Graceland Bar-B-Q

Petit weekend entre potes à Amsterdam, notamment avec une sortie à la Marktkantine, nouveau club de la ville, ouvert en 2014 — excellentes affiches électroniques, d’ailleurs! Bref, le Graceland Bar-​B-​Q, il est juste à côté de ce fameux club. En plus de sa localisation idéale pour les fêtards d’un soir, c’est aussi un bon ‘spot’ pour les amateurs de bonne petite bidoche — celle qui cuit pendant des heures dans un four spécialement prévu à cet effet, celle qui s’effiloche sans peine et qui laisse un goût savoureux en bouche. Avec son ambiance 50’s, sa déco avec et la musique de circonstance (Elvis, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry etc) on nage en plein dans le rétro. Dans l’assiette, c’est le trip américain à 200%. L’endroit est très bruyant mais il y a beaucoup de vie et une excellente ambiance. Quant au tarif, c’est tout à fait honnête: nous étions 3 et nous avons profité d’une assortiment de viances /​sides + deux morceaux de tarte au dessert, le tout pour 60 EUR. Ajoutez les boissons à des prix tout à fait normaux pour ce genre d’endroit et il y a moyen de s’en sortir pour une trentaine d’euros par tête de pipe, avec la peau du ventre bien tendue!

Well… I don’t give two stars easily yet after my stomach pain that night it feels quite easy.
All night me and friends suffered from this pain we got after dinner.
If you are not a pork fan, sorry but i can’t recommend this place. I can’t tell how the pork ribs taste but watching people seemed like it’s better than the other options. Maybe it was a fix menu thing as we were a big group of people but no doubt there will not be a second time for me;)
Sooorrryyyyy:(

Amsterdam time can be your friend or work against you. We had heard a lot of things about Graceland. And wanted to jump in the adventure ourself.
The mixed reviews strike me as odd on this site. Our experience was really fun. A rare treat in Amsterdam for fun American vibes and flavors.
We had the crab cakes and swamp master. Which pretty much kept us with leftovers for a day.
The drinks were cold. The booze was wet. And the service was a lot of fun.
I would go back. You should go there. I can’t think of another spot like this in the xxx.

Overpriced for the quality you get. Ribs taste like they ve been cooked in boiling water for 10min then dipped into bbq sauce and served.
There are much better options in Amsterdam if you are looking for proper bbq food.

This place has potential. The atmosphere is great. The people are nice. The food could have been better. We were here on a Sunday when they have live music and what we caught at the end sounded great. The food review as follows:
«Super» smoked Brisket-​totally missed the mark. For a second I thought maybe they brought us the flank steak on accident. It was over cooked and if I’m not mistaken I think they might cut the brisket before cooking. There was no sign of a dry rub or the characteristic charred fat you get when you smoke a brisket properly.
Ribs– definitely the best thing we had. Fall off the bone tender with a good semi-​sweet bbq sauce.
Mac n cheese– just no. The dish came out baked and looked very promising but under the crisp top was a tasteless mash of pasta with no sign of cheese.
Baked beans– good flavor no complaints.
Cornbread-​fantastic
Unfortunately were didn’t get to sample the coleslaw or the pickles as they were out. Overall not an entirely disappointing experience for southern style bbq in Amsterdam but being from Texas I guess I have high expectations for bbq.

Want some good BBQ meat in Amsterdam? Then you should definitely check out Graceland. This might not be the real Southern experience (I don’t know, never been to the South of the US) but who cares when you get ribs that you don’t have pull hard out of the bone with your teeth, and a pulled pork that you could be eating for days. If you’re able to survive the main (there I normally skip starters) please don’t shy away from the chocolate mud pie. It’s delicious chocolate with the texture of creamy mud inside your mouth. You might want to call a taxi after, biking will be hard.
Overall, Graceland is a great place to eat if you like a generally hip crowd. They some times have live music so check beforehand because it might get noisy or crowded.

