Fette Sau

Since I moved to Fishtown in 2015, this has become my favorite place in the neighborhood. The entrance alleyway hides a deceptively large space with a ton of seating and an idyllic porch. The barbecue is really good, and I have a hard time not getting the mac and cheese or deviled eggs every visit. The bar has a great whisky list and good cocktails. The beer options leave a bit to be desired, but there’s generally a variety of styles. Unfortunately I’m not a fan of the Fat Pig house beer from Sly Fox. Their great happy hour keeps me coming back.

New smoked/​BBQ meat joint with bar. Southern style food with various pickles and whiskey & bourbon. Meats are hormone and antibiotic free. Tried the beef brisket and St. Louis ribs, burnt end beans and half sour pickles. Everything was delicious! Potato rolls accompany each meal. Industrial interior as this was a former warehouse. Great, friendly service. Side sauces need some tweaking.

What happened to this place?! I have been going there since it opened and always had excellent food. Today, I had a pulled pork sandwich and it was not only lousy, but it was served on 2 small butter rolls! The butter rolls are way too soft and buttery to sustain pulled pork. I hope today was a fluke.

Fette sau means fat pig in German, I am German so we gave it a try before heading to Frankford hall. The BBQ is delicious and same for the drinks specials at happy hour. On sunny day go here and stay in the beer garden.

The BBQ is a little overrated here. So many people told me how fantastic this place was which probably ruined it for me as I went in with pretty high expectations. I lived in Texas for 3 years so that probably also ruined it as well. For philly standards, the BBQ is pretty good. For Texas standards, it’s ok. The meat was a tad dry. The sides were ok but nothing spectacular. Also, it’s a tad pricey. In 7 years of living in philly, I only went here once. It was worth a try but for the price and value I never came back here again.

We were so excited to try this place based on the reviews. Unfortunately everything was worse than awful. The ribs which are sold by the pound were fat, grislely, and tasteless. For $ 20 plus we got 4 ribs which was mostly a big fat bone. The brisket was just ok. The broccoli was so disgusting we literally spit it out. The baked beans with burnt ends were so gross, my obese son only had three bites. The best thing there was a soda made by someone else! I should have asked for a refund based on the fact that the food was so bad

This has become my new favorite (and filling) happy hour.
From 5pm — 7pm Mon-​Fri, you can get:
+ $ 4 Burnt End (brisket) Sandwich (served with 2 rolls and cole slaw)
+ $ 3 Deviled Eggs (3 per order)
+ $ 4 Smoked Chicken Legs (2 per order)
+ Half Price off beer
+ $ 5 Manhattans and Old Fashioneds
The burnt end sammy is my jawn. Love that it comes with cole slaw as I dig the flavor combination of topping the sandwich with the slaw and some of their vinegar based BBQ sauce. The deviled eggs are classically prepared and delicious. Not on happy hour but my husband loves the ribs as well.
The décor is on-​point per usual Starr, and has a down home front porch (literally) feel.
Love this place. Just took my husband for his birthday and can’t wait to go back. Arby’s may say it, but this place really has the meats!

Being from the south I am always challenged finding damn good bbq, especially brisket. That was until I found Fette Sau. Literally the best brisket I have ever had. Not just once but once a week for years now. In fact I limit myself to no more than once every 7 days. Don’t get me wrong, the rest of their meats are also excellent, but did I mention the brisket? Also make sure to try the baked beans… solid bourbon and rye selection and great draft beers. Happy hour pricing is really good as well.
The staff and especially the bartenders are top shelf all the way. Can’t beat it. So try it!

— TIP: Superb happy hour if you like whiskey & beer. Half off manhattans, old fashioneds, and all beers (which are served in 8oz, 16oz, 32oz, or 64oz jars).
— CON: Bar can get overwhelmed; meaning it takes too long to get a drink sometimes.
— BOTTOM LINE: Great atmosphere with great BBQ meats and sides. Don’t miss the beans with burnt ends. Only thing keeping it from 5 stars is the sauces are just OK, and the bar can be a service bottleneck.

Great BBQ-​casual, youngish crowd and somewhat loud atmosphere! Wait staff and hostess were friendly and very helpful. After ordering a beer that I ended up not liking, the hostess comped me a beer of my choice. Sweet potato hash was delicious. I am a fan of collard greens when I can find them on the menu and they didn’t disappoint. Come with an appetite and plan to share!

