Memphis Blues BBQ has spread its wings all throughout Canada since they’ve started to franchise their Southern BBQ restaurants.  Downtown Vancouver is the latest location for Memphis Blues with a store opened on Robson Street right by the Vancouver Public Library.  I’ve eaten at a couple of their original locations, I used to live a block away from the Commercial Drive restaurant so I’ve had some good meals and pretty much eaten the whole menu so I know what I like.

For my lunch I went with what has to be my favorite item on there menu-the Rib Ends Meal with all the fixings for $18.

Here are some of the sides you get with your meal, I chose potato salad over the fries and the coleslaw is a standard item with every plate.  I really liked the potato salad, it had the right mix of mayo/mustard, celery, a bit of hard-boiled egg and of course potato!  The coleslaw here is one of my favorites around town, they make sure all the veggies are sliced real thin and they use a mayo based dressing so it’s a creamy coleslaw rather than the vinegar dressed slaw.

Every plate comes with homemade cornbread.  Compared to other cornbread I’ve had I’ve always found Memphis Blues cornbread to be on the dry side, the flavors are good but for me it’s just a bit too dry.

Now for what is my favorite item at Memphis Blues, the Rib Ends.  Usually when I’ve had them they have been tender and just like “rib candy”.  Unfortunately in this case they were extremely tough and the fat wasn’t rendered properly as you can see by the white parts on the rib ends, the smoke penetration was proper and the flavor was good but because of the toughness and the way the fat tasted I couldn’t finish them.  The only thing I can think of is maybe they aren’t used to their smoker or it’s not fully worked in yet.

The BBQ baked beans and BBQ sauce were good just like usual, the beans were soft in texture and smokey in flavor.  Memphis offers a couple different types of sauces including a mustard based sauce that is pretty kick ass but this rich, mahogany sauce is the standard that they have been known for.

At the end of the day my food and experience were mixed, I had an issue when paying for my food when I ordered it, I gave the cashier guy $25 and he didn’t give me back my change, I stood there for a minute looking at him waiting for him to correct the issue-he didn’t, so I kindly told him to GIVE ME MY CHANGE to which he replied “oh yeah I was going to do that”, my only response was “umm yeah right!”.  I’m hoping that the smoker gets worked in and the employees get the hang of things soon.