I love Barbeque, especially GOOD quality Barbeque. One of the things I have discovered over the years with both competing in Barbeque contests and then running our own catering business is that after awhile, I’ve become a Barbeque snob. I know what I like, and I know what GOOD Barbeque tastes like!

One of the things our friends with the Rocky Mountain Barbeque Association came up with was a “Bucket List” of local Barbeque joints here in Colorado. So every few weeks, we chose one of these locations and met up to sample the foods and see how their food is. Now we know it isn’t near what we feel would be competition quality Barbeque, but we have all ate enough food that people where calling Barbeque to know what is good and what isn’t.

In this review, I’ve decided to write on our experience in eating at Big Papa’s BBQ. In the State of Colorado, Big Papa’s has three locations, two in Littleton and one location in Denver, we ate at the Denver restaurant located at 6265 East Evans Avenue.

What I remember as my first empression walking through the door is how the smell of smoked food was in the air. This alone can get the taste buds going!

 A couple of members from the RMBBQA had started things off with an  appetizer of Catfish Nuggets that was shared with the group. Now I’m not a huge fan of Catfish, and its not something I go out of my way to eat or order at a restaurant, but I made an exception because of the smell and apperance of the nuggets. I found the Catfish Nuggets to be very moist and tender with a wonderful breading that wasn’t gressy or over fryed. So far so good!

One of the main reasons I was interested in eating at Big Papa’s was due to a review of if it that I read in a recent book written by both Ardie Davis and Paul Kirk entitled “America’s Best BBQ”.

One of the dishes they featured were Big Papa’s Bison Ribs. I love Buffalo and knew right away what I was ordering! I  chose their maccoroni and cheese with pit beans as my sides.

My AWESOME wife was with me for this lunch date and she ordered Big Papa’s two meat combo having Pulled Pork and Chicken The sides she chose were sweat potato casserole and coleslaw.

When my food arrived it looked great. The Bison Ribs were tender and moist with very good flavor.My only complaint, with most Bison Ribs there is not a lot of meat on them, but what meat their was it soon disappeared. The maccaroni and cheese was very good, the pasta was not over done and the cheese sauce was very good with a mild chedder taste. Like most Babeque places, Pit beans can make are break a good Barbeque. The Pit Beans at Big Papa’s were full of flavor. Light smoke flavor with a sweet tangie taste that made you want to just keep eating them and wanting more. Out of five stars, one being the absoulute worst Barbeque known to man and five being the best I’ve ever ate , I would give my meal a 4

My wife’s combo plate was delivered and found to be very appealing to the eye as well. The pulled pork and chiken were both very moist and tender with a light smoke flavor to our surprise the meat was not over done and was actually very good. The coleslaw was good with a vineger type coleslaw dressing. Next she ate the Sweet Potato cassarole. I knew right away that it had to be good when she looked at me and said “ you have got to try this!”

I thought it would be the average Sweet potato cassarole I’ve had before and choked down in some cases, MAN WAS I WRONG!! This Sweet Potato Cassarole was nice and fluffy had a nice blend of brown sugar and a hint of orange juice. It was so good, I had to go and order another side of it because my wife’s side just wasn’t enough for both of us! For this combo out of five stars this also received a 4

After you look at the menu for Big Papa’s I think you will see that the prices are real resonible considering the quality of food and the customer service you receive.

We plan on returing to Big Papa’s when we are in the area, and we will continue to recommend it to friends and family from out of town looking for a good place to eat Barbeque. You can check out Big Papa’s locations and menu at www.bbqdenver.com Thanks for reading, and as always Smoke ON!