L2 Texas BBQ

Critic's Review

I was in the mood for some BBQ, and I found this place near me that I was going to try; but its so crazy expensive that I kept looking and found this place. Much more reasonably priced, and the Texas Meltz sounded interesting. Note that the L2 stands for "Location #2"; their original location is Texas Meltz on W Sahara.

Their original location seems more like a fast food place, while this appeared to be a full service BBQ restaurant. Nonetheless, It was 3pm on a Saturday so I wasn't dining in. I also decided not to order online; I had a couple of stops to make and I didn't know how long it would take me to get there.

A couple of pleasant girls were working the front where I placed my order. One peeve I have with many restaurants is their Lunch/Dinner specials or combos; the lunch combo can only be ordered until 2pm. Really, if I come in at 2:15 I have to order a dinner platter? It's so ridiculous.

So I ordered the Dallas Melt with Cheddar (Brisket) and a 1 meat "dinner" platter of smoked ribs and Mac and Cheese and baked beans as my sides.

The interior has a large Texas flag on one side, which may prove offensive to blue staters.

But on the other side is an American flag, which will only offend the Marxists.

The food took longer than I expected; I guess melting the cheese takes some time.

The packaging could be better; Luckily nothing opened up so I didn't have a big mess.

The "Melt" wasn't entirely melted; I think a cheese sauce would be better on this than the deli slices.

I cut the sandwich in half revealing a lot nice looking meat.

And the sandwich was very good; the brisket was a little bland but it was tender and combined with the cheese and texas toast it had enough flavor.

The mac and cheese weren't too cheesy but I liked it. I was planning on splitting this into 2 meals and I quickly gobbled up half of the Mac & Cheese.

The beans were also good, but they didn't have any smoke flavor. They tasted like good canned beans; not too sweet but I suspect they didn't make these in the pit.

Out of the box the ribs looked pretty good with nice bark.

But when I went to cut the bones the ribs fell apart; indicating that they were overcooked. "Fall off the bone" is how restaurants try to tell you that ribs should be; but thats what happens when you've cooked them too long.

They were also underseasoned; I had to add sauce to these to give them some flavor. Luckily the sauce provided was very good (regular spice).

I had leftovers 2 days later; everything heated up nicely. I admit to adding a bit of cheese to the Mac and Cheese.

Conclusion

I think this place has potential; I think the meats could be really good with some minor adjustments; you shouldn't cook ribs until they're mush. I can't remember the last time I liked both sides; cook the ribs less and smoke the beans a bit more and they could really have something here.