Restaurant Review: Walt’s Barbeque

Located at 6040 Colerain Avenue, Walt’s Barbeque has apparently grown from an old Taco Bell to a huge red barn dedicated to serving "no swine before it’s time".
I have wanted to try Walt’s for some times as it regularly gets votes for "Best Barbeque in Cincinnati". Some friends of mine swear by the place so they invited me to go along on their last visit.

Now barbeque can mean a lot of things. There are wet applications and dry applications. There are different barbeque sauces which can be tomato-based, mustard-based, vinegar-based or even Mayonnaise-based. And then even in these there are other additional or regional differences like variations in the sweetener or spices used. Then what one barbeques can even vary, sometimes regionally, including various cuts of beef and pork, along with sausages and chicken.

Now Walt’s barbeque sauce is a tomato-based sauce and he makes both a sweet and a spicy variety. He barbeques pretty much all the standard fare including beef brisket, pork ribs, a pulled pork butt, chicken, and a sausage variety. He also has a number of sides and you get a cornbread muffin with each platter. One reason for going was that my friends said the sides were really good which has always been my complaint about City Barbeque. (I love their barbeque but not so much their sides.)

So what did I think? Well, I had the brisket and while it was good, I wasn’t wowed. It really is a matter of personal taste and I actually thought both sauces I tried were a little too sweet for me. The last couple of bites I just skipped the sauce. I think everyone will have to make up their own mind. For the record, the sides I had – Mac & Cheese and Sweet Potato Casserole – were very good. No comments on the carb overload. And sorry Veggie Option, you could have probably skipped this whole review.