Ribbins Bar B Q

I visited in November 2009 after the other reviewer and didn’t have the same experience.
When we went in there was only a single guy working, running the register and cooking but service was still fairly quick. I ordered the beef brisket and I swear it melted in my mouth. The sauce is spice but sweet as well and very addicting. I’m so going back!
Walking by there lately though and they look closed.

We walked into this place with high expectations and a lot of enthusiasm because it seemed to have good BBQ-​joint karma. Nice shellacked wood furniture, sports memorabilia on the walls with a couple of games on live TV, and an old-​fashioned changeable letter menu board behind the counter. For some reason though, even though it was dinner-​time on a Friday night, the place was almost empty. We soon learned why.
This was hands down the worst BBQ place either of us has ever been to, and I’ve personally been to quite a few.
We both ordered the baby back rib dinner. One of us got a side of greens and candied yams, and the other a side of potato salad and BBQ beans. Each dinner came with a corn bread muffin. We also split a peach cobbler pie for dessert.
The ribs were simply the strangest I’ve ever had. Some ribs were well-​cooked and the meat slid right off the bone. Others were under-​cooked and disturbingly pink. The BBQ sauce they were slathered with had too much salt and vinegar, and was just terrible. The candied yams were almost indistinguishable in appearance from the BBQ beans, and neither was particularly inspiring. The corn bread muffin was gummy, clumpy, and had a very weak flavor. To top it all off, the peach cobbler came in a plastic container and was just a jumbled mash with a weird, cloudy appearance. A piece of triangular dough was floating on the top as if it was a band-​aid for this wounded concoction. Oh, and it tasted awful.
It really pains me to write such a bad review of Ribbins because I desperately want to have a good BBQ place near where I live here in Renton, but this place ain’t it. Still, having been in the restaurant business myself, I can tell that the owner went the extra mile to make this an inviting place as reflected in its furniture and its cleanliness (the bathrooms are spotless).
The problem is the food. It simply sucks. This owner needs to hire a qualified consultant to come in and help reformulate the menu from the bottom up. Otherwise, I don’t anticipate him lasting there much longer, especially with all those empty seats on a Friday night.