about 6 years ago; I wasn't too impressed. But since then, just about every BBQ not named Jenkins has closed.
This complex in Dania is becoming the next Pembroke Pines; they just keep building and building. This place is way in the back adjacent to route 95. There's no parking out front; there's a parking lot in the rear.
The restaurants surrounding it; Bento and Burger Fi, aren't yet open, so there's plenty of parking. Also because there's nothing going in here yet; most of the venues are under construction.
They have a BBQ "Truck"; not sure if its operational or just for show. I assume it comes with the $250-480K it costs to open one of these franchises.
The rear entrance is real homey; a long hallway where you can eat your BBQ without anyone seeing you.
The menu is large and confusing; it really makes you appreciate Jenkins' simple approach. Even after they pointed out the rib combos, I didn't really see them. They have one of those order system / menus online; a troubling trend among businesses who know nothing about marketing a restaurant. I can't even find the thing I ordered online, which shouldn't happen. How difficult is it to post a pdf or image of the actual menu?
The rib combos seemed to either not have enough ribs or were too expensive; so I went with the "Pork Out" platter, which was sort of a pork sampler with pulled pork, pork burnt ends, kielbasa and 2 ribs.
For drinks they don't really have a medium cup; just a smallish one and then one that I wouldn't fit into my cup holder; I didnt want to have a Better Call Saul moment so I grabbed the small cup for iced tea.
They do have fresh lemon, so they get a leg up on Chipotle.
I went straight home and opened it up:
At first glance it APPEARED to be a decent haul for $16. It looked better than the junk they sold at Voodoo BBQ; I dug in to the pulled pork, which was dry and tasteless without sauce. The cornbread was soggy and inedible; it went right into the garbage.
The beans were beyond disappointment; This is what they're supposed to look like:
A healthy choice, right? This is what I got:
At first I thought they made a mistake and gave me some sort of collard mush; but there were a couple of beans in this slop. This is the single most disgusting item I've ever received at any venue; imagine paying even a penny for this junk?
The mac and cheese was 'meh'; too floury and mushy; I ended up storing these and reconstituting them later with a better cheese sauce.
They market the ribs as "fall off the bone", which is weird since falling off the bone is what happens when ribs are oversauced or steamed. These weren't fall-off-the-bone at all.
Good texture; not a lot of smoke, but zero flavor; none. Without sauce these are just plain cooked ribs. Luckily the sauce wasn't too bad, so I was able to get enough flavor to make them edible.
The pork burnt ends were absolute garbage; Imagine if they cut off the ends and threw them in an oven without seasoning or braising them in some kind of sauce and you have these; tasteless overcooked nuggets of nothing. Half of them were inedible.
The best thing on the plate was the Kielbasa, finally some taste!
Conclusion
My first impression was that they didn't have very good affordable lunch options; what I got would have been a good value if the cornbread, beans and burnt ends weren't inedible. Overall, the food was cooked well but didn't have the taste or smoke flavor that is indicative of quality barbecue. They also don't have pastrami.
Overall, the recipes lack flavor; I assume a human packed the beans so what kind of person would think that what I got was ok to sell to a customer?
I don't know what's going to happen in this area with all of these new venues; but Dickey's isn't worth going out of your way for. There's nothing here that made me want to try something else or come here again.