As a card carrying American I do love my BBQ and have long been searching for my Amsterdam fix.
The positives:
— Arnold Palmer (half iced tea, half lemonade, served in a mason jar)
— the pickles; I don’t even like pickles but these were good
— the coleslaw was okayish
— the pork and beef brisket were well cooked, and the pork was actually pulled!
And the negatives:
— the sauces: the pulled pork came in a bland BBQ sauce, the brisket had large dollops of horseradish, there were no sauces on the table
— the green salad with smoked avocado dressing was bland. It really needed some stronger flavors
Nice try but not quite there :/

Wow! Super cool to have such a place in Amsterdam! But they have serious problems. The service is super super slow, definitly not American style. The menu is great but the food came out not hot enough (too cold). They have to inprove the food and service and this concept will be a winner! But the idea… is brilliant.

Bbq graceland is a hip bar to go have a drink and enjoy life music but definitely don’t go if you are expecting high quality meat and a real bbq place. We had chicken wings, sweet potatoes with parmigiano and a menu for 2 ppl with ribs and pulled pork. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t that bad, but definitely not that good as everyone’s saying. In my opinion even Albert Heijn meat is better… I know… that’s saying a lot
However the atmosphere is nice: decoration, music, friendly staff…
Btw do not go without a booking… even on Tuesdays you might eat at the counter with no reservation.

I initially wrote a mush longer review as I was frustrated with the service, because it was appalling, but my main issue is this series of events:
We order two servings of brisket and receive a bowl the same size as the singular serving of pulled pork. I ask the person delivering it «is that two servings?» and they say «yes!» and walk off. I ask another server and they say «no». Your going to charge me nearly 17 Euro for a serving and just short me one? Shady.
My second issue is that what was called «brisket» was like nothing I have ever seen at any BBQ place in the world. My family is from Texas were brisket is king. Brisket comes sliced, it’s not a meat that shreds well, or can really be served in any other way, what we received was a bowl of brisket with the consistency of ground beef. When I got home, I looked on Unilocal,I see photos taken from Graceland of thick slices of juicy brisket, so I’m even more confused now by what they gave us.
My third issue is that 15 minutes later another person stops by to let us know the brisket was out (was it out before you served whatever you served us previously?) and drops off some flank steak, which ended up bering great, but not the point. You can’t just randomly substitute and still charge me for what I originally ordered. Granted, what beef eater doesn’t like flank steak, but at this point in the night I would have rather just cut our losses and not spend any more money.
I so desperately wanted to love this place. Their cow boy beans were awesome, their corn bread was good, but I can’t just return for that. There multiple better places in town for ribs, there is at least one other place in town with better brisket (though I’m still skeptical I ate brisket at Graceland), and their pulled pork is at least on par with the other «bbq» restaurant in town.

This place has set a high standard in the newly emerging xxx BBQ scene.
In fact I do not think it has an equal in the city, or anywhere else I have discovered in my travels in the EU. The attention to flavor, detail, quality are unrivaled, as it is true american BBQ in amaterdam. No small feat, as most people who attempting this fine art are lost in a sea of information– while lacking skill.
We tried a bit of everything. And it all had a excellent vibe, quality, ambiance.
Highly recommended for anyone who is not a vegan, soy milk drinking, hippie.

My husband and myself are big fans of smoked barbecued meat. We have been to many bbq places when we were visiting US. Finally there is a place in Holland. We decided to give it a try last Saturday. I made a reservation via couverts and it worked really well. Got 2 confirmations, via phone and email and 2 reminders. When we arrived the place looked half empty, however it started getting crowded pretty quickly. What can I say about the décor. it reminded me of those US next to the road bbq places. like they are in a big barn, warehouse with some cool decorations.
We ordered a combo that had pulled pork, ribs and some side dishes. We asked if it was possible to exchange our collard greens to sweet potato fries and waitress told us that we could exchange it only for beans or suc​co​tash​.ok​.it sounded weird. she said that they want to keep the combos the way they are. I understand it, but how come changing it for beans works, but not for potatoes. I was pleasantly surprised that we did get the potatoes…
The food appeared pretty quickly on our table:
Pulled pork was delicious, little bit cold, but very nice. juicy
Ribs.were a bit spicy, juicy, just perfect
Coleslaw — not the best, but quite good. I loved the pickles thought.
Sweet potatoes with Parmesan — very nice. a bit soft. but still a nice taste
Succotash.ah.I was never so fond of beans and corn. it was also one of the dishes we didnt finish.
To top it up we got a key lime pie to share.delicious.could be a bit more limey. but it was very good.
We had a lot of food and was happy to walk to our tram for a bit. I was pretty stuffed.
As for the drinks… just take your time at their drinks section… we got some jack daniels spiced ice tea. with a bit of kick… quite strong at first. but delicious.
They also do tap water.
Everything is served in nice Mason jars. like I remembered in US.
Give it a try if you like smoked bbq

