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Memphis Blues
Address: 1465 West Broadway & 1342 Commercial Drive
Tel: 604-215-2599 & 604-738-6806
homepage

Hours:
Mon-Thurs 11:00am-10:00pm
Fri 11:00am-Midnight
Saturday Noon-Midnight
Sunday Noon-10:00pm

Not a Sad Song

By Dan Fishman
Eat Vancouver Columnist
Monday, May 22nd, 2006

** (of four stars)

I recently went to Memphis Blues with a large group of psychology people. Memphis Blues offers “authentic southern barbecue” served up in a casual atmosphere. Pretty much everything you could want to know about the menu is available on their website, so I am going to keep this review as brief as possible.

There were nine people in our group, and we went on a Friday night, so we had a pretty long wait (about 30 minutes), although that isn’t too bad for a weekend at 7:00. Seven of us ordered an Elvis Platter, which is supposed to serve 6-8, and includes ribs, rib tips, brisket, pulled pork, sausage and Cornish game hen, as well as cornbread, coleslaw, potato salad and beans. It didn’t turn out to be enough food for us, so we got a Memphis Platter as well, which is the same thing but smaller. That turned out to be a bit too much… what can you do?

Memphis Blues is the most popular (but one of few) barbecue restaurant in Vancouver, and it is pretty easy to see why: the meat itself is delicious. The pulled pork almost melts in your mouth, the brisket is delicious, the sausage is great and the rib tips have a nice flavor. The ribs leave something to be desired; they are a little tough and not terribly tasty. The Chairman thought the Cornish game hen was improperly cooked, while I thought it was acceptable but nothing special. With the meat that Memphis Blues serves, it could be a 3-star restaurant. I say could be, because other than the meat, Memphis Blues leaves something to be desired.

The sides are pretty mediocre, except for the cornbread, which was actually quite good. The main problem, however, is the sauce. Memphis Blues provides only one type of barbecue sauce with the platter. In my book, you simply cannot use the same sauce on all these different types of meat. When my dad barbecues, he has a special sauce for ribs, chicken, pork, with each sauce complimenting the meat in the right way. The one sauce that Memphis Blues had was not that great to begin with, and seemed a bit too heavy for many of the meats. It is possible that each meat had its own sauce, but if so there wasn’t nearly enough, because I couldn’t taste it; if there are in fact special sauces for each meat, they need to provide sides of each of them. I took home some of the leftovers, and even Frank’s Red Hot was an improvement, so it is clear that it wouldn’t take much to improve the sauces. My only other complaint was the drinks; I wish they had fountain soda, although they did have a good selection of beer, wine and bourbon.

All in all Memphis Blues is a good restaurant and definitely worth trying. You also get a lot of food for your money. I went back another time and had a large take-out pulled pork sandwich. At only $8, it is a real bargain; you get the same delicious pulled pork on a bun with plenty of sauce, and beans and coleslaw on the side. Just a heads up, they also put coleslaw on the sandwich, which I thought was a little odd, but not untasty. If Memphis Blues ever improve their sauces, this could really be a restaurant to reckon with.

Dan Fishman is a PhD student at the University of British Columbia studying Psychology.