As long as hipsters are going to wear flannel shirts and trucker caps, they might as well complete the illusion of being blue collar good ol’ boys by eating heaping helpings of BBQ washed down with beer served in mason jars. At least that seems to be the business plan Fette Sau operates on, and as far as I can tell it’s working out so far.
Rather than table service it operates by you ordering at the counter, meat by the pound and small or large servings of side dishes and complimentary dinner rolls which you carry to a table and then supplement by making a visit to the separate bar. All the sauces are already at the table, sweet and spicy and vinegar. The meat is juicy and tasty, I tried a little brisket and a little pork belly and both were great. The beans have plenty of meat themselves and the mac and cheese is solid, plus a decent beer list and half-​pint pours if you want to taste a few rather than guzzle any single brew. The ambiance is your typical dark rough-​hewn wood and dim lighting with illustrations of cuts of meat adorning the walls, pretty formulaic for a BBQ joint. In February it didn’t come into play but the outdoor seating patio looked like it would be a nice place to while away a warm evening with friends.
Nothing about Fette Sau really stands out from any other big BBQ places I’ve been to, but not every restaurant needs to be the best at what it does. The straight up fact is if you’re hankering for some savory meats and swillable suds, this place will take care of you. Just be prepared for a crowd that skews young hipster-​bro, which seems to be par for the course in Fishtown these days.

Urg. I don’t understand the appeal of this place. Philly is a tough place for BBQ in general but there are better places.
I have been here on two separate occasions and have sampled a variety of things.
First things first, it’s cafeteria style and you have to order by the pound. This wouldn’t be an issue but prices are pretty high.
Second, on both occasions my brisket has been dry and fatty. The pulled pork was bland. I had to load on the sauce. This shouldn’t be necessary for quality made pulled pork.
Third, would it kill them to have a pulled pork sandwich with two sides as a combo on the menu? If you go down south or to another extremely well known spot in the Northeast section of Philly, this is the norm. When I asked them about a sandwich, they told me they could give me two Martin potato dinner rolls. This would be fine if the rolls weren’t the size of a silver dollar.
In the end, I feel this place is extremely overrated. I like the ambiance and the service is good but I feel this business takes advantage of a young, transplant gentrifying neighborhood with kids that have lots of money to spend and a lack of knowledge of what BBQ is supposed to be. This being… Moderately priced, Blue Collar, no bullS&$t American cuisine.
Being a whiskey guy though, I have to give them at least one star for the selection they have.

This was our second stop during an afternoon crawl for my buddy’s bachelor party. We hung out next door at Frankford Hall for a bit and came here for dinner.
They did a great job at taking care of our 20+ group of really hungry and semi-​buzzed dudes. The food was awesome! We had brisket, hot sausage, rubs, mac ‘n cheese, baked beans, potato salad and rolls. Growlers of beer were kept flowing the whole time, it was like a Game of Thrones feast! Winter is Coming you know… but really, fantastic food, good atmosphere and friendly staff. We all had a great time.
I am slowly becoming more impressed with how Fishtown is turning around for the better and it’s places like this that make a big contribution to that change. Bravo!

One of the best places for BBQ in the city. Note — if you like saucy BBQ, then you’ll probably be disappointed. The meat here is a simple dry rub and smoked.
The brisket was nice, juicy, and tender. I thought the chicken was probably one of the better choices on the menu. Ribs were good. I liked the Mac and cheese, but didn’t like the potato salad.
Nice communal tables and assortment of sauces. It can get busy here and can do some damage to your wallet!

I’ve been here a couple of times and can’t help but think that for the price, the BBQ could be much better. The meats are served cafeteria-​style, but they are not cheap, with most options in the $ 18−22/lb range. That would be OK if the meats didn’t also taste a bit cafeteria-​style. The pork belly was actually OK, but the beef brisket, pulled pork, and ribs were super dry. I felt so thirsty after eating them, as one might feel after eating plywood.
Our side of mac n’ cheese was OK in flavor, but it was also dry and not very warm when we got it. I felt like all of the food had been sitting in the window for a while. They did not have corn bread or collard greens, which I usually get when I get BBQ.
On top of all that, it did not help that the line moved at a snail’s pace. It’s understandable that a place like this would be packed on a Saturday night, but there has to be a more efficient way to deal with the crowds so that people don’t have to wait over an hour in line (we got there at 7:30pm and were still in line past 8:30pm). While the staff was very pleasant and professional, I probably won’t return (unless I am dragged here somehow) due to the operational issues mentioned above.

Great atmosphere and cool set-​up but terribly overwhelming and difficult for a first timer to navigate what to order and how much. I’m a Kansas Citian and so barbecue is something I grew up eating a lot but even I was taken aback by the way the menu was laid out.
Also, this place prices its cuts of meat like they’re selling the last barbecue on earth. Eating for one? Bring $ 30. Eating for two? Order just over what you feel like 1 person would order. You can always add on more if you have the money.
I also stood in line for about 15 minutes, waiting to be served when no one was in front of me. Not really sure what the hold up was but all-​in-​all, an odd place. I enjoyed the Mac-​N-​Cheese and brisket but it’ll be hard to get me back on a student budget.

