Friday afternoon I found myself driving out toward the Mt. Healthy area for service on one of our cars. My wife dropped off the car, and since the service was going to take a number of hours, I picked her up in our other car. Taking advantage of the situation, I suggested we stop at the nearby Pit To Plate BBQ for lunch. I had tried one of their pulled pork sandwiches at this summer’s Taste of Cincinnati and really enjoyed it.

Outside Pit To Plate BBQ

It’s pretty obvious from the outside that this building used to be a Hardee’s, but the decor on the inside plus the smokey smells that greeted us once we opened the car doors let you know that you are in for a much better dining experience than Hardee’s could have ever dreamed of providing. Upon entering the main side door, the first thing I noticed was the bar at the back of the room, and then I was quickly drawn to the amount of southern trinkets mounted to every possible surface of the interior. It was a little overwhelming to me, but it does help disguise the fact that we were sitting in the home of a former fast food chain.

Inside Pit To Plate BBQ

It was pretty quiet for a Friday afternoon, and we only ever saw one employee who was taking care of both those at the bar and the few tables in the restaurant booths, such as ourselves. She was over quickly to take our drink order and dropped off some water to us right away, including a plastic cup for our one year old son. After another couple of stops by our table, we were finally ready to order. I went with the pulled chicken sandwich with coleslaw. My wife decided on the pulled pork sandwich with beans and also insisted that we try the jalapeño corn bread. Both plates were also served with a bag of Grippo’s chips and pickles.

Pulled Chicken Sandwich

The food was served to us very quickly. The pulled chicken was piled high and had some really large pieces of meat included. The taste was great and I ate it open face style so that I could sample all the six plus bottles of BBQ sauce that were on the table. Just as I remembered from the Taste of Cincinnati, their mustard based Gold Rush sauce was really good. They also had another sauce that was a mix of the Gold Rush along with their Mild and another. It also was really good. They had a spicy garlic, which was too much like wind sauce, and a vinegar based that I also didn’t care for. My coleslaw was just average. It was a little too runny for my tastes and a little sweeter than I normally like.

Pulled Pork Sandwich

My wife’s pulled pork sandwich was again filled with a lot of very delicious meat. I had already sampled their pulled pork before so we did not split our sandwiches like we normally do. I did however take a bit of each of her sides and again I felt that they were just okay. The beans weren’t nearly as full of flavor as the ones I recently had at Eli’s BBQ, and the cornbread again was nothing special. It did pack quite a bit of jalapeño punch, but the bread itself was a little bland. I really enjoy the meats at Pit To Plate BBQ but I feel that the sides could use some work. With that said, I still like it better than City BBQ, which I’m still a fan of, so Pit To Plate is definitely not to be missed for BBQ in Cincinnati.