Gabby’s

It’s one of the more «Southern» of the Houston BBQ joints. Being from the Delta, I think Texas BBQ is about as overrated as the Texas Longhorns football team. Hence most reviewers are giving low scores based on Texas items like brisket and spicy sausage. My review is comes from a Southerner’s perspective.
This place has good ribs, chicken, and pulled pork, and they actually take some pride in their sides. They are always friendly and have lots of TV’s for watching sports.

This place has been there for years, and it turns out some pretty decent food, I usually stick to the Smoked Turkey Salad!

Never again. Thanks for the COLD Brisket.

I have been eating in this place for years and the food can be hit and miss. Yesterday I went in at 12:15PM and they were out of baked potatoes. But the true issues was my sliced beef was tasteless and almost impossible to chew. On to of this the employees have seemed to have stopped caring if the place works or not.

Update: Within the past month or two, in this case July/​August-​ish, I wound up having one of their cheeseburgers brought and eaten at home. My old review said how the meat patty was so salty, for whatever reason, that I couldn’t even finish it. Everything was «a-​ok» now, hence why I’m bumping the stars from two to three.
It really is hard to find amazing bar-​b-​q, even here in Texas, but this place is local, close, and worth eating at every now and then if you’re craving something a little different.

Okay! I am very big on service. If the service is good, I can deal with mediocre food. BUT. The service here was horrible!!! I walked in Nd the girl at the serving line looked at me as if I was interrupting her… «Forgive me for thinking you work there As you are holding the it serving spoon». The worse is when you get no ‚“thank you for coming… I said thank you to her and her response was… Hmhuh !!
WOW! This place needs new staff seriously!

Had the 2 meat dinner plate with chicken and pulled pork. Mashed potatoes and green beans.
Green beans are canned green beans. meh
Mashed potatoes are always good to me. MUAHAHAHA
The pulled pork was the best type of meat here. I would get that kind alone if you had to choose.

I’m always down for BBQ, and for all the times I drive in this direction I see signs for this Q joint. So one evening my gf and I came here for dinner. We both had the 2 meat plate dinner plates. I had mine with brisket and ribs with mac and cheese and red beans and rice. Both were just mediocre, the best side was the red beans and rice though. I wish more BBQ places offered that as a side. My gf had the chicken and pulled pork with mashed potatos and green beans. The best meat, was their pulled pork.
During the day, it’s order at the counter but after 4 pm it’s sitdown service. I know certain people are particular about sitdown vs counter style.
They have lots of TVs and most of the sporting events are shown. They have no cover for all UFC fights.

This place is very inconstant. Some times it’s good and other time not good at all. The wait staff may mean well but are usually young and clueless. They should take notes from the Gabby’s on N. Sheppard, which is all ways excellent.
The place is nice and open with a patio. The TVs make it a good place for a game. If management ever gets the food and the staff all together this could be a great place.

I love going home for thanksgiving! Every year our family has our turkey smoked here. 5 more months! I can not wait!

Arrived at 6:30pm on 11/​26/​2010 — Ordered chicken fried chicken, my daughter had a chicken sandwich and salad. The salad came out wilted and the tomato was dried out. The salad had mold growing in the bottom of the plate. The chicken fried chicken was not edible. The crust was gooey on the inside and the chicken tasted like it was bad. (It had a sour taste to it) The toast that came with the chicken fried chicken was cold. The mac&cheese was also cold. Needless to say I did not eat the chicken.
The manager did visit our table and saw that we did not eat the chicken fried chicken. He said it looked bad then walked off. I was charged for the whole meal including the bad food. The manager came by after we had paid and offered a free dessert to which we declined. He gave me his card and wrote his name on the back and said come back any time for a free dish.
After tonights visit, I will never return nor will I advocate this establishment to any of my friends.

ROACHES!!! I remember when Gabby’s was in Astroworld, and i had eaten at this Gabby’s every once and a while for years. The barbeque has always been average, but i didn’t care because i loved the mac n cheese. Anyway, i was driving by today (3÷26÷10) and decided i would get some chicken and mac. I walk in and stand in line with 3 dudes in front of me. While i wait for them to order, i grab my tray and fork from the stand, and looking at the menu i realize that i was going to have to decide on another side item to go with my meal. Rather than read the menu I decide to look down the line at the serving area where the person dishes out the sides to figure out what else i want. Low and behold, walking on the stainless steel in between the guest and the server but right next to the mashed potatoes and green beans was a ¾ inch long ROACH! I did a double take, shook my head and looked again. Yes it was definitely a roach, probably a recent born young one, but a roach cruising the food serving area bright and shiny underneath the heating lamps. I look up at the server as she is asking the guy what type of gravy he would like, wondering if she would see it. She glances down and I think she saw it, but didnt know what to do since all these guests were ordering, so she looked back up quickly and stared blankly at the people in line. That was it for me, i left my tray where it was and started heading out the door with a bad queasy feeling in my stomach. Right before i went out the door i think a customer finally saw it, as i heard a loud OHHHHHH and some talking.
I have been using Unilocal for a long time to look up restaurants, and this is my first review… simply because i want to let others know what i saw there, and i will not be going back. I believe the same company that runs this place also owns Skeeters, and I love that place… I just hope they keep it cleaner than this dump.
FYI this was at 12:45 on Friday 3÷26÷2010.

