Dickey's Barbecue Pit (Dallas, TX)

I've never really had any inclination to go to Dickey's Barbecue Pit. It seemed more like fast food than anything else. Lately, however, I've been seeing advertisements for Dickey's $2.00 barbecue chicken sandwich on Mondays, so I thought it was worth a try for that price.

At Dickey's, the meat seems to be sliced to order, but it's what the meat is sliced from that gave me pause. The orders were being sliced off of large slabs of meat sitting out under heat lamps. The side dishes are also set out buffet style under more heat lamps. This did not bode well.

I ordered the special Big Barbecue Chicken Sandwich, as well as a Big Barbecue Pulled Pork Sandwich and a side of their original potato salad (rather than the dill potato salad).

The potato salad was exceptionally creamy and whipped like mashed potatoes. In fact, I suspect they use the same potato base for both the potato salad and their baked potato casserole. Overall, the potato salad had a nice crunch from the pickles and other mix-ins. I wish the mustard flavor had been a little more prominent though.

Dickey's menu says that all of their barbecue sandwiches come "dressed with pickles, onions, and barbecue sauce," and all of the pictures on their website also show big pickles and onions on the sandwiches. I normally don't eat veggies on my sandwiches, but I was actually looking forward to the added crunch and acidity. When I unwrapped my order at home, I was disappointed to find only meat inside of a plain sesame seed bun. No pickles, no onions. The sauce was on the side, which was probably because I got my order to go.

I decided to start by trying each of the sandwiches without sauce. With the chicken, I could taste a nice char from the grill. The meat was sliced fairly thick, so it was a little dry. I think using pulled rather than sliced chicken might help this problem. The pulled pork sandwich didn't have much smoke to it at all, but had a decent flavor regardless. The meat was tender without being mushy, although it could certainly benefit from more spice.

The sauce itself was a slightly sweet tomato-based sauce, but really had no heat or flavor to it outside of the tomatoes. It helped alleviate some of the dryness of the chicken, so that was good. As for the pulled pork, the sauce added a little sugar to it, but otherwise didn't help the flavor at all. I guess I should have opted for the spicy barbecue sauce instead.

Dickey's Barbecue Pit is perfect if you only have $2.00 to spare for lunch, or if you're catering a child's birthday party. Other than that, there's really no reason to go here.

UPDATE (February 6, 2013): About two weeks ago, I received a message on Yelp.com from the manager at Dickey's. She apologized for my disappointing dining experience, and asked for my contact information so that she could "have [my] issues addressed." I replied back right away and gave her my mailing address. To date, I have yet to receive any further contact from Dickey's. It looks like they weren't that concerned after all.

**********

Dickey's Barbecue Pit
4610 N. Central Expressway
Dallas, TX 75206
(214) 370-4550
http://www.dickeys.com