Best BBQ Ribs in Miami

Best ribs in Miami

A quest to finding the best ribs in Miami is no easy task. Many have their favorite restaurants and especially locals prefer some of the historically honored traditional establishments such as Shiver's or Shorty's.

A good rib is one that is tender, not dry and above all else, tasty. And with these come subjective interpretations, which is delicious to one person may simply be atrocious to another. Some are ok with parboiled ribs for tenderness while others demand that they be slow roasted or slowly smoked. There are varying styles of barbecue that differ from Texas to North Carolina as well as the regional accompanying sauces.

I went to four different barbecue places to try their selection, in search of the best ribs and I was surprised at the complexity of the task. Each place I went to held their own and have their own special merits and I could easily go to any of these places depending on what I am in the mood for on that particular day. I am in the fortunate, or if you look at my waistline, unfortunate position of liking everything, beef ribs, spare ribs, baby back ribs, so long as it tastes good and the meat is tender.

First on the list is Shiver's BBQ in Homestead. It is a landmark and has been around since the 1950s.

They have a large variety of offerings and when it comes to ribs they have the full gamut of pork spareribs, baby back ribs and beef ribs. You can get all three in the "rib trio" which is what I did:

In the foreground, beef ribs, under the garlic bread/toast is the baby back ribs and the furthest away in the picture are the pork spare ribs.  The side dishes are the cole slaw, the mashed potatoes and gravy along with the cornbread soufle. My favorite here were the beef ribs followed by the baby back and least favorite were the spareribs. The cole slaw was about average as well as the mashed potatoes, however the corbread souffle was a nice surprisingly good flavor. The nice thing about Shiver's is the vast selection on their menu. The restaurant itself was a fair size probably seating 30 people.

Next on my list was Shorty's BBQ which has connections with Shiver's BBQ. This was also formed in the 1950s and the story goes that the owners of Shiver's and Shorty's were partners at one time before one left to open a restaurant in the South Miami location while one stayed to open in the Homestead location. Both are right off of US1 but maybe 10 miles apart. Naturally, I expected both of these restaurants to be the same but they were quite different .The flavor profile of Shorty's was slightly better than Shivers, but Shivers had more variety.

I ordered the rib combo, consisting of the baby back ribs and spareribs.

I liked both the baby back ribs and spareribs better at Shorty's but I liked the beef ribs more at Shiver's in comparing to all the ribs available at Shorty's or Shiver's. Shorty's sides are not as good as Shiver's. I had the cole slaw and Shorty's also provided more sauces in addition to the hickory sauce at the table.

The brisket sauce in the upper left which has a slight vingear taste to it and the shorty's sauce in the upper right with hint of mustard flavor. The hickory sauce is on the plate and resembles sweet baby ray's sauce. The restaurant itself looked more than double the size of Shiver's and there are three total Shorty's locations

Getting away from the big restaurants and more to the smaller ones, I next went to Hate Mondays Tavern in Kendall which is in a small industrial type of building in west Kendall.  Inside probably holds less than 20 people and it is more like a tavern as its namesake says than a barbecue joint. But make no mistake, there is a large smoker outside.

They have a smaller menu and their baby back ribs are their star dish. However I noticed most people when I went on a Saturday at lunchtime were there for their sandwiches, including burgers. Their loss as the ribs were better than Shorty's or Shiver's. The smokiness and tenderness was apparent and the owner dabbled a bit of barbecue sauce on it. The sides were noticably better than shortys or shivers as well.

The sides were the potato salad and the cole slaw.

I was very pleased with this meal and found that these baby back ribs were my favorite of all ribs I sampled so far. There were no other type of ribs such as beef ribs or spare ribs, however they do serve Smoked Salmon or Smoked Tomahawk steak on other days of the week. The sevice is particularly top notch and the atmosphere is on of a friendly neighborhood tavern.

Finally, the last place I went to was Apocalypse BBQ also out in West Kendall. This is a very non-descript place next to a golf course with lots of golf carts roaming the area on the weekends when I went. This is sort of new popular place and there was a regular 2 hour wait for a table. The inside looks much better than the outside and there is room for likely 30 people as well as a bar with 5-7 barstools.

This is a slow cooked texas style barbecue restaurant and offers beef ribs, pulled pork and brisket. I ordered the beef ribs along with sides of the cole slaw, mac and cheese and the cornbread.

The beef ribs were very tender and had a good flavor with just a dabble of barbecue sauce. These were my favorite of all the places I've tried.

The sides were the best of all the restaurant's I had been to. The skull which is also the logo of the restaurant is a nice touch on the cornbread which is served with honey. It was a perfect complemetn of sweet with the corn bits in the bread. The cole slaw had the right amount of seasoning and mayonaise in it, not too wet and not too finely chopped. The mac and cheese was my favorite of all the side dishes and was an excellent blend of creamy cheese with the macaroni noodles.

The meal was so good that I decided to order the pulled pork and brisket to take home. Of these the brisket was extremely good, with a good peppered flavored crust surrounding a tender interior.

The pulled pork was good but not great but I would still order it again, depending on my mood for food.

Final thoughts
All four of these barbecue places are worth visting and which I go to would depend on which mood I'm in.

The best beef ribs:
1. Apocalypse BBQ
2. Shiver's BBQ

The best baby back ribs:
1. Hate Monday's Tavern
2. Shorty's BBQ

The best spare ribs:
1. Shorty's BBQ
2. Shiver's BBQ

The best sides:
1. Apocalypse BBQ
2. Hate Monday's Tavern
3. Shiver's
4. Shorty's

The best variety of BBQ dishes at any given time
1. Shiver's
2. Shorty's
3. Apocalypse BBQ
4. Hate Monday's Tavern (note they are the only ones who serve smoked salmon depending on day of the week)