8216 104 Street NW, Edmonton

Meat meat meat! This restaurant opened up a little bit over a year now, and shares the same owners as The Next Act, which is just next door. It offers a large variety of authentic BBQ, along with some tasty sides and their their homemade sauces. A couple of weeks ago, they closed for a couple of days because they were filming for You Gotta Eat Here! So be sure to check out the episode when it comes out!

In the last couple of weeks, I had the opportunity to go here twice. Once to try their brunch, and then again a few days later to try their dinner. I went here when they first opened up a year ago, and it has only gotten better! I’ve been to a few BBQ places in Edmonton, Sloppy Hoggs Roed Hus BBQ and TW’s BBQ Smoke House, so it’s always nice to have more options! There are some parking meters out front, and, as most places of Whyte ave, free parking can be a bit scarce. There’s tons of imparks around though, if you don’t mind paying a few bucks! They don’t take reservations here, so depending on the time you go, there can be a little bit of a wait! Luckily, both times I went this week, it wasn’t too busy so we got in right away.

When you first walk in, there’s the bar to your left, and the hostess to your right. There are long tables and a few little tables for two. It’s nice a big in here, and they have huge windows all along the restaurants. Both times I’ve gone, it was still really light out and there was so much natural light coming into the restaurant and lighting up this big room, it’s actually really quite nice inside.

 

If it’s really full in here, you might be sitting really close to the adjacent party because all that separates you to another party at the long tables are some BBQ bottles, but that never really bothers me. At each table, they have one of each of their sauces, Cherry, Bourbon, Spicy BBQ sauces, and a mustard.

Benny’s are always my go to, so I got their Beef Brisket Benny with Hashbrowns. It comes with Brisket, carmelized onions, and a buttermilk biscuit. Eggs Benedict is always my go-to brunch item, but the next time I come here, I really want to try the buttermilk fried chicken and pancakes, because I saw some people getting that and it looked so good!

Anyways, the Benny was really good. The brisket was really flavourful, and went really well with the onions. The Hollandaise sauce really tied in all the savoury flavours. What I thought was a really nice change though, was the biscuit. Traditionally, Eggs Benedict is served with on English muffin, but the biscuit was really nice, and easy to break with your fork. Sometimes I find English muffins can be on the chewier side. It was great and really soaked in the egg and great with the brisket!

Other items served for brunch is their breakfast sandwich. This comes with thick pieces of smokey bacon, a fried Egg, Edam Cheese, Arugula, and tomato, with a side of hash browns. Delicious! The hash browns are nice and crispy and there was a generous amount of bacon.

Lastly is their chicken and waffles. A trendy food item for brunch. It might sound weird to mix the two, but trust me, when you eat it, you won’t think it’s so weird anymore. Nicely breaded chicken, with two delicious waffles. I really like how the syrup was on the side so you can control how sweet you want it. Delicious!

When I went for dinner, we wanted to try a little bit of everything, so we got some pulled pork, brisket, apple glazed smoked chicken, and ribs. For sides, we decided to go with their garlic fries, and some potato salad.

For dinner, they serve everything on a large tray, and you’re supposed to eat it family-style. I definitely have no problems with this! I really like sharing so you can try a bit of everything! At each table, they have a little card that gives you some MEAT BBQ facts, and the smoke times that they use for their meat! The pulled pork is smoked for 14 hours, the brisket for 12 hours, the chicken for 4 hours, the ribs for 4 hours, and the sausage for 2 hours. They use 1/3 cherry and 2/3 hickory wood to smoke their meat.

Hands down, my favourite meat would have to be the pulled pork. This was amazing, and it had so much smokiness flavour that came out. It really goes great with all of their BBQ sauces. My two favourite ones would have to be the cherry and the bourbon. The pork was very tender, and really easy to eat. I could have ordered twice of this and have no problems finishing it! I definitely recommend getting at least a pound of this. Probably the best pulled pork out of all the BBQ places I’ve tried in Edmonton!

The first time I went here last year, I didn’t think the chicken was that great. It came out a bit dry, and was a bit underwhelming in flavours, but I decided to give it another try. On this occasion, it was actually pretty good. It was nice and tender, and really nice flavours. The apple glaze was a little bit difficult to detect, but overall it was really good. To be completely honest though, even though it was pretty good, I think I’d rather just get more pulled pork!

The brisket comes out in really nice a thick cut pieces. To be honest, it isn’t as smokey as I would have hoped, but still pretty good. Again, goes well with any of their BBQ sauces. It was a really nice piece of meat, nice and lean, with just the right amount of fat. If you’re a big fan of brisket, this is definitely good to try!

The ribs were nice a meaty. They were very tender and easy to eat. I think I liked the ribs that I’ve eaten from TW’s BBQ smoke house a bit more, to be honest, but these were still very good. They have a lot of meat on the bones. The level of smokiness of the ribs (and all the other meats) really pale in comparison to the pulled pork. Still really good, and definitely a good choice if you’re a big rib-lover.

Their sides comes in small or large, and when it says large, they really mean it! I feel that a large is meant to fill like 4+ people. The amount of garlic fries you get for a large is ridiculous! and this also goes for the Macaroni and cheese that I saw that were being brought to other people. Even if you go with less than 4 people, I’d definitely recommend going with the small, especially if you’re ordering a lot of other meat. The garlic fries are one of my favourite things here. Whenever anyone else is eating them, you can really smell the garlic permeating the room. They are nice a crispy and really tasty to eat along side any of the meat.

The other side we went with was the potato salad. It comes with a very generous amount of bacon on top. Overall, it’s pretty good. It has an incredible amount of dill flavour. If you’re a big fan of dill, you should definitely get this side, but if you’re not, I’d steer away. I think if you’ve come here for some really good smoked meat, I’d just go with an order of the garlic fries, and order a ton of meat to go with it. I’ve heard the salad here is pretty good, so maybe if you don’t want a meal of literally just meat and potatoes, you can opt for a little bit of greens.

 

I’ve never had any of the sandwiches at MEAT but the chicken sandwich appealed to me the most because the one that I’ve had at The Next Act which features the smoked chicken from MEAT was sooo good. This was hands down the best part of the meal. Amazing flavours, and so tender and juicy. I definitely recommend getting this sandwich!

Lastly, this is just a photo of their mac and cheese. Pretty good side. Comes out nice and hot. The cheese is creamy and overall, pretty tasty. That being said though, I have a really hard time not getting their garlic fries instead because you just get so damn much and they are sooo delicious!

Overall, my last couple of experiences at MEAT were great! I really enjoyed it there. They have really friendly staff, and a great atmosphere. I really like their family-style serving. This area of the city is always buzzing with people, especially on the weekends! It’s great to see all of the people outside enjoying the city. I definitely recommend giving this place a try!