I am eating my lunch from Gocki's Smokin' BBQ as I write this review. I got the "When Porky met Daisey" brisket/pulled pork combo sandwich and a side of smoked mac and cheese, based largely upon the recommendation of the first Yelp review for this truck. He is serving in front of my workplace, and it's great to have a new truck in the lineup that rotates here from time to time.
I love good smoked barbecue, and I developed a particular taste for it while living in Memphis. As such, I tend to order my meats with no sauce, and then add sauce as desired. That's exactly how he serves them, so that was great.
He offered 4 different sauces, and I got two of them - the Kickin' Whiskey Chipotle and Kickin' Whiskey Sriracha. As a lover of very spicy things, neither of these packed a very serious punch, but both had a nice zip to them. The Sriracha was decidedly the hotter of the two, but I liked the Chipotle better. I thought it had the perfect amount of bourbon taste (I don't like heavily bourbon-flavored sauces, and this was not at all overpowering). The chipotle gave it an extra smoky, umami taste, and the sweetness was perfect to balance it out. The Sriracha sauce was also very good, and I liked the additional spicyness, but it was sweeter and tangier to my palate, with very little bourbon shining through. They were both fantastic sauces, and I would happily purchase either of them in a store.
The "becoming famous" pulled pork was flavorful and didn't have big gobbets of chewy fat, but I also didn't get any bark and didn't find it to be especially moist. I liked it, especially dunked in sauce, but I didn't love it. A little bit of fat, or maybe some drippings mixed back in as it is pulled, might have improved the taste/texture for me.
The brisket was VERY good. It was very lean (again, I think it could actually benefit from a little fat being left on) and cooked perfectly. I have had so many friends that think they don't like brisket because they've never had it cooked like this. Ever had high hopes for brisket only to find it dry and tough? This is NOT that. This was clearly cooked gently and appropriately. The meat fibers were falling apart, it was super tender, and it had a beautiful 6mm smoke ring. My only complaint (and it is VERY minor) was that, again, there was so little fat that it was a tiny bit drier than I would prefer. But not chewy or unpleasant in the slightest. Much better than just about any other brisket I have found at restaurants in the Midwest.
The smoked mac and cheese was very good. I'm not really a mac&cheese person, so that's a pretty nice compliment from me. If you do usually like mac & cheese, I suspect this will will knock your socks off.
Super nice guy, clearly takes pride in his cooking and his service. There was nothing at all about this experience that would give me any complaints, and I would eagerly support this business in the future.
Thanks! read more