THIS IS A RESTAURANT BLOG

THIS IS A REVIEW:
We were having one of those nights where we couldn't decide where to eat. I had something of a burger craving, that was about the only strong feeling anyone had. We were walking along W. Broadway just wavering about things, considering and rejecting a Mongolian Barbecue place and several Greek restaurants. Finally we decided to try a place called Migz BBQ, at Broadway and MacDonald.

We walked in about 7pm on a Sunday and the place was dead. Literally there was no one there, and no host at the front, and no sign saying whether to seat oneself or not. There were three people at the bar, the bartender and two staff, none of whom even looked at us.

Uncertain, I asked the boyfriend what he wanted to do. He wanted to sit down, so we did. We sat for a few minutes, and I had a bad feeling and kind of wanted to leave, but I didn't voice it because we had been trying to pick a place for 45 minutes and I was just hungry. The place had a sports bar feel, with three or four televisions, two of which were showing NASCAR, which surprised me. A waitress finally came out, gave us menus, and took our drink orders (water for him, a Pepsi for me).

For an appetizer we ordered the potato skins with pulled pork ($8.95).



To be honest I wasn't a huge fan. To me, stuffed potato skins ought to be just that--potato skins, with just a little bit of potato so that the skins get really crunchy, and lots of toppings. This was more like half a baked potato with toppings. Gordon, however, liked this way better, so YMMV.

The only burger they had that was, y'know, a burger, and not chicken or veggie, came with cheddar and bacon. So, I ordered that, even though I'm not a huge bacon-on-burger person. I chose to pair it with a house salad with dressing on the side instead of fries. Gotta cut calories somewhere. ($11.95)



The salad was really good. Very fresh and a nice blend, no one veggie overpowering the others. The burger, however, was just average. It's not easy to make a tasty, juicy burger cooked well-done as the law requires, but it can be done. Theirs relied too heavily on the toppings. It wasn't bad, but I've had much better here in Vancouver--Moderne Burger or Vera's, heck, even Triple-O's does a better burger.

Gordon thought that you have to order BBQ from a place with BBQ in the name, so he got smoked chicken, and for his two sides he picked yam fries (on my request) and hush puppies ($16.95).



I was going to be diplomatic and say some things about how you can taste the smoke flavor in the chicken and that the bbq sauce was nice, but I'm getting a little tired of this review so I'm just going to say it sucked. The chicken was dry, so it really needed that sauce. The hushpuppies had some kind of weird spice in them, which to me as a half-Southerner was just wrong. He had ordered the hushpuppies because he had never tried them before, but this was a bad introduction to the true nobility possible in lumps of fried cornmeal. The yam fries were okay, but how do you mess up yam fries? Plus they didn't come with any dips other than ketchup--to get any other dip, you had to pay.

Satiated, if not exactly satisfied, we left.

Pretty much anything Migz does, you can get better someplace else. Their main attraction, BBQ, just doesn't even compare to the euphoric experience we had at Memphis Blues (W. Broadway and Granville). I think Memphis Blues sucked all the BBQ culinary talent out of Broadway and thus there was none left for Migz. The best thing I got out of my experience at Migz BBQ was a determination to go back to Memphis Blues ASAP, and write a review showing what real barbecue can be. And if you want a burger, again, Vera's or Moderne Burger will set you up nice. I haven't been to any other sports bars yet (I prefer to watch the Penguins at home), but I'm sure there's a better sports bar than this one, with its tiny televisions and short bar. And, like I said, the service, despite the place being empty when we walked in, was distracted and indifferent.

Moral of the story: If you want into a place on a weekend evening and no one is there and you can't get served within a minute? Leave.

THIS IS A SUMMARY:
Name: Migz BBQ
Location: 2884 W. Broadway Vancouver BC 604 773 3002
Prices: $10-20 for entrees, $5-15 appetizers. Licensed for beer, wine and spirits. Lots of drink specials.
Service: No one there to greet us when we came in. Not served for a few minutes even though we were the only ones there, and the bartender and his chatty crew must have seen us. Bartender and two waiters(?) spent entire time gabbing not far from where we were seated. Waitress smiled a lot but that's about the only thing nice you can say.
Food: Mediocre. BBQ was dry. Appetizers overpriced for amount gotten.
Recommended?: Don't go here.