Andre’s Blue Ribbon Barbeque

This place is good and open.
Read the Unilocal reviews and they were all over a year old, and even saw one review saying it was closed. I called them and they were open. Drove over to a «rustic» establishment. So already it had the looks to be a good BBQ place.
We both got the 2 meat platter, ribs and brisket. I had the «cold slaw» and sweet potato. My son had the pinto beans and corn bread.
The ribs were great. Very flavorful and smoky. Didn’t need sauce, had a nice chew to them while still being moist. Everything good BBQ is supposed to be. They have a east Carolina sauce and Kansas City style BBQ sauces at the table.
Brisket is tough to do well. They did it well. Moist, flavorful. They were training a new person, so the slices were a lot thicker than they should be. Broke my heart. Brisket was tasty.
They were kind enough to let me taste the pulled pork too. It isn’t the style where they drenched shredded pork in sauce. Chunks of moist meat, I didn’t get any bark in my sample. Great smoke flavor. The rub hadn’t penetrated this deep. Nice sweet pork flavor.
Only negatives, the tap water had a sulfur flavor and the service was slow. They use filters, so they said they’d check it.
Felt like I was over a friend’s house. Chit chatting with the wife of the owner about BBQ.
Anyhow great BBQ for people who know good BBQ. Stop by soon. Apparently they were closed for a bit. Not sure how long they will stay open. Try it while you can.

Been here twice now and I can’t say enough about how good the food is and how great the owners are. Brisket is my favorite but I always get chicken and ribs too. Give the beans a try. Delicious. This is up the road from Brooks and is real smoked BBQ. If you want a fancy place to eat go elsewhere. If you want great BBQ and reasonable prices go here.

This is THE real BBQ place in Oneonta. Great smoked meats (look for that smoke ring boys and girls) and pretty terrific sides. We had pulled pork (as good as any I’ve ever had – including throughout the Carolinas), brisket, ribs, and chicken. Wow. Very good cornbread. Cowboy pinto beans had just the right amount of heat. House made sauces on the table to compliment the dry rub on the meat. Yum. Great couple own the place and make you feel like you’re eating at their house. Andre even prepared a gratis dessert of their take on strawberry shortcake using corn bread. Really nice. If you’re anywhere near Oneonta around dinner when they’re open, stop. A little out of the way (only a couple minutes from the interstate) but worth it. Oh, and did I mention that it’s byob? Yep, that too. I’ll be back. I think I just found my new favorite place.

This place was just fantastic. A destination place if you are in the Oneonta area. The owners are absolutely a pleasure and take good care of you. You can tell that they take great pride in the product that they put out. It looked to be a labor of love. I got the three meat dinner and I am not even sure how they make money off the food as they are very generous with the servings. I felt like I was cheating them due to the size of the plate and the insanely low price. We were a party of 6 and not one person had anything but high praise for the food. The ribs, chicken and pulled pork were cooked to perfection. The Brisket though was out of this world good. I had dreams about it for days. I am already trying to justify going back up to Oneonta to make it back there.

Good food and super friendly. Smoked brisket was great. Ribs had excellent flavor but not as tender as they should be. Sides were good. They do not accept credit cards. Nice to have an alternative to brooks. I would go again.

This is the BEST barbecue EVER. I grew up in OK with Texas/​Tulsa barbecue, but this is amazing. Cooked without sauce, they offer 2 yummy ones: sugary and thick (St Louis) and vinegar-​based (the Carolinas). I recommend the latter, but go lightly — the meat is the star attraction!

Lovely place! Family owned and operated and they are super friendly :) the food was delicious. A nice smoky flavor. I had the brisket and pulled pork with corn bread and baked sweet potato for the side. They have two types of sauces one is a vinegar base, which I tried it and wasn’t a fan but they also have a tomato based one that I really enjoyed. Came here with my dad and grandma, they both enjoyed their meals as well. So we can recommend the chicken, ribs, brisket, pulled pork, portobello mushrooms, corn bread, seasoned corn, and baked sweet potatoes! If you like home style cooking and some great bbq definitely recommend you check this out.

