Cowtown Beef Shack

Name: Cowtown Beef Shack

Address: 5250 MacLeod Trail SW

Website: http://cowtownbeefshack.com/

Hours of Operation: Mon-Sun 11:00am to 8:00pm

Intro: Two of my friends have talked about this place on the past but I had given it a try yet. I was reminded about it again on Saturday, so I thought I would give it a try since I was going to be in the area. My friends were not wrong when they said blink and you will miss it. The shack is 8 by 12 feet. There is something kind of appealing about the concept of this restaurant. Do one thing and do it very well. This is not the place for a vegetarian, while there are some vegetables on the premise this is place all about meat, and that is not a bad thing. “Vegetables are what real food eats” is one of the quotes on the Cowtown Beef Shack website.

The Food:  The menu is based around the six sandwiches they offer; traditional southern smoked brisket, old fashioned smoked pulled pork, beef dip, Cowtown cheese steak, BBQ beef and beef and cheddar. They also offer a small variety of side which includes coleslaw and chips. On this particular day I was feeling like the brisket. When you order the brisket you have the option of BBQ sauce or no sauce as well as onions or no onions, I choose sauce and onions. The sandwiches only come in one size which a 8’ fresh French baguette. I was very excited after receiving my sandwich as it had a good weight to it. The sandwich is very good, good flavour, seasoned perfectly and the bread was real soft and French which I think is a key in this type of sandwich. The beef was so flavourful and was very tender. Having said that there were a couple of changes I would make to the sandwich. The first one is adding more sauce; the sandwich was a bit on the dry side. Next time I am going to try the beef dip so I will have my own dipping sauce. The next thing is not something I am sure that will work but I would want to experiment with; instead of raw onions that are diced, I would try sliced caramelized onions. The reason for this change is I found that the raw onions were too over powering; however I did like the nice texture contrast that they offered. I think the caramelized onions would fit the flavour profile better IMO. I did not try any sides; I will save that for next time.

The Price: All sandwiches are $8, the coleslaw is $1.50 as are chips and pop. There is also the option for additional meat $2 and additional cheese $1

The Service: The service was very good. The employee took the time to explain the sandwiches and the sauces as well. You could tell he was passionate about the product. The sandwiches were made pretty quickly. The employee did follow up once we had a couple of bites to ask what we thought. I always appreciate when restaurants do that.

Other Items of Note: They do accept debit and credit cards. There are two windows, one for walk up customers as well as one for drive thru customers. There is lots of parking if you are walking up, as well as 7 picnic tables for you to eat at outside. There is no dine in option.