Slabtown Ribs & BBQ

A great place to go. Always quality service and food. The meat speaks for itself not the sauce. Wish they opened on weekends oh well I will be back!

I’m a little confused about «checking in» versus reviewing, so my «check-​in» accidentally got 4 stars when it should have been 5 — this food was awesome, with fall off the bone ribs, a delicious and gluten free barbecue sauce, and twice stuffed potatoes with cream cheese, cheddar, Swiss, Monterey Jack, and sour cream and chives along with delicious pulled pork. And the waitress was so cute and friendly to us, made us feel like old friends. Will be back!!!

First meal in Portland and I loved it! Ordered the pulled pork sandwich with the KC BBQ sauce. The meet was delicious and they didn’t overdo the sauce. Nice and simple the way it should be be. The bun was only ok. Take-​out only took about 3 minutes!

Depending on where you’re at in the country you get different feedback on the type of BBQ one prefers. Myself, I like the meat to taste amazing and the sauces used to not drown out the meat. SlabTown does a pretty good job of meeting this requirement.
If you’ve ever driven up Vaughn Street in the morning you will see and smell the smoker outside SlabTown cooking away. It took me a while to actually get in here but I had heard mixed reviews.
First off the menu is your typical BBQ spot: Pulled pork, brisket and chicken with sides of Mac, beans, slaw or potato salad.
The meat is good and the sauces they give you on the side so you can smother or not smother to your liking. The sandwiches, which I usually opt for come with a fair amount of sauce but not to heavy. The sides, well, I don’t know that the slaw or potato salad is home made. I wasn’t a big fan.
Overall the service is good, the food comes quick and I’d give it one thumb up. As far as BBQ spots go, I think there are better options in Portland. Then again, this place has billions of accolades for winning BBQ contests. So maybe I have no idea what I’m talking about!

Good food, REALLY tender meat but lacking in the flavor.

Slabtown Ribs & BBQ is a great place for lovers of smokey and tender BBQ meats of all kinds. I definitely appreciate a variety of BBQ things, so their BBQ Combo plate was ideal for me. It consists of two St. Louis style pork ribs, beef brisket, sausage, and a pulled pork slider. The ribs, brisket, and pulled pork were perfect! They had good smokey flavor and were super tender. I could see the pink «smoke ring» on the edges of the meats which told me that they had spent some good time in a smoker, which accounts for the tenderness. The only item that wasn’t that great was the chunks of sausage. They were too dried out. (OK, that’s forgivable though, because the other three things more than made up for the sausage’s shortcomings.) There’s a choice of three BBQ sauces: Kansas City Classic, Texas Hot, or Carolina Style Mustard. I chose the KC Classic, but I always use BBQ sauce sparingly because I like being able to taste the smokiness of the meat itself. I chose cole slaw and baked beans for my two side dishes, and even they were fresh and tasty.. .not just bland «accessories» like at some other places. The price for all the generous portions of goodness on the BBQ Combo plate is $ 17.00, which is a very good value. I’ll be coming back soon.

Best ribs in Portland. Pork ribs. Their Brisket is pretty good — nothing to brag or complain about. The sides range from Meh to OK, I’m especially not fond of the slaw. The biscuits are great and the pecan pie was very good. But we keep coming back for the pork ribs. They are so good. So if you want pork ribs, come here. The other stuff on the menu isn’t too bad either. There is nothing noteworthy about the ambiance or the staff, they have always been good enough. We come for the ribs.

I love coming to Slabtown. The brisket is delicious, pork ribs as well, and tonight tasted the beef ribs that have always been sold out on previous visits.
The restaurant keeps odd hours; closed on weekends and from 2 – 4 between lunch and dinner service. I believe much of their business is take-​out. Order early, as they do sell out.
In short, I rarely eat barbeque, but when I do it is almost always from Slabtown. In my experience, best in Portland, hands down.

Meh. Dry meat and cold sides. I was not impressed. Our waitress was super nice. I think they charged me for extra sauce? Who does that? I won’t be going back.

We ordered several pounds of pulled pork & coleslaw for an office party and it was AWESOME! Smokey and very flavorful. Everyone loved it and we will order from them again.

This place was freaking delicious!!! I had the combo platter and everything tasted amazing. Huge props on the brisket, just falls apart and tastes so good. Just wish you guys had bbq sauce at the table, but all we had to do was ask and we got a side of the sauce, easy peezy. The waitress was very nice and helpful, a+!!! Thanks. Looking forward to eating here again soon.

Bought a groupon, $ 10 for $ 20, have never been before. Didn’t even know it was here. Little hole in the wall. We arrived on a Tuesday night at 6, two people were at a table, the rest were empty. Waitress was very nice, said sit anywhere, got drinks quick, for was out in 15 min. I got the bbq platter, my gf got the bbq chicken. All the meat was delicious. Pulled pork awesome. Ribs awesome. Meat comes right off. Sides of Mac and cheese and verbs were good too. Good sauce as well. Would come back for sure.

Go to the bar and get the best of both worlds: order from either the BBQ or Mexican menus, or combine elements (pulled pork green burrito is a great choice). Typically great bartenders/​staff and very solid margaritas round out its awesomeness.

⁰¹⁄₀₉ Brisket sandwich was my order today. Dang good. In fact I almost went twice!!! (Note: of course you must understand each cut of meat can vary) Go by 1pm meat gets pulled from smoker.

