Rudy's "Country Store" Bar-B-Q
845 N Litchfield Rd
Goodyear, AZ 85338
https://rudysbbq.com/
Date of Visit: January 7, 2020
At the time of writing, Rudy's has 45 locations across Texas (35), Oklahoma (2) , Colorado (2), Arizona (3) , and New Mexico (3). The location in Goodyear was the first one we encountered on I-10 while driving from San Jose, CA to College Station, TX when I attended Camp Brisket at Texas A&M University.
My wife and I pulled into the parking lot around 6:30PM after a long day of driving. We were hungry, but I was wary of Rudy's for two reasons:
The restaurant was not super-busy on a Tuesday night during the dinner hour and we quickly made our way through the short line to the order counter. The size of the place and all of the visual stimulation was overwhelming at first...the bright colors, the signs, products, knickknacks, and flags hanging from the ceiling...there was something to look at on almost every surface of every wall...it was a lot to take in.
We were given a friendly greeting at the front door as well as at the order counter. The ordertaker asked if this was our first visit to Rudy's (I'm sure he could tell by the "deer in the headlights" look on our faces) and we said it was. He responded by going to the cutting table and bringing back small samples of brisket, turkey, spicy chop, and creamed corn for us to try. Liking what we'd tasted, we ordered half a pound of lean and fatty brisket, four baby back ribs, a quarter pound of smoked turkey breast, half a regular sausage, potato salad, creamed corn, banana pudding, and a slice of pecan pie. Four slices of white bread were included with the order.
I like to order smoked turkey breast when it's on the menu at a barbecue joint, and Rudy's turkey was moist and tasty. I'm sure it was injected with something, but that was OK, it ate just fine on a slice of white bread with a drizzle of barbecue sauce. We also really liked the fatty brisket (moist with a great crust on the outside, we remarked afterwards how good it was despite how long it must have been held for service at 6:30 in the evening) and the sausage was good but not special. The baby back ribs had a good crust on them and a nice flavor, but the ones we got were kind of runts even for baby backs. Least favorite was the lean brisket. It had good beef and smoke flavor, but it was a bit tight, a bit dry, and cut a bit thicker than the sample we'd had at the counter, all of which affected how it ate.
Rudy's offers two house barbecue sauces, an original "Bar-BQ Sause" (yes, with an "s" instead of a "c"...I guess that's part of the "country store" charm) and another called "Sissy Sause". The sissy version is sweeter than the original version, which has a bit more peppery heat. Both were fine when used sparingly on Rudy's meats. The stoppers in the bottle necks insured that you had to shake really hard to get just a little bit of sauce dispensed on your meat--there was no way Rudy's was going to let you oversauce their Texas barbecue! Both sauces were served at the table alongside a bottle of hot sauce, large shakers of salt and cracked black pepper, and a small bottle of toothpicks.
My wife really liked the potato salad, it seemed very similar to the kind she grew up eating in Michigan (that's part of North Texas, right?). Nice chunks of potato, creamy mayo, a little mustard and sugar, celery, sweet relish, and red peppers. We both liked the creamed corn...very creamy and piping hot, good corn flavor. Of the two desserts, the pecan pie was the winner. The banana pudding looked better than it tasted...a lot of whipped cream on top, the pudding and Nilla Wafers were fine, but the bananas had an off flavor, perhaps too green.
As for beverages, I had sweet tea in a souvenir cup, which was sweet but not overwhelmingly so, and my wife had a Shiner Bohemian Black Lager, a beer that she'd never tried before and really enjoyed.
--
At some of the older Rudy's locations, there's a sign out front that says, "Rudy's -- The Worst Bar-B-Q in Texas". I guess they're poking fun at themselves, but we didn't see that sign at the Goodyear location and I would have to say that it's not true. There's certainly lots of barbecue in Texas that's much better than Rudy's, but I've also had barbecue at some famous places in Texas that was worse than Rudy's. I'm not going to tell you to skip Texas joints like Franklin Barbecue or Louie Mueller, Snow's, Micklethwaite, Pecan Lodge or Cattleack and go to Rudy's instead. Heck, if you've got the time, you'll find better barbecue in Phoenix at Little Miss BBQ. But if you're passing through the greater Phoenix area on I-10 and you've got a hankerin' for some very serviceable barbecue, don't hesitate to pull off the interstate and give Rudy's "Country Store" Bar-B-Q a try. We'd do it again without hesitation!
P.S. I mentioned we tried a sample of "spicy chop", a finely chopped mix of brisket, turkey, pork loin and prime rib that's cooked in BBQ sauce and served on a plate or on a sandwich. I can only assume it's a way of using yesterday's leftovers...but very tasty. My wife would like to try it on a sandwich some day.
Here are some photos I took. Enjoy!
Continued...
