Dinosaur BBQ
Dinosaur “Bar-B-Que” is a New York state BBQ set fo restaurants that first opened in 1983 as a concession stand near Albany, NY for bikers. Since, they’ve expanded to a few more locations, including upstate NY as well as NYC. We’ve been to the Brooklyn location a few years ago, and we remembered it being pretty good. To relive our memories, we decided to visit again on a Sunday afternoon. We were able to walk-in at 4 PM without wait, though there were some logistical issues that did surface when we dined.
Ambiance & Service
The interior reminds me a bit of a rowdy barn with televisions near the bar for sports and a takeout line for to-go orders. The ambiance is pretty loud and very communal like.
The service was decent though you can tell they were swamped even during afternoons. There were some miscommunication issues such as they mentioned to us that they were out of ribs about 20 minutes after we placed our order. It turned out they were out of ribs only after our order. The second time we went, they were definitely out of quarter chickens. Regardless of these mishaps, they made up for it by giving us extra corn bread.
Food
In the trio of meat, you will find pork belly, chicken, and brisket. The brisket to me was just ok. I think Hometown was much better. The pork belly was also ok. Surprisingly, I liked the chicken the best. It was tender and full of flavor and not overcooked. The collard greens were not memorable and neither was the cornbread. The one thing I noticed that I liked a lot was actually the slaw for some reason. It had a nice vinegary and sweet kick to it.
The ribs are probably what I would order next if I came here. These were actually tender with a nice burnt taste to the end. The potato salad was also good as well as the beans.
This is definitely no Hometown BBQ or Fette Sau, but it’s decent. I like how they have tables where someone would serve you instead of having to find our own tables. Because it’s located in Gowanus, it’s also a bit roommier as well.
May 19, 2025 - Second visit
The Dino Poutine ($12.50) came with fries, gravy, pulled pork, pimento cheese, pickled onion, and jalapenos. The fries were perfectly crispy, despite having the gravy on top. All the seasonings and flavors were pretty good and reminded us of a well balanced and prepared poutine flavors. I especially liked the jalapenos on top, as they gave it a slight kick to it, though nothing permanent. This was actually pretty filling, as we could not finish the ribs and took some of the next course home.
The Bar-B-Que Pork Ribs Full Rack for 2 ($43.50) came with a full rack of 12 ribs and 4 homemade sides. The ribs were Duroc St. Louis ribs, dry rubbed and slow smoked, and finished with a lightly glaze of their original BBQ sauce. The ribs all had a nice crispy char on the edges. My partner calls it cancer meat, but I love the taste of that burnt wood flavor. The rib tips were pretty good, and the rib meat overall was tender on the inside and crispy on the outside. If you’re one for this St. Louis style ribs, then this was pretty good.
The 4 homemade sides from left to right:
- Harlem Potato Salad - despite this having some mustard, this was definitely one of our favorites.
- Crispy Coleslaw - this has notable vinegar flavors, and I wished they cut this into smaller slices. Nonetheless, it was decent.
- Cajun Corn - this tasted like canned corn with cajun seasoning. I love corn, so I’m a bit biased to these flavors.
- BBQ Beans with Pork - this was a bit sweet, such that my partner didn’t like it. They usually love beans, but they don’t like it excessively sweet. I thought this was OK.
In the middle was some corn bread. The corn bread unfortunately was lackluster in that it was stale as in crispy and dry with not much flavors. They gave us some more corn bread out of the oven, and that was one was moist and tasty.
Overall Impression
The food overall was pretty decent for a small New York chain. The restaurant may have some inventory issues, so just be prepared if you’re hoping to order anything popular. If you come here, would recommend getting the ribs over anything else because those seem to better tasting than the others. For the brisket, I think you will find better at Hometown if you can make the trek.
Yelp Jabs
I received an order from this restaurant on accident after a mixup by an UberEats driver, so this is probably the most honest review you can get.
Although this Elitist rated the food based on delivery, I really think for anything tasty, it’s not the right nor best avenue to go by. This food is going to be best eaten fresh out of the kitchen.
They were completely out of beef and pork when we went (7pm).
This was what we experienced on our second visit, where they were allegedly out of chicken at 4:00 PM and out of ribs at 4:30 PM. For a BBQ place, this would be an extreme disappointment for anyone else trying to order these items at a reasonable time.
Revisions
- May 11, 2025 - Second visit.
- Jan 19, 2019 - Initial revision.