Ah....my eternal search for some decent barbecue in San Francisco took a little break when me and the SO were down San Bruno way and rolled past Dickey's Barbecue Pit in a strip mall across from Tanforan Mall and thought why not. Dickey's is actually a semi-chain (not many locations yet) that started out of Dallas Texas. When you first walk in it doesn't look like much and it was a bit confusing about who and where we were supposed to order from.
As a matter of fact the whole order process was a bit of an ordeal. Seems they were in the middle of changing shifts with the dinner crew coming in plus the folks in front of us were ordering some giant family size meal and with all the folks coming an going we were asked multiple times what meat we wanted, what side dishes, what drink and so on. Needless to say it became a little irritating and normally I would would probably have given up by this point but we were hungry and had started the process so I was in that "we've come this far mode" and decided to press on. After those fits and starts I finally got the order through and went with the two meat plate and sides.
It's pulled pork, sliced brisket, green beans, fried okra and roll. First impressions are, it does remind me of stuff I've gotten in North Carolina and Texas before so that's actually a good thing. It's also not drowning in sauce either, another good thing. They do have 3 kinds of sauce you serve yourself for dipping if you like--hot barbecue, regular smoky and honey barbecue. As is, the pulled pork was rather decent. Tender, mostly juicy, some of the ends a little overdone, could have been warmer and chop a little more but overall it was okay and better than some of the past stuff I've had in town. The brisket was warm and most of the pieces were tender and juicy also and cut easily with a fork, some of the pieces were a little overdone and a bit too fatty but again overall it was mostly decent. I did like the regular sauce, which actually was warm, and a little dipping in the smoky hickory flavor was pretty good.
The okra was hot and crispy, cooked to order out of the fryer and the beans, which were out of a can, were okay as they did add bits of bacon to them which can always elevate most any dish. I really liked the rolls here, they were soft and fluffy, slightly toasted on outside and warm (!) which helped melt all the butter I put on it.
Was this the best barbecue I've ever had? Uh....no, but compared with some of the stuff I've had in the last few months, it was sort of better than most. I'm not saying you need to run down there right now and try it, but if you just happen to be making a Target run, it'd be okay to stop by. Though, hopefully, you'll try not to come when they are changing shifts, otherwise, the service might cloud your appetite and opinion of the place, so keep that in mind.