845 N Litchfield Rd
Goodyear, AZ 85338
https://rudysbbq.com/
Date of Visit: January 7, 2020
At the time of writing, Rudy's has 45 locations across Texas (35), Oklahoma (2) , Colorado (2), Arizona (3) , and New Mexico (3). The location in Goodyear was the first one we encountered on I-10 while driving from San Jose, CA to College Station, TX when I attended Camp Brisket at Texas A&M University.
My wife and I pulled into the parking lot around 6:30PM after a long day of driving. We were hungry, but I was wary of Rudy's for two reasons:
- Rudy's is a regional chain Texas barbecue restaurant, and my experience with another Texas chain that begins with "D" and ends with "ickey's" has not been great; and
- Experience tells me that barbecue that's been held until 6:30PM is usually not as good as barbecue served when a restaurant opens for lunch.
The restaurant was not super-busy on a Tuesday night during the dinner hour and we quickly made our way through the short line to the order counter. The size of the place and all of the visual stimulation was overwhelming at first...the bright colors, the signs, products, knickknacks, and flags hanging from the ceiling...there was something to look at on almost every surface of every wall...it was a lot to take in.
We were given a friendly greeting at the front door as well as at the order counter. The ordertaker asked if this was our first visit to Rudy's (I'm sure he could tell by the "deer in the headlights" look on our faces) and we said it was. He responded by going to the cutting table and bringing back small samples of brisket, turkey, spicy chop, and creamed corn for us to try. Liking what we'd tasted, we ordered half a pound of lean and fatty brisket, four baby back ribs, a quarter pound of smoked turkey breast, half a regular sausage, potato salad, creamed corn, banana pudding, and a slice of pecan pie. Four slices of white bread were included with the order.
I like to order smoked turkey breast when it's on the menu at a barbecue joint, and Rudy's turkey was moist and tasty. I'm sure it was injected with something, but that was OK, it ate just fine on a slice of white bread with a drizzle of barbecue sauce. We also really liked the fatty brisket (moist with a great crust on the outside, we remarked afterwards how good it was despite how long it must have been held for service at 6:30 in the evening) and the sausage was good but not special. The baby back ribs had a good crust on them and a nice flavor, but the ones we got were kind of runts even for baby backs. Least favorite was the lean brisket. It had good beef and smoke flavor, but it was a bit tight, a bit dry, and cut a bit thicker than the sample we'd had at the counter, all of which affected how it ate.
Rudy's offers two house barbecue sauces, an original "Bar-BQ Sause" (yes, with an "s" instead of a "c"...I guess that's part of the "country store" charm) and another called "Sissy Sause". The sissy version is sweeter than the original version, which has a bit more peppery heat. Both were fine when used sparingly on Rudy's meats. The stoppers in the bottle necks insured that you had to shake really hard to get just a little bit of sauce dispensed on your meat--there was no way Rudy's was going to let you oversauce their Texas barbecue! Both sauces were served at the table alongside a bottle of hot sauce, large shakers of salt and cracked black pepper, and a small bottle of toothpicks.
My wife really liked the potato salad, it seemed very similar to the kind she grew up eating in Michigan (that's part of North Texas, right?). Nice chunks of potato, creamy mayo, a little mustard and sugar, celery, sweet relish, and red peppers. We both liked the creamed corn...very creamy and piping hot, good corn flavor. Of the two desserts, the pecan pie was the winner. The banana pudding looked better than it tasted...a lot of whipped cream on top, the pudding and Nilla Wafers were fine, but the bananas had an off flavor, perhaps too green.
As for beverages, I had sweet tea in a souvenir cup, which was sweet but not overwhelmingly so, and my wife had a Shiner Bohemian Black Lager, a beer that she'd never tried before and really enjoyed.
--
At some of the older Rudy's locations, there's a sign out front that says, "Rudy's -- The Worst Bar-B-Q in Texas". I guess they're poking fun at themselves, but we didn't see that sign at the Goodyear location and I would have to say that it's not true. There's certainly lots of barbecue in Texas that's much better than Rudy's, but I've also had barbecue at some famous places in Texas that was worse than Rudy's. I'm not going to tell you to skip Texas joints like Franklin Barbecue or Louie Mueller, Snow's, Micklethwaite, Pecan Lodge or Cattleack and go to Rudy's instead. Heck, if you've got the time, you'll find better barbecue in Phoenix at Little Miss BBQ. But if you're passing through the greater Phoenix area on I-10 and you've got a hankerin' for some very serviceable barbecue, don't hesitate to pull off the interstate and give Rudy's "Country Store" Bar-B-Q a try. We'd do it again without hesitation!
P.S. I mentioned we tried a sample of "spicy chop", a finely chopped mix of brisket, turkey, pork loin and prime rib that's cooked in BBQ sauce and served on a plate or on a sandwich. I can only assume it's a way of using yesterday's leftovers...but very tasty. My wife would like to try it on a sandwich some day.
Here are some photos I took. Enjoy!
Continued...
