Big Iowa BBQ

⭐⭐⭐

🇺🇸 American BBQ / 📍 Roppongi

📓 Visits: 2 (2021-2022)

Not counting the second branch of Dickey's (review here) in Yoyogi, Big Iowa is the newest American BBQ joint to open in Tokyo.  The restaurant had a couple of false starts due to Coronavirus restrictions but since 2nd Oct is now open again.  The restaurant had been open for lunch but for now it's dinner only.  No matter: the ribs are only available at dinner and you'll want to go for the ribs.

You can preview the menus on their website.  On both visits I chose the 3-meat plus 2 sides combo (JPY 3,600) both with pulled pork and ribs, and on visit 1 brisket (+400 yen), French fries and mac & cheese and on visit 2 sausage, French fries and Texas beans.

Food arrived within 10 minutes.  The mac and cheese wasn't any better than something you could get from a packet.  I was hoping for a different selection of sides on my second visit and my prayers were answered with Texas beans which contained a surprising amount of meat.  The fries were over-salted on visit 2 and had a taste of stale oil.  The meat is supplied from Berkwood Farms in the US.  The ribs were not as good as I remembered them ("excellent depth of flavour") and had a slight smack of food that had been re-heated.  The pork and the brisket was juicy with a good amount of fat - totally different from the dry brisket at my last visit to Dickey's.  It's a lot of food and something you want to take your time over but before too long everything gets cold and is far from its best.  The sausage was too much to eat but anything you can't manage you can take home.

Staff are native English speakers or have English as a second language and service is efficient.  One problem is the seating.  My first visit was in autumn and it was a moderately cold evening but the door was left fully open.  You might not notice this if you're at one of the large tables for six but I was seated at the counter, opposite the door, so it was draughty.  The bar seating was not comfortable: the counter is too high for the chairs and you can't get your legs under it.  Seating at tables for 2-3 is backless.  All of this might not matter if this was a bar and you were just drinking, for the most part standing up.  And if you were at this place a few years ago that's what you probably would have been doing because the restaurant occupies the former premises of the Legend's Sports Bar.  Rather than converting the place to a proper sit-down restaurant the fit-out and all the furniture has been retained.  While you can dine al fresco, the restaurant is on a very busy road so that doesn't appeal to me.  All this put me off returning until the weather was better.  I was willing to compromise on sitting at the counter as long as I wouldn't be cold.  As it turned out the only other guests on my second visit were there just for drinks outside so I could sit where I liked so chose one of the large tables for six, so no complaints this time.

I've slightly lowered my overall score (from 4.0) based on my second meal (but increased the score for the seating :).  I'll go back to Big Iowa again and hope the food is closer to my first meal than my second.  Either way, it's good value and convenient.

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1307/A130701/13260677/ 

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ 3.9 (seating: 2.8) 

📱 Booking: 🟩 Easy.  Same-day or advance bookings are taken by phone or Tabelog or here.  As is the case with BBQ restaurants they can run out of popular meats so either go early (in which case you won't need a booking, unless you're part of a large group) or ask if you can reserve what you'd like when you book.

📍 Location: 

3-16-33 Roppongi.  5 mins South-East from Roppongi station.  Dedicated street-facing entrance.
Map data ©2021 Google

📅 Visit April 2022

3 meats plus 2 sides 3,600
Drink 400 

💴 Damage: 4,000

⏱️ Time taken: 50m

📅 Visit October 2021

3 meats plus 2 sides 3,600
Drink 400 

💴 Damage: 4,000
⏱️ Time taken: 50m