I was very disappointed!

I asked the waitress if the brisket could be lean. Her response was that brisket was a very fatty cut of meat. She is right, but also dead wrong. In its raw form, brisket is indeed very fatty. But it can be trimmed and usually is. Some people like their meat fatty and greasy. Other folks, like me, like it lean with no fat at all.

Every bbq place I have been too gives the fatty stuff to those that like or don’t mind fat. If you request it, they will give you the lean stuff. Other places like Goodwood serve only lean brisket.

Either this waitress had no clue what she was talking about, didn’t care, or only knew the fatty stuff that MickeyRay’s serves. The later is probably the more likely story.

I decided to try the brisket anyway. When it came out, there was almost no meat to be found. The brisket was practically all fat. I left it sitting on the plate and swore to never return.

The only thing leaving a larger distaste than the food was the service, the total lack thereof (he was very friendly, must be related)

So we start with deep fried pickles. They are served up up in a bowl pooling full of the un-drained grease in the bottom leaving them wonderfully soggy.

Wife ordered brisket with slaw and beans, I chose burnt ends with the same.

While we waited our curiosity got to us. You see they have THREE distinctly different sauces… Signature, “sassy”, and hot… we could not discern a difference.

As we looked at the overly staffed, under patronized dining room, we wondered what could possibly be taking so long to get our food and the “sweet tea”. Finally the food arrives, sans sweet tea. The third request for it is now placed and along with the too many to count apologies, it finally came. While it had sweet down, there wasnt even the hint of “fresh brewed” tea.

Now down to the grub, meatless beans, soggy limp slaw, mouthwatering brisket (albeit due to being so dry it left your mouth drooling), burnt ends with a ratio of big chunks of fat to meat that left the portion looking relatively untouched upon finishing.

Sadly, Good Wood puts out a better meal and it isn’t even BBQ.

Not once were we asked if the meal was good, if we enjoyed ourselves, or if we would be back. Must be one of those unwritten understandings, we wont.

Longing for Andrew’s Rib Shack….

If you want to taste the most succulent pork and slaw sandwich which rivals North Carolina barbecue (the champion of traditional pork barbecue where it is a delicacy), then try Mickey Ray’s Memphis Pork Sandwich,,, my personal favorite choice on the extensive menu.

The Memphis style barbecue sandwich comes with a huge bun loaded with lots of tender, juicy and well seasoned hickory smoked barbecue complemented by a generous helping of delicious sweet, vinegar and mayonaise finely grated cole slaw. This is the best barbecue sandwich in the western United States.Westerners who try the slaw with the barbecue sandwich will never go back to eating pork sandwiches without the cole slaw. The slaw melts together with the moist tender barbecue right in your mouth!!!!!

There are only 3 restaurants in the Idaho Treasure Valley which serve SWEET ICED TEA… Micky Ray’s is clearly the best and closest to downhome sweet tea from the restaurants of southeastern United States… it is the correct beverage to eat with real barbecue like that served by Mickey Ray’s. Enjoy!!!!!