It is the best bbq that i have ever had!!!!

i had the 7 bone rib plate and baked patio. they use a big wood smoker out side ther frount doors there is alway a line to get in so come early….

Oh well, I pressed on. I turned left onto northbound but my mental appetite center remained back at Woodies and I was suddenly rapacious.

Several miles further north on Crenshaw, I saw a curious place, certainly a former Taco Bell building, vintage 1960s, but no fire ring out front (remember those?). As I passed by, my hunger beam locked on – “Tasty Q BarbeQue . . . O’Taste and See!” I pulled right in.

Bill’s description above is right on and and to a T. My experience exactly, only my order lady was perhaps a bit more seasoned, still, sweet as pie and very helpful. As it was dinner time and by now my interest was way up (“O’taste and See”), I ordered the small end pork rib dinner (10.00), with cole slaw, beans, hot bbq sauce and the routine two slices of Wonder(what is it) mopping bread.

I sat down adjacent to a TV playing a recent White House-daughter-goes-to-college movie. I rolled up my sleaves and dove into this Tasty Q. In 2-3 bites, I rejoiced that these spare ribs were nearly perfect. They were moist and tender, very meaty and perfectly done. They were well seasoned and served with minimum sauce. My plate contained 6 nice, meaty ribs plus the tip, which was good sized and nice and crispy. I loved the perfect balance of pork and true wood smoker flavor in the meat. I loved these ribs. The cole slaw was nicely flavored but ordinary. However, the beans were truly wonderful – so down home and homemade, loaded with chunks and shreads of meat – I will agree with Bill and The Junkie above – likely smoked turkey. I could not finish my meal – three ribs left for lunch tomorrow.

As I walked out to my car parked in the back, I found the source of all this goodness, Mr. Ross, sitting in a big chair under a canopy, chatting with friends. He told me that he has been twelve years on this corner, Crenshaw and 30th. He told me about his problems locating hickory – bug infested wood cannot be brought into the state. I said the oak tastes pretty good any day. I told him flat out that there is no pit or psuedo pit in Pasadena that could touch his ribs. “That high rent’ll kill ya,” noted Mr. Ross. We talked awhile about the housing developments which are overtaking Hollywood Park . . . “Everything but the Casino,” he predicted. We ended up on his newest and truest passion: fried turkey. According to Tasty Q’s Mr. Ross, the guy who perfects the “automatic high volume turkey frier” will have stumbled over a gold mine. Hummm.

In sum, Tasty Q is everything that The Barn Burner (Pasadena – seem my comments this blog) is not and will never be: a true BBQ pit, complete with quality meats smoked with love, down home attitude, local color, a double dose of love and fair prices. As I pulled away northbound on Crenshaw, I soon encountered Phillips in the next block – wow, what a Vesuvius of smoke was fuming out of that joint! Smelled good! Next time!
rb

At first I had trouble finding a menu, but did – between the two windows that separate the dining area from the kitchen. I ordered the mini-dinner of pork ribs, chose potato-salad and beans as my sides, and asked for the peach cobbler for dessert. No drink. It took about 5 minutes to be served by a cheerful black woman who appeared to be in her mid-thirties and whose voice was impressively deep and throaty. At first she had trouble making change from the twenty I handed her, but found a five dollar bill in her pocket and solved the matter.

I give high marks to the food. I usually like my ribs dry, garlicky, salty — and am not a big fan of ribs adroft in puddles of barbacue sauce. The pork ribs from Tasty Q, however, though puddled in a deep reddish-brown sweet barbacue sauce, were excellent. They tasted even better when I ate the leftovers cold on the next day. As was mentioned in the main review, the beans are the best you can buy in L.A. — let alone at a drive thru. Also good was the potato salad, especially in the face of the heat coming off of the beans. Given the generosity of the ribs (lottsa meat here: take not Mr. Cecils! — and lower your prices), I’m wondering how I managed to polish off the peach cobbler at the end, and this in spite of the fact that the cobbler didn’t have a lot of taste and the peaches could have been from a can.

Stick with the ribs, the beans, and use the two slices of bread to sop up all of that bittersweet sauce. Enjoy.