Kid Chilleen's Bad Ass BBQ - Black Canyon City, Az

A few weeks ago, Tara was feeling restless. She wanted to do something, but wasn't sure what. Eventually, she suggested heading north on I17 and trying Kid Chilleen's Bad Ass BBQ Steakhouse in Black Canyon City. We'd seen it just off of the highway on our excursions to Flagstaff and Prescott, but never stopped in. A Chowhound posting a few months ago had asked if anyone had been there but no one had. Since BCC is about the same distance from us a Joe's Real BBQ in Chandler, we decided to give it a go.

We headed north and in a little over half an hour arrived at exit 244. Kid's lies just off the highway. The restaurant sits among a small cluster of building. One houses a little boutique that was closed, another still appears to be vacant, and there's a small barn/shed with a horse and mule hanging around. Kid's is closest to the highway and is a very rustic looking place. We maneuvered around the low stone wall and entered the dimly structure. We passed a small gift area and saw a sign asking us to seat ourselves. As I used the WC, Tara chose a booth by the window. I came out and due to the sloping tabletop, we moved to a table in the middle of the dining room. There was also a bar area around the corner from us.

A couple paper newsletter-like menus were on each table. We looked them over. As we did, a waiter came by and asked for our drink orders. We both got cokes. He also listed some specials. One was a pulled pork sandwich that Tara decided to get. I got the bbq sampler that had pork ribs, beef ribs, and some brisket. It came with fries and a salad. We also ordered some fried mushrooms as an appetizer.



The mushrooms arrived in a plastic basket with a ranch dressing dipping sauce. The mushrooms were very crunchy, with a thick batter crust. The mushrooms were very good, but I wished it had come with a marinara dipping sauce, but Tara enjoyed them with the ranch. More of a personal preference on my part. My salad arrived at about the same time and it was a standard iceburg affair. Good, not great, but perfectly serviceable.



Tara's sandwich came out on a white plate with a side of fries. The pork was topped with a huge amount of Kid Chilleen's thick, almost paste-like bbq sauce. Largely ketchup based, it was somewhat overwhelming. Tara thought the pork was good, but there was just too much sauce. She thought it was good, but nothing special.



My sampler plate consisted of a pile of brisket, a few pork ribs, and a couple beef ribs, again all covered liberally with the bbq sauce. The brisket was good. Again, nothing special, but I've had worse. The beef ribs weren't my cup of tea. They seemed fatty to me and not much clear meat. I should point out that I have a big thing with fat. I can't really tolerate the texture and it is just vile to me. Some people think it adds flavor, so that might be another personal preference. The winner of the sampler was the pork ribs. Once I scraped the layer of fat off, the meat had a great bbq flavor. I gave Tara a sample and she agreed. The fries seemed fairly generic, but were crunchy and went well with the ketchup.

Service was good. The waiter kept our drinks filled and was easily found if we needed him. Overall, the food was ok. Nothing worth making a special trip for, but if you are heading up that way, I'm sure there are worse places. It's no Joe's Real BBQ, but we weren't expecting it to be of that quality. I'd recommend getting the bbq sauce on the side and adding it yourself, as they seem to go nuts with it.