Pretty good stuff– nice smoke ring on my brisket, but can’t give it a full 5 star because I would have preferred more options presented…
I really wanted a brisket and rib combo, ended up getting a brisket and sausage plate. Another option I wish I could have had was to have more gristle with the brisket, it was really lean– I’m sure they had it back there but maybe they think people would only want the leaner cuts. Well, some of us like that fat!
Mac and cheese and collards are just OK, nothing amazing. Should have tried the biscuit…

I make bbq and I’m from a bbq region (Missouri) so I know my stuff. I had ribs and brisket here and they were both top notch. I’ve read some other reviews on here and while taste can be subjective there is some pretty uninformed opinions being thrown around. The sauce may be served with some economy but it is plenty of even big sauce eaters like me.
I don’t know any decent bbq joint that slathers it on like your mama’s boiled crockpot ribs that she egregiously calls bbq but serving these folks is like throwing pearls before swine. I got one of the bigger platters and the sauce on the plate and one extra cup was plenty. Most bbq people think I use too much sauce when I eat so there is that.
The prices here are killer too. Two big ribs and a ton of brisket with two sides cost me 14 bucks. My three year old and I ate our fill and then we brought the rest home for mom.
End of review for casual bbq eaters.
Now for us bbq obsessives,
Sauce-​wise I liked both the KC and Texas but didn’t really get into the Carolina style. One thing that is missing in Oregon is a place that does North Carolina style pork. I was hoping that there was the red vinegar sauce of the Lexington North Carolina style, which is what I do. This sauce was a good interpretation of the So. Carolina style but that’s not my thing.
My thing is heavy vinegar based sauces and the more vinegar the profile for me the better. People all have their interpretations of the different sauces and that’s for them. I don’t know much about Texas sauce probably because the things people call Texas sauce vary so much. From what I’ve seen produced by Texans it is pretty close to KC style but with a bit more cumin and chili powder.
Now Slabtown’s sauce struck me a bit different than how they named them. I think their Texas sauce seemed a lot like Gates in KC. It was a bit thinner (a good thing in my book) with a spice and vinegar bite. The KC sauce seemed more sweet and almost hit me more like a St. Louis sauce which doesn’t get talked about much. I really liked that Texas style sauce and I recommend that unless you have a very low tolerance for spice you get that on your meat and put the KC on the side.
The great thing though about them not over saucing is that if you prefer another sauce than the one you chose you’re not really stuck with it and that my friends is a good thing.

Slabtown catered our wedding this past weekend and they were prompt, professional, tidy and nearly invisible — all the qualities you want in a wedding caterer!
Chris was quick to respond via email in the many months leading up to the event. The price per person was reasonable. When the big truck pulled up to the venue towing the massive smoker, everyone cheered!
Our food was sensational, even better in fact than the tasting we had in their restaurant. Our guests (including many family from Texas) raved about the brisket, chicken, mac n cheese, beans, coleslaw and bread w/​honey butter.
We’d use them again and recommend them highly.

As far as lunch goes this is as good as it gets. Great place. Great food. Good prices. If you are looking for BBQ there are a hand full of places in town but as far as price goes this is a great value.

Warning: Slabtown serves a tiny amount of bbq sauce on their meats. They say this on the back of the menu, and they ain’t playing. I ordered a half rack of ribs, and it arrived with a small drizzle of sauce down the middle of the rack. NO sauce was on most of the ribs. I’m sorry, but bbq ribs actually need to have bbq sauce on them.
I know what you’re thinking. Not a big deal, just ask for more sauce. I did. Our waitress brought a tiny plastic cup of sauce that still wasn’t enough to cover the ribs. I’d estimate the cup was about an ounce. If you don’t know what an ounce looks like, imagine the drinking cups that come with Pepto Bismol and other medicines. That cup was small, amigo.
At the end of my meal, I had a few pieces of meat that I couldn’t finish, so I asked for a to-​go box and another tin of sauce. That’s when my mind was truly blown. They charge $ 0.50 for each extra cup of sauce. You read that right. A BBQ joint charges you to put BBQ sauce on your meats. $ 0.50 for a tiny cup of sauce just to cover the bare ribs that I had left. Pretty ridiculous.
Besides the fact that this is a BBQ place that doesn’t want customers to enjoy BBQ sauce, the food was okay. I moved to Portland from Georgia, so I’m used to really bomb Southern bbq. The food here is okay, but falls short. The small amount of sauce I actually tasted was good. The ribs were decent, but could be more tender. The mac & cheese needs a lot of work. The pasta was way too soft and bland.

So… here’s the thing… I really hate being subjected to people’s cigarette smoke, especially when it’s the restaurant employees who are blowing it in your face.
Things were going relatively well here until the above occurred. Came in on a Tuesday afternoon and were told we could sit wherever we’d like. We choose one of the few outdoor tables due to it being warm and sunny outside. We were brought water quickly and ordered. The food was served promptly, which is what I expected since their meats are cooked at another location and sit back there waiting for customers to order them.
The ribs were really pretty good. I wasn’t the biggest fan of their BBQ sauce flavor, but overall delicious. The mac and cheese wasn’t anything special… kinda bland. Ben ordered a combo plate and the other meats on it were a bit sub-​par. Brisket… meh. Pulled pork… meh. Sausage… had a weird taste.
But whatever. I was happily chowing down on my artery-​clogging, CYP enzyme-​inducing meat when a very unkempt man sauntered out of the restaurant and lit up a cigarette mere feet from our table. Annoying, but the wind was blowing the other way, so it could have been worse. Kept eating…
A few minutes later another person comes wondering out, sits on the curb, and lights on up. This time the smoke comes bellowing into our faces and I’m coughing up a storm. This results in a rude look from her and continuation of her habit. A few minutes go by and our waitress brings us the check, processes a Groupon, and before we’ve even finished writing in the tip joins the other employee in smoking and chatting. Smoke billowing all around us we promptly stood up and left knowing we would never return.
Here’s an idea… choose somewhere further away than a few feet from your paying customer’s table to develop lung cancer.