I went with some Unilocalers to grab lunch. And once I got there, I realized they serves dry-​rubbed meats, which I’m not a big fan of. «I told you I didn’t want to go!» Ughhhhhhhhh
Sari?
Sari isn’t here.
But I can see you…
No. You. Can’t.
Let’s get this straight: Perhaps it’s the fact that – in addition to not getting any Bar-​B-​Que– I only ordered the Mac & cheese (Nothing would be worse than this Mac ’ n cheese but the boxed one). Double ughhhhhhh
One and Half Unilocal

Sigh… I had such high expectations! Unfortunately, I don’t think I will return to Fette Sau.
When we entered the courtyard (is that what it’s called?) it wasn’t clear to us which door to take. There was no sign. We ended up entering through the wrong door. Take the left door and you’ll end up in the line for food.
We ordered the brisket, pork belly, beef spareribs, the potato salad and the baked beans. We asked the guy to make a meal for 2 out of it. It ended up being 4 slices of brisket, 4 slices of pork belly and 1 good-​sized rib. The brisket was meh. Although cooked well, it was too fatty for my taste which says a lot cause I like fat. No fat, no flavor! It also lacked the smokey taste. The same goes for the pork belly. The rib was quite tasty actually and the meat came off the bone. I didn’t like the potato salad and the baked beans. M said they were the best baked beans he ever had though!
It’s a cool place to hang around for drinks and I like the industrial look. Staff was friendly. Parking is a hassle. Overall, not impressed at all but ok place to hang out. I prefer Percy Street Bbq on South Street.

GORGEOUS BUILDING. Holy crap, Fette Sau fulfills my restored industrial dreams and then more. I want the interior designers to come to my place and fix it up. Part inside-​part outside, the construction alone makes this place worth a visit. Unfortunately, the price, portions and quality of the meat here are all put a damper on the place. It could be effing amazing; instead it’s just really cool with ok food.
First, the bar. Wow. Wooden open shelving, white tile blacksplash (dreams!), stainless steel counter, excess of spirits and beer. It’s eye-​catching and enticing. Next to it, you will be lured by the meat station. Slabs of chicken, ribs and beef brisket. You have to buy it in pound portion — which is just really awkward for sharing AND for single servings. You don’t really know how much you’re buying and before you know it, you’ve spent $ 60 on a snack for 4 people. The line is long and takes forever. So then you’re stuck thinking about how annoying it is that a place that looks so cool has so many impracticalities about it. The brisket was mildly dry, ribs didn’t have the kind of flavor that pops, the pork belly was fatty even for pork belly. It was all GOOD, yes, but I wouldn’t go to Fette Sau for BBQ. I’d go there to drink in the ambiance and grab a beer.

I’ve put off trying Fette Sau long enough and it was about damn time I did. First of all, can someone tell me how to pronounce this place and tell me the meaning of it? OK, now that that’s out of the way, I came here on Memorial Day. I love a good ol’ fashioned cookout, but I went with REAL BBQ today (mostly due to the fact that no one was having a cookout… or wasn’t invited to one).
Fette Sau has a different style to it. It’s cafeteria style here, so no servers. Everything is priced per pound, so be careful– it’s hard to add up the price of everything and seems that you’ll spend more. On the other hand, it does provide the opportunity to sample as much as you’d like. I tried a variety of their menu: pulled pork, brisket, ribs, and their «burnt end» sandwich. The sandwich was a potpourri of all of their meats on one roll. As for the sides, I had the German potato salad, broccoli salad, and baked beans. To go with everything, they have 3 different kinds of sauce– a spicy, sweet, and vinegar based sauce.
Every one of the meats was amazing. Smoked to perfection, Fette Sau gets each one of them right. None of them were dry, but tasting them with the different kinds of sauces, made it seem like there I was sampling more than just four of their meats. The spicy variety of their sauce wasn’t very spicy, but it still had a decent kick to it. My all time favorite is vinegar BBQ sauce. I thought it was a little too vinegar taste, but still was pretty good. As for the sweet sauce, I felt it was their best one and paired the best with most of them. I was a little disappointed not to find chicken on their menu. I don’t know if they rotate different items on their menu, but it should be a staple.
As for the sides, I’d say they were good but not great. The broccoli salad was a little too tart for me and only had about 2 bites of it. The German potato salad was really good, but is that the right style for BBQ? I could be wrong on this. Lastly, the baked beans were very good and quite possibly the best I’ve ever tasted.
Fette Sau is a very good BBQ place and one of the best in Philly. However, there were a few things that kept it from getting the coveted 5 star review. It was cafeteria style instead of server style. I guess this makes it unique, but when I go out, I like to be waited on. For being a true BBQ restaurant, it lacked a few must haves. As I said earlier, they didn’t have chicken. Let’s get with it. Chicken is extremely easy to cook, and doesn’t require the long hours of the others. Mac and Cheese. I was appalled to see, MnC curiously omitted from the Sides section of the menu. How can a BBQ joint not have mac and cheese?! Lastly, the corn bread. You heard me right– CORNBREAD! This is just silly. Get your act together Stephen Starr and add these three items.