Howdy, folks! I betcha never heard of this one here place I’m boutta let you know! Somewhere, in the outskirts of Amsterdam, there is a lil’ wooden house. Standing right next to a Febo snackbar. It may look all quite and peaceful from the outside, but wait until you open that frontdoor of this lil’ tavern. Het is gewoon in 1 woord te gjek gjaaf man!
Vlak voor de rollerdisco hier snel wat wezen eten met my boo. Heel cool bandje speelde toen we binnenkwamen en het gaf ons echt dat Amerikaanse gevoel. Lekker zitten aan een ouwe houten tafel en sum good old fashioned American foodje onder je snoetje.
De inrichting doet je echt denken aan dat eetcafe langs de weg terwijl je ergens diep in de Amerikaanse wildernis toert. Of een beetje zoals over de Mexicaanse grens gaan en midden in de woestijn zo’n houten hut in gaan, zo’n gevoel gaf me dit weetje.
Instant Classics:
— Mac’n Cheese
— Sweet Potato Fries
— Pulled Pork
Yeezus. Die Sweet Potato Fries zijn echt het geweldigst. De volgende keer als ik hier naar toe ga neem ik die glimmende spare ribs. Daar zat ik de hele tijd naar te lonken.
Kijk hier naast het eten ook naar het publiek. Heel divers. Ook een paar oude punkers en hippies wat ik echt heel erg cool vond. Yep, ik vind het geweldig. Howdee Hooooo.

I thought some good BBQ would be nice since we’ve been out of the U.S. for over 4 months. You know, a taste of home! We went early, so it wasn’t too busy (but we did make a reservation!). We were seated right away and asked if we wanted drinks.
We did ask for the menu, and then it was explained how the menu worked. I know that sounds strange, but it clarified what we could look at. The lunch menu is on one panel, the brunch is on another, and the dinner is in the middle. And in the dinner menu, the left side is for individuals, the right side is to share. In case you were wondering, the menu is in English! The drink menu is a different menu that we had to ask for separately.
The food was very good! We had brisket, flank steak (they were out of beef ribs), baked beans, corn bread, and collard greens. Brisket and flank steak were amazing, but the brisket had a little spice to it. The beans were on the money. Definitely good southern baked beans! My husband thought the greens were good, and the corn bread could have been more moist and flavorful. But overall it was a very good meal and we will go back. Also, it is plenty of food!
Everyone who served us was friendly and helpful. However, we did have to keep asking for things. We asked for the food menu, the drink menu, and had to check on our salad when we were just about done with our meal. So, don’t get frustrated if it happens, just ask for it nicely!

I had the good fortune of being with a large group. We ordered two of each combo giving us all an opportunity to sample more food! We had the beef brisket, the pulled pork, the short ribs and the pork ribs along with the sides of corn bread, baked beans, wedge salad, lima beans and corn complimentary water and a complimentary cocktail.
The beef short ribs won out as the favorite with the pork ribs coming in second. Not to say that the pulled pork or brisket weren’t good just not as good as the other two. We also got a nice sampling of the dessert of chocolate mousse pie, pecan pie, key lime pie and pumpkin pie. All were good with the chocolate mousse as my favorite while others favored the key lime pie.
The service was good. Among several servers they were attentive, friendly and fast to deliver or take our order.
The only thing I didn’t enjoy is how loud the place is. Maybe not so loud but difficult to hear what someone directly across the table was saying. They had live music just starting to perform playing country western as we were finishing up. All is all though a good experience. They’re also dog friendly.