Harborque - Baltimore, Maryland

Harborque is a small BBQ spot in South Baltimore.

The joint tries hard to look like a real, old-school BBQ joint. But it doesn't feel that way.  It feels like more of a "fast-food" BBQ joint than anything.  Harborque has a nice deck/patio to eat on during the warm months and about six tables inside. 

They have four sauces. Pig pickin', a Carolina sauce. A sweet BBQ sauce. A red buffalo sauce "spicy BBQ" and a "tangy gold" mustard based sauce.   I am not a big mustard guy, so I looked at the other sauces and thought about which ones would go well with the food I was going to order.

My meal was pretty good - certainly not the best BBQ I've ever had, but worth a shot if you are in Baltimore craving BBQ.  The pulled pork was very good.  Not as smokey as I typically like, but tasty.  The vinegar sauce I used on the pork has a nice bite to it from the red pepper flakes.  I also ordered the smoked turkey and was surprised that it was basically sliced deli-turkey.  Certainly not what I was looking for.

Now for my sides.  The Mac & Cheese was "buttery."  It was tasty, but had me wondering how much butter they used to make the dish.  I guess that explains why it tasted rather good.  I also had a piece of cornbread, which is usually served warm.  Nope.  This one was cold.  I took one bite and did not eat anymore of it.  Not my style. 

I had asked the worker at the counter if this place ever sells brisket.  He mentioned they only serve brisket on Thursday's and added that "We smoke it for 16 hours overnight."   Yes, I've smoked many briskets before and I know how long they take to cook.  But some BBQ places like to tell you how long things cook for as if the longer they cook, the better they taste.  I always find that funny.

Thanks for the decent eats, Harborque. But I don't know if I'll be back!