Gabby’s sits at the corner of Telephone Road and the I-​610 freeway. It’s a hard spot to give a country-​barbeque-​stand feeling. But they try gamely; the big wrap-​around band porch is festooned with red, white and blue bunting. The stone and timber construction makes the place substantial, authentic.
There’s table service; I had the three meat plate — brisket, ribs and sausage, plus two sides, bread. The best of the three was the brisket — nice smoke ring, smokey flavor, a good piece of meat, not tough. But — it wasn’t dry, but it could have been more moist; they could have basted the juices over it more. Still, a good brisket; made me smile. The sausage was juicy, meaty, nothing unusual, but tasty.
The pork ribs were a disappointment. Which is too bad because as much as I like brisket and sausage, I really came in hungering for tender ribs. The meat was juicy enough in the center of the rib, but several of the ends were so tough that it was hard to chew; not much of a pleasure to my mouth at all. Flavor was OK, but I was looking for something more savory. Sauce was typical tomato based thickened slightly sweet stuff.
They didn’t have many green choices among the sides. The waitress assured me the cole slaw was sugared, so I chose the green beans and the cucumber salad. When my meal came — no cucumbers. The server (not the waitress, some other gal) said «Were you supposed to have another side?» The waitress wandered over and said they were all out of cucumbers. So I ordered the garden salad, and after a while, it showed up — with cucumbers in it. Other than the cucumbers, it was about as soulless as an iceberg salad can be without being brown or limp.
The greenbeans came with some ham bits and were pretty good. The jalapeño bread was tasty — I sampled a little. The presentation was good — a little flourish of kale, pickles and onions. Big white standard restaurant-​ware china plates; my salad bowl was all chipped.
Nice décor inside — high ceilings, lots of wood and timber. Layout is spacious, not crowded, and the formica tables are big enough that I can spread my elbows at them.
When I came in the sound system was playing country western radio. The tuner wasn’t quite on the station; every minute the signal would fuzz out and the speakers would blast distortion. I requested that they fix it. They couldn’t seem to do that, but at least they turned it way down.
The menu showed a Tuesday special for the 3 meat plate of $ 8.99. Today was Saturday. The dinner menu showed the 3 meat plate for $ 8.99. (So what’s the special?) When my ticket came, the bill priced the dinner at $ 9.99. I objected; the waitress came back with a new ticket that showed $ 9.99 but $ 1-​off coupon.
I liked the space; the help was friendly and polite; the place was clean and well appointed. I don’t think I’d choose to drive in from Friendswood to go back, but I wouldn’t mind going again if I had a reason. It looks like a good place to go if you’ve got a crowd. But I left underwhelmed.
No taxidermy. No jackalopes. Too bad.

Hey, they had a special going on for a while. 2 meat plate for 7.99. I had not been to a Gabby;s since high school and had forgot the taste, so i decided to check ot out. The service was good and fast. had the brisket and sausage plate. The brisket was fairly tender, but i’ve had tenderer brisket else where. It had the smoke ring and was flavorful. The sausage was ok, but nothing to bragg about. Beans were standard pinto type can beans. Potato salad was ok, but lacked seasoning. The sauce was pretty good and made the meat taste better. Overall, it was ok and worth the price. I would go again and try the ribs next time.

