Bedlam BBQ - Oklahoma City, OK

Bedlam BBQ
610 NE 50th St.
Oklahoma City, OK 73105

http://www.bedlambarbq.com/

The name Bedlam comes from the intense rivalry of Oklahoma University (OU) and Oklahoma State University (OSU). This restaurant has been around since 2003 and is in a location central to the forgotten homes of many founding pioneers of this community. Bedlam BBQ is well known within the OKC community and is deserving of a taste test to see if it is worthy of it's heritage.

The parking lot was packed at lunch and that's always a good sign.  When you walk up to the front door, you are greeted with this custom mosaic at the entrance.

One only hopes that local flavor in the decor translates into the care and feeding of it's customers.

Once inside, you order at the register, get a number, fill up on iced tea and have a seat.  The inside is rustic and they have a fabulous outdoor seating area.

We waited patiently while our food was prepared. Every time the waitress walked by I looked for that gleam in her eye as she located our number. I was disappointed several times as she delivered lunch to others. But the wait was finally rewarded when she headed straight toward us with a couple of heapin' plates of barbecue just for us.

  

This is how my 3 meat combo arrived.  All the meat piled under the Texas toast with collard greens and beans adorned with a pickle, onions and a pepper.

Removing the bread exposed the treasure awaiting my consumption.

They have several meat options to choose from.  I selected ribs, sliced brisket and hot links.  They do have turkey and sausage (different than the hot links).  So now I dig in...

I started with the hot links since most places don't have hot links, I was very curious as to how they would stand up to my comparison to sausage.  The consistency of the meat and flavor were good and fairly typical for a barbecue sausage.  However the spice level was solid.  I would say that it was a little too hot for my taste.  I usually judge hotness by one criteria...does it get in the way of enjoying the meal.  And this did for me.  Not terribly but again, it was hot enough to get in the way.  Not my preference.  The brisket was solid.  Good smoke ring. Good flavor.  Not quite as moist as some brisket but I won't knock it down for that.  The ribs were very very good.  Great smoke ring as you can see.  Tender...solid flavor and very enjoyable.

The sauce they had was good as well. Traditional tomato base.  I actually had a hard time determining the level of spice in the sauce as I used it to cut the spice of the hot link.  I have to admit, because the hot link flavor was so good, I kept popping the links and adding more spice so I kept adding sauce to compensate and there I was in this dysfunctional epicureal loop.  Not a bad way to spend lunch.

The sides were not disappointing.  The greens were good.  Straight up flavor and not to overcooked.  They still had some body to them.  The beans.  Definitely smokey and full flavored.  

My order of preference would be...

Ribs

Hot Link

Brisket

Even with the extra hotness, I found the hot links hard to put down.  Again the brisket was good and I feel that it's a bit unfair to place it at the bottom but don't skip the brisket because of that.

A solid lunch and exactly what the doctor ordered.