Dreamland Bar-B-Que - Birmingham, AL

Dreamland Bar-B-Que - Birmingham, AL

1427 14th Ave S
Birmingham, AL 35205
http://www.dreamlandbbq.com

Entering Dreamland BBQ you find that you are in a dining area tacked onto a bar.  Rather than a bar added to a restaurant.  I'll get to the significance of that shortly.

I had a seat and was brought a menu.  It didn't really have a list of meals or combos that you could choose from.  Mostly appetizers, sandwiches (which is offers both in regular and large size and either with the cole slaw and pickle on the sandwich or without.  Then there are 1/2 rack and full rack offerings (including a rib sandwich) but nothing with a plate and two sides.

So when the waiter brought me my iced tea, I said that I was looking for having a chopped pork sandwich and wanted some ribs (like a combo plate) and he said that he could just add 2 ribs to my order. Great.  The sandwich came with a side so I ordered the baked beans given there were no greens on the menu. He also brought me white bread (light bread where I grew up) and sauce on the side. Almost like it was chips and salsa.

So I jumped straight into the sandwich (chopped pork with the slaw in the sandwich).  I found that the slaw really covered up the taste of the meat so it was hard to evaluate properly.  I do prefer pulled pork rather than chopped as you can't really see the quality of the meat when it's chopped like that.  The slaw didn't really have much liquid or binding agent to it (regardless of whether it's more vinegar based or mayo based) so it was just mostly cabbage and that didn't do much to add to the bbq flavor of the sandwich.  The ribs were smoked as a dry rub but then served with sauce already applied over the top.  The ribs themselves had an ok flavor and a good smoke ring but they were a little tough.  Now I'm eating them at 7p but that really shouldn't matter.  There was nothing really special about them.

The baked beans were nothing to write home about.  Just baked beans. I feel like I could have gotten these out of a can.

The sauce was tangy and dark.  Not sure how else to describe it.  It was hard to taste the meat with this sauce of darkness and it mostly masked the flavor (or lack of it is what I fear).

So I can't really layout an order for the meat as neither one really impressed me.

Also, this wasn't really about getting a bbq meal.  As I said earlier, the bar was more prominent and so was the menu.  This was much more a restaurant about a bar menu of a la carte items that you could order as you wish.  There were some interesting items on the menu of bbq quesadillas and other items. But that's not what I want.  I want a traditional bbq meal and that's not what they really do here.