Z-Best Barbeque

This Northside location of Z-​Best Barbeque is the most recent installment of this small Pittsburgh chain. We arrived around 5 pm on a Sunday evening, thinking we would dine in, as we drove from the South Hills to ge there, only to find it’s a to-​go only operation. But hey, we’re flexible, and if the barbecue is really good, a 40 minute drive is not too far for me, even if I have to take it home. Doug ordered up a half rack of ribs, and I went for the 4 wing, 2 rib combo. I wanted a chicken leg and thigh, but they didn’t have it, just the wings. I don’t know now if this is usual, or it was just because it was Sunday, but I do know you have to call ahead for a whole chicken. We both asked for sides of collard greens and baked beans. While he was putting our order together, the man at the counter asked us what sauce we wanted. Their house specialty is a mustard based barbecue sauce, and the other guy who was working the counter asked if we wanted to give it a try before deciding. We said sure, and he gave us both a chicken wing coated with their signature sauce. Nice touch! And great sauce, so we both opted for it. So we put our treasure in the car, and drove home with the maddening aroma of barbecue making us even hungrier.
Once home, we dug in. The ribs here are very good, terrific, even. They leave the rib tip on, which I don’t usually like, as I’ve encountered so many tough rib tips, but this one was as falling apart tender as the rest of the rib. The honey mustard sauce does justice to both the ribs and chicken, so thumbs up there. It’s the sides here that come up lacking, at least the ones we tried. The collard greens were overly salted, enough to make them inedible, and tough, so they’re not cooking them long enough. Plus they added garlic to them, which in my mind is a big no-​no. The baked beans were so sweet they reminded me of praline I’ve had in New Orleans. They season them with lots of caramelized sugar, nutmeg (!) and vanilla. Doug said they tasted just like sweet potato pie, and he was right. Just too weird. They forgot my side of beans, but that was OK, since they weren’t good anyway. The side of cornbread was also nothing special, of the overly sweet and sticky variety, more wheat flour than corn flour, so I can’t recommend that either. We didn’t try the potato salad or cole slaw, so I can’t vouch for those, but based on the sides I got, I think I’ll just skip them. Next time I’ll pick up a whole chicken or a rack of ribs, and make my own sides, since I’ll be bringing it home anyway. These are the best ribs we’ve had in Pittsburgh so far, so we’ll be going back.