Canyon City BBQ

Oddly situated in the middle of a residential neighborhood on a one way street, Canyon City BBQ has piled up numerous awards for their “Q”. Most of their awards have come in the pulled pork division, but have also won awards for brisket and chicken. An old house converted into a restaurant, this quaint space churns out some pretty good food.

The Rib Tips are 2 pounds of St. Louis rib “scraps” covered in barbecue sauce and served with French fries. The ribs are dry rubbed before being smoked, and the tips are very meaty and tender, although some of the pieces were dried out and tough. The French fries are nothing to write home about. They are standard fries that you get at most mom and pop burger stands.

The pulled pork is smoked 12-14 hours and leaves a nice smoke ring to the meat. The amount of smoke time allows for the smoke to penetrate the meat and give added flavor. The pork is tender, although a slight bit dry and chewy in some spots. The pork is sauced with a minor amount of molasses based BBQ sauce, which is on the sweet side.

Similar to the pulled pork, the brisket is smoked for 12-14 hours. A nice smoke ring can be seen on the edges of the meat. The brisket is very tender and it almost falls apart when you pick up a piece. There is a very thin layer of fat surrounding the brisket, giving it even more flavor. A fair amount of sauce comes with each serving, but there are two types of sauce on the table should you need more.

The sides here are very uninspiring. We had the cornbread, which is a little dry; the Texas toast, very nice grilled piece of bread; the mashed potatoes and gravy, the potatoes were okay, but the gravy was heavy, salty and didn’t have much taste; the chicken and rice soup was also very salty.

For my taste, the BBQ sauce here is cloyingly sweet. A very small amount is okay, or mixing it with hot sauce to spice it up a little will also do the trick. This is Texas style BBQ so a sweeter sauce should be expected.

Canyon City BBQ
347 N. San Gabriel Blvd.
Azusa, CA 91702
(626) 815-4227