Love, love, love this place!
Good BBQ, had the brisket and it was tender and juicy, portobello mushrooms were smokey and tasty. Brought my own bottle of wine and enjoyed the nice food and conversation w the owners! Yes bring your own. Don’t miss this place if you like good BBQ! Very humble place but I felt like a guest at my neighbors kitchen table.

We were travelling and found this on Unilocal.I have always had the best fortune finding great local restaurants on Unilocal.This was a great family restaurant with BBQ i especially loved the portabella mushrooms. You even get a great suprise desert when your done. Owners were there and very friendly!

Delicious!
Unilocal finds me another hidden gem. Hasn’t failed me yet.
Small family run place, cash only. Really friendly and attentive folks.
The beef brisket is so popular, they were out by mid afternoon on Saturday. That was too bad, but the pulled pork, ribs and chicken were great too. Both housemade sauces at the table were very tasty.
The beans are savory, not sweet — not really my thing, but I really liked the buffalo chicken salad.
If you like homestyle, no frills good eating, give this place a go. They were very reasonable and with good sized portions.

Fantastic dining experience. Appreciate Andres passion for his craft! ¹⁰⁄₁₀

If you’re looking for a generic chain with fancy tablecloth this is not it. If you’re looking for great food in a fun casual place you can’t do better than this! Everything we tried was outstanding, the ribs are really so good with the dry rub it’s the only place I’ve gone I really needed no sauce. The coleslaw is exactly on point, and the owner Pat was a real pleasure to meet and talk to. He even showed us his smoker outside, it’s quite a piece of machinery! This is the kind of place that Unilocal was invented for, I never would have found it otherwise and I’m so glad I did.

This is a fabulous place. JUST GO! GET THE BRISKET! but don’t be mad if they’re out. That means they ACTUALLY MAKE THE STUFF, and don’t just get it out of a freezer pack and heat it up. just be happy and get something else and it will be great too. the people are wonderful. the sides are wonderful. everything i’ve ever had here is wonderful. I wish I could go back every day. The sauces are great. These people actually care about serving you great food they are proud of. this place is what its all about.

I ‘ve had the best of barbecue in Austin, Texas, NYC and Long Island, and this place wins hands down! Don’t get deceived by the modest settings.
The owners are about the nicest people I’ve ever met. Everything is homemade down to the cole slaw. This was dry rub barbecue that was so flavorful that sauce would have been a detraction! If your ever within 50 miles of Oneonta, you owe it to yourself to try this place. My highest recommendation

The best ribs around! I’ve driven by many times and I decided to stop in a few weeks ago. I’ve now been back 3 times. The food is fantastic, I’m glad I finally gave it a try.

This is a pretty cool place and i’m glad Oneonta has a BBQ place that’s more authentic than Brooks, but i do feel there are a few things that could be improved upon.
my first visit was about 2 years ago with a friend. he thought the food was great and while i thought it was good i wasn’t blown away by it. i went again recently and my position still stands. they do have good sides, i’ve never seen any other place have buffalo chicken salad and i really liked it. the mac salad was decent and the cornbread was really good, and trust me i know good cornbread. i with i could get cornbread instead of a dinner roll though instead of having to order it as a side. as for the sauces, they do a good job with the carolina sauce but i can’t really say it’s my favorite style. as for their regular sauce, i wasn’t a huge fan of it. no onto the meat. the ribs i had recently had a good flavor to them but they could have used a little more time on the smoker because they were a little tough and a little fatty, could have used more cook time to render out some of that fat. the rub on them though is good enough where you don’t need sauce. the pulled pork was pretty greasy and there were still little pieces of fat mixed in that should have been pulled out of the mix. i also feel the meat was a little too shredded, i like my pulled pork better in bigger juicy pieces. as for the brisket, it was good, they did a good job with the pork flavor but again it was very fatty and it should have been trimmed better. it was also sliced with the grain instead of against it so there weren’t nice uniform slices of meat.
overall i’d give this place a 3.5. like i said, i’m glad it exists and the owners are very nice and the service is good but there’s a few things they could improve. also it’d be nice to see a bigger selection of desserts.