I don’t want to rain on the parade of Gabby’s BBQ. I’ve wanted to try out different barbeque spots and from the current reviews of my fellow Unilocalers I took there advice, but unfortunately was a little disappointed…
I had a friend from LA come into town over the weekend and I wanted to take him to a barbeque place that would suit his appetite for some meat that just falls off the bone, I thought that Gabby’s would be a suitable place to eat some of those fine ribs. Come to find out when we got there, no pork spare RIBS. We would have to wait an hour and a half, this being that it was around 8:30pm on a Friday and people were still coming in for dinner. How could you run a barbeque joint and not have ribs, especially around dinner time? Around the time we arrived my hunger was getting the best of me, so I ordered the 3 Meat Sampler and my friend ordered what I believe were some other ribs, I’ll get into that later. Since we couldn’t order the ribs I doubled up on some brisket and ordered sausage, with a side of potato salad and macaroni and cheese. The friend ordered baby back ribs, chicken, and mashed potatoes. We didn’t wait very long to get our food, since it probably was already out and ready to be served. We paused for a minute and ate. When I first took a bite of my brisket I noticed they were somewhat luke warm to slightly cool for meat. It didn’t bother me too much since like I said my hunger got the best of me, I didn’t complain. We both ate our dinner, I thought about what we just ate and we wasn’t too happy, but it definitely filled our appetite for some barbeque, but didn’t satisfy the craving we had for «Good barbeque.» Besides not having spectacular barbeque the bread served with our meal was great. I’m not sure what it was, but it wasn’t your run of the mill bread from the bakery. I asked the waitress to bring me another piece of bread, and she brought us 3. Man for a barbeque place I really thought the emphasis would be on the barbeque and not so much the bread.

As I’m munching on my still-​ginourmous left over loaded baked potato (swimming in butter – mmmm, butter – my choice of chicken, cheese, chives, etc.) from last night, I’m gonna remind you all why you should head over to Gabby’s for din-​din … or lunch, whatevs.
The drive-​thru was closed, so I had to do my takeout order from inside. No biggie. After I made my HUGE order, I asked the cashier, «what time do you all close tonight?»
Cashier: «9.30»
Me: «What time is it now?»
Cashier: «9.30»
Me (embarrassed and ashamed): «Oh mah gah. You could have told me to get outta here!»
Cashier (with a smile): «It’s okay.»
Love this place already. I know how tough it is to close a kitchen, and I just waltzed right in and cost everyone extra work, and they LET me.
Ok, so here’s the skinny on all their great weekend specials … the ones I remember.
Mon: All you can eat ribs $ 14.99
Wed: Chicken fried steak (or chicken) night
Thu: Steak night
Fri-​Sat: Live country music. Yeee-​haaaaaw
Sun: All you can eat catfish
Best deal? Mon-​Thur after 2pm, $ 1 margaritas with any entrée order.
If mouth-​watering, meat-slidin’-off-the-bone ribs, steaks, mac n cheese, peach cobbler and endless country fixins ain’t your thing, you at least have to go for these $ 1 ritas.
tip: you don’t want to go in too late like I did, the mac n cheese was a bit dry … but we still ate it.

*Gabby’s: A barbecue place in Houston that has yet to be reviewed… and located right by me house?
*Me: Loves barbecue and on a mission to find the best in Houston.
Ohh. what a lovely pair we make. You know, I really wanted for this to be a great review so that I could be all proud that I found a new hot spot to go to, all on my own. Well folks, that ain’t the case, I’m sad to say. Gabby’s looks promising from the outside with the patio and signage everywhere. The parking lot is massive because it shares it with Spanky’s next door. With Gabby’s, you can pick up some food in the drive-​thru, or you can go inside and place a to-​go order at their specially designated little area, or you can order and eat there. They have live bands playing all the time, and the atmosphere seemed pretty relaxed.
Here’s one kinda nerdy way to guess ahead of time if I’ll like the food or not: if the police come together on their lunch break or at the end of their shift. Being a whole-​in-​the-​wall restuarant lover that I am, I know that places being a police hangout spot means the food and service are both good, and that the restaurant has probably been in town for a while. I know this isn’t always a golden, solid rule or anything like that, but it usually works for me at least. This place was full of cops. They were taking up 2 tables in the restaurant. This made me excited for the food: D
The wait time was next to nothing, and I ordered my usual: brisket and hot links with 2 sides. Tonight I got green beans and macaroni & cheese. Here — here folks — is where my hope starts to fade, and I hope you will feel my disappointment through my writing in the review. My first bite of the hot links was a happy one — my mouth was immediately happy and filled with super tasty flavor. Then… after I swallowed my bite, all I could feel was that strange sense of your veins immediately being clogged by grease. The hot links tasted great, but were wayyyy greasy. So sad. :(What’s even sadder is the brisket. *sigh* My brisket had a thick layer of slimy, cold fat on the outside of the pieces, and the meat itself wasn’t very tender at all. In fact, it was pretty tough. Imagine eating slices of a well-​done steak… with a slight smoke flavor. That is all. :(
At least the sides were decent. The macaroni and cheese was «okay» but the green beans were pretty good (Vegetarian warning: The green beans have pieces of meat in them). My to-​go order came also with a side of barbecue sauce, 2 slices of bread, pickles, and peppers.
All in all, I can say I’d probably eat here again, but I definitely wouldn’t order the brisket. I’m giving 3 stars instead of 2 because the environment inside the restaurant is really nice, and I think that if/​when I go back, I’d want to eat there just to enjoy the music.