Review Armadillo Willy’s BBQ
This is a review of Armadillo Willy’s BBQ in Dublin, CA. My wife and I take turns choosing the restaurant for lunch any time we are in the area. This time it was my turn to pick the restaurant and being a self-described carnivore I usually pick places where I get lots of meat in the dish. So naturally, any Barbecue place is really all about the meat. So off we went.
Sold
I saw a photo of a burger from this place that looked like it was almost all meat. But I wasn’t thinking burgers I was thinking I want to try out as much of the meats as I can. But this being lunch how do you do that? Well I found the perfect sandwich with a trifecta of meats. But first, let’s talk about the dining experience.
How it works
The place is self-seating. There is no wait staff to take your orders or deliver your food to the table. There is a rather large container of menus as you enter the doors. You pull a menu, select what you want to eat and proceed to the check register to place your order. Whereupon that order they hand you a light/buzzer device(the same kind that you get when waiting for a table at other restaurants) and any soft drink cups for your order. Next, you find your table of choice, fill your drink cups and wait for that buzzer to go off. When that buzzer goes off proceed to the counter where your food awaits. Don’t forget knives and forks and extra BBQ sauce while at the counter. I may have missed it but I didn’t see any areas where we could have dropped off our efforts at clean up after finishing our meal. So we left the table with all the trays.
Drink selection
Being a diabetic it’s always a surprise when an establishment has more than one flavor of diet anything. You diabetics understand, cola, iced tea, cola, iced tea, cola, iced tea. But this place’s drink(let’s call it a station) selection was loaded with no sugar added selections. Watermelon, mango, Dr. Pepper plus a selection of iced tea flavors rounded out the diet section of the drink station. Bonanza!
Options on the brisket
Most of the time when you order brisket you get a plate of brisket straight forward no options. Armadillo Willey’s has options for you brisket fans. They will ask you if you want “juicy” or “lean” or fifty-fifty. Juicy being a brisket that has some of the fat to it and the “juicy” being liquid fat from the cooking/smoking process.
Sauces
There are three flavors of Barbecue sauce. A mild version, a sweet version, and a spicy version. Our meals were served with the mild version of the barbecue sauce. I have thoughts on their barbecue sauce as I tried two versions. The mild sauce looks like barbecue sauce but to my taste buds does not have a lot of flavor or spice. It stays in the background when your eating something covered with it. This is totally opposite of what I am used to, normally the sauce jumps to the front clearly putting what it covers definitely in the background.
The second barbecue sauce, the spicy jalapeno version, was slightly spicy(in a heat kind of way). It definitely tried to come forward when you’re tasting it. But not as much as I had expected a spicy sauce to do.
What I ordered
El-Hefe-sandwich cheese sausage side
El-Hefe-sandwich-pulled-pork-and-brisket-side
El-Hefe-sandwich-with-sweet-potato-fries-and-NSA-watermelon-drink
I ordered the El Hefe Sandwich with my side of choice being sweet potato fries.
Description of the sandwich El Hefe
This sandwich was a jackpot of three types of meat. Four types of meat if you count the brisket because I ordered it fifty-fifty. It had all this piled high on it.
- Pulled Pork
- PRIME Brisket
- Texas Jalapeno-Cheese Sausage
- Spicy Peanut Slaw
- Fresh Jalapeno
- Sriracha
- Potato Bun.
This sandwich was a pleasure to eat. On the first bite you could taste the smoke flavor it was wonderful. The jalapenos were a surprise. I was expecting the usual pickled varieties but these were fresh crispy peppers. There was no heat so I’m thinking they were a Tam variety of jalapenos. The coleslaw stayed in the background adding its crispness to the otherwise smoky goodness of the meat. Pickles and pickled red onions made up the other “veggies” on the plate. The bun was up to the challenge of holding everything together.
The sweet potato fries were salty, good crisp fries. A perfect combination and a darn good reason to order fries.
If I did it over I’d get all juicy brisket.
Dear wife’s dish
Brisket small plate with potato salad
My wife ordered the CERTIFIED ANGUS BEEF® PRIME BRISKET small BBQ plate. She ordered the brisket fifty-fifty. This is a smaller portion of meat type serving. It comes with original sauce unless otherwise requested and includes one side. My wife chose potato salad as her side. The rest of the plate had the same “veggies”, pickles and pickled red onion. She had to order a corn muffin as a second side.
Will I go back?
My dear wife liked the brisket but is unsure if she would order it fifty-fifty again. She’s leaning toward the lean. The potato salad was a big flop. It was just a step above potato salad from a carton. According to her, the muffin was really good but not worth the price she paid for it.
As for me, the sandwich was good, and the sweet potato fries perfect. The drink station was outstanding for no sugar added selections. But the BBQ sauces missed their mark. I also tasted my wife’s potato salad and it was not worthy of being on that plate. Add to that, walk in grab a menu, order at the counter, get a flasher/buzzer device, get food at the counter, don’t bus your table when done. No, I’ll not be back. While it was meaty and smoky for this carnivore it was not a home run hit with me.
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