Oh, where to begin. My husband and I came across this little gem yesterday while searching for a dinner spot. We drove past Brooks, which was packed and we are thankful for it.
The BBQ here was fantastic and the owner was a pleasure to speak with. My husband and I had a little bit of everything per the owner’s suggestion and we were super happy. The ribs were so delicious, as was everything we tried but my favorite was the coleslaw. Yes, I’m a coleslaw snob and this was one of the best I’ve had.
I could go on for days but you really have to go an experience it for yourself. Don’t let looks fool you because they do a great take out service so they might be empty when you go (which is fine with us because we were speaking with the owner). The food speaks for itself so don’t pass this gem up. Viva la coleslaw!!!

My boyfriend and I ate here this evening and we wish we loved closer so we could frequent this amazing establishment on a regular basis. My boyfriend had the two meat plate with pulled pork and ribs. He said the dry rub on he ribs was delicious. He loved the BBQ sauce and liked that he could add as much or little as he wanted. Said it was the best pulled pork he has ever had. Me, being a vegetarian, had the smoked portobello mushrooms, cole slaw and baked sweet potato. Hands down, best meal I’ve had in a while. The owner and his wife were so nice and welcoming! They did not rush us and even gave my boyfriend a taste of the Brisket. They also surprised us with as strawberry shortcake for dessert made with corn bread. Also delicious! All of this food and the bill came to $ 22. Seriously, you can’t go wrong stopping at Andre’s. And on a side note– BOYB!

Super friendly staff at this little gem of a restaurant. The ribs were delicious. Everything is smoked and seasoned with a dry rub. Like another reviewer said, you don’t even need to bother with the BBQ sauce they provide. There’s enough flavor without it. And they have a little heat to them, which I like. Everything there is made from scratch. Good food and good prices. Also, it’s easy to miss as you’re driving. I attached a picture of the outside of the building so you can find it. Right across from the Amish Barn store.

Yeah, every tourist who visits the area goes to Brooks’ but I can guarantee you, if there was a Totonno’s open near a Pizza Hut here in Oneonta, the parking lot of the Hut would be packed and the lines would be out the door while Totonno’s would be deserted, just as the situation is vis-​à-​vis Brooks’ and Andre’s too.
This is not to put down Brooks’ — it’s perfectly fine «Yankee» BBQ. If you like meat that tastes like it’s been cooked in the oven à la Dallas BBQ in NYC and then smothered in a thick, cloyingly sweet sauce heavy on the HFCS, then that is what you want. However, if you want true southern-​style BBQ cooked for hours in the smoker, seasoned expertly with a rub from Heaven, Andre’s may be more up your alley.
I first started eating here a few years ago. While bored one day, I was driving around the area, exploring and saw this small barn-​like building up on a hill with a smoker out front billowing smoke. I wasn’t really hungry but the place called to me. I went in. I ordered chicken and ribs. Within seconds of tasting this great stuff, I was not in upstate NY anymore, I was in rural Georgia — or maybe Alabama. I’ve eaten BBQ all over the south and let me tell you, Patrick Andre knows his stuff and does it well! If you don’t believe me, just look at the pix I posted above.
Besides featuring incredible food (I eat there every chance I get while up here in the summers) Patrick and his lovely wife, Theresa are the most amiable and gracious hosts one could ever imagine. It is like you are eating in their home. George, their other counterman is a barrel of laughs and a really good guy too. Sorry I missed him on my visits this past summer.
Aside from the incredible meats, Andre’s sides are not to be equaled. Most notable is the «Buffalo Chicken Salad». I don’t know how they do it, but my guess would be that smoked wings are given the the «Buffalo treatment», then the meat’s stripped off, mixed with (my guess) mayo, hot sauce, celery, bleu cheese and other stuff. My favorite side! Their homemade cole slaw, mac salad and fresh corn ears, grilled on the smoker are not to be missed, either. I’ve brought vegetarians here and they’ve made delicious, satisfying meals from a compilation of Andre’s sides. Just recently, they’ve been featuring BBQed portobello mushrooms to further accommodate non meat-​eaters. These hearty and meatily textured fungi are as tasty and satisfying as their wonderful meats are!
So… next time you’re cruising east on State Highway 7 or around exit 16 on I-​88 and are hungering for some Q, skip the interminable lines at Brooks’ and go another mile or so down the road to Andre’s. They’re on your left up a small hill right across from the Amish Barn Company right past Price Choppers. You WON’T be sorry you did!!!
PS — BYOB ;-)