Lou Dawg's Southern Sandwiches
Lou Dawg's has a curiously rustic menu. Specializing in meat, other kinds of meat and more meat, this newish King West sandwich joint is not the place to take vegetarian friends or fancy people.
Who should go to Lou Dawg's? Diners who like the taste of campfire--not liquid smoke, or chemically fabricated hickory zest--but genuine, smoky, "I hate white rabbits" campfire flavour. The taste is so authentic that I had to smell my jacket 30 minutes after leaving, surprised I wasn't carrying the tell-tale effluence.
Despite Toronto's recent carnivore craze, Lou Dawg's is only the second smoke house to open downtown (the other is Phil's). Spacious and tavern-dark, Lou Dawg's is decorated in wood-plank panels and a stone facing that reminds me of a Bruce County highway, a jagged square hewn through limestone peninsula, and a sure path to campgrounds, cottages and, of course, BBQs.
Lou Dawg's looks and feels like a mid-range family dining establishment, so I was surprised to discover they'd opted for counter service instead of full-service dining. I was equally astonished by the quick delivery of my meal: barely had my lunch friend and I started chatting before the waitress was calling our names.
We ordered a Pulled Pork Sandwich ($6), Smoked Beef Brisket Sandwich ($8), Garden Salad ($3), Blackbean Corn Salad ($3) and Jalapeno Cheddar Corn Muffin ($2). Unfortunately there were no muffins on hand, but our friendly staffer quickly offered a replacement (Meaty BBQ Beans-$3)--with no quibbles over the extra $1.
Both sandwiches were big enough to feed an average lunch eater, unless this average lunch eater was a) determined to have some veg with every meal and b) a glutton. Since I'm both, I shelled out the extra moola for sides, compromising my Cheap Eats lunch rules ($10 or less for a full lunch, $15 and under for dinner) but satisfying my (now distended) belly.
The Pulled Pork Sandwich was perfect: soft, smoky, and smothered in a sweet, slightly piquant house-made sauce. I would recommend this sandwich to any pulled pork aficionado, although I won't order it again myself. One bite of Lou Dawg's Smoked Beef Brisket Sandwich had me hopelessly devoted like a prom queen to the high school badass: it smokes, it's saucy, and I know it's bad for me, but it's also unbearably tender. I'm smitten, and can't imagine choosing any other sandwich. 
Rounding out the cast of flavours, the Blackbean Corn Salad came dressed in Chipotle Lime Sauce, giving refreshing contrast to heavy meat mains. Meaty BBQ Beans followed the theme of the sandwiches, and were rich, tender, and (surprise!), smoky. The Garden Salad was super fresh, but curiously covered in a Smokey Balsamic Dressing that was a bit too acidic and, well, smoky. A lighter contrast to the mains would've been nice, but I don't suppose it matters all that much, since meat is the feature at Lou Dawg's, and the meat is amazing.
Lou Dawg's has been open for just a few weeks, but if they continue producing this level of quality BBQ, I'm sure they'll manage to keep the home fires burning for a long, long time.
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Is this in the spot where Artik used to be? The t-shirt printing place.
The missus had lunch there Friday, the verdict, Black Camel has nothing to fear but it's decent, nice portions and a side of cole slaw is only a loony.
By the way, the name, in a word, sucks
By the way, who benefits from your opinion on the name?
Great food, great vibe.
They feed the crowds at WordCamp this year. Loved their ribs and their salad dressings were pretty good too.
It looks like they are next door to King West Kitchen, south side of the street.
Why is this not the place to take vegetarian friends? They drag me in to their restaurants. It's high time to bring them to a real restaurant that looks like they have yummy sandwiches! Bring your fancy friends too. Tell them to loosen up a little.
Love their music on the website, still, can you please post the hours under the address and phone number?
I can't wait to go! Thanks for the story.
i say! i say! went yesterday night. both the brisket and pulled pork could have been a bit more tender - still had a bit of chewy consistency that you don't expect from either, but not enough to detract from the overall sandwich. the sides were well above par, but then just like you don't go to a korean restaurant for the banchan, you don't go into a smokehouse for the bbq beans.
I've been wondering when you'd be reviewing this place.
My boyfriend and I have eaten there several times, hoping to get a consistent meal - which has been a giant FAIL.
I even sent them an email, hoping to get a reply.
Which I didn't.
"So, we've been to your place 3 times now - living on Brant at King, it's extremely convenient!
Feedback:
- why are you putting that yucky red 'powder' all over the fries now?
It doesn't add anything to it - and the fries were better before - nice and Simple.
- potato salad: the potatoes need to be cut up smaller. I have dietary restrictions, and cramming half a potato in my mouth gets seriously clogged in my throat.
And cutting them up before eating is such a hassle.
- get the sizing down. We've ordered a 'LARGE' fries every visit, and every visit, they're in a different container.
Last night, it was in the same SMALL container that the small potato salad we ordered came in ...
Why? Did we just get the wrong order? (we paid for a large - double checked the receipt)"
We haven't been back since.
However, one thing they haven't put on the menu, which you MUST try, are the CHICKEN WINGS.
AMAZING.
Sure you do. Baked beans is very much a part of southern barbecue. That's like saying you don't go to a taqueria for guacamole.
This is not the place to bring vegetarian friends because there's very little they can eat here. You might not like being dragged to vegetarian restaurants, but you chances are you can eat everything on the menu.
Getting fancy friends to loosen up: now that's an idea I can support!
Tried the pulled chicken for lunch 'cause they were outta porc. It was okay, but i wouldn't go back. There are are better options with more atmosphere. And the sauce has an artificial-flavouring aftertaste that lasted all afternoon.
I just tried Low Dawg's brisket last night and all I can say is it makes me miss Cluck, Grunt & Lowe even more :(
I tried Lou Dawgs last monday and I thought it was very tasty. I agree with LS as I would have liked the option not to put the red spice on the fries it ruined it for me and I didn't eat them. The sauce was fantastic thick and tasty, I love the fact that they have a dispenser on the side so you can add more... mmmmm
I ordered the cole slaw and I thought it lacked flavour, I want a simple cole slaw no raisins/cranberries no nuts just a good tasting add on..
Hi Everyone,
First off, I would like to apologize in my tardiness to replying to your posts. At lou Dawg's - customer feedback is absolutely critical - and I wanted to take a minute to let you know that we have listened to your feedback - and made some recent changes in order to improve our service, consistency and quality.
So - after reading the posts above - here are some of the changes/comments I'd like to share with you:
- Vegetarians Welcome!!! At some of the festivals we participated in this year (jazzfest, edgefest, queen west art fest) - we had an unbelievable response to our Veggie Wrap... so we've added it to the menu!! For $6, you will get: A fresh wrap stuffed with blackbean corn salad w/ Chipolte lime dressing, provolone cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and our delicious home made creamy bbq mayo.
- Food Quality - Our executive chef sean smith will now be working open to close at our restaurant... this will improve quality and consistency - and will offer dinner specials and other nice touches such as fresh baked apple pie for desert!
- FRESH CUT FRIES!!! (WITHOUT THE ``Yucky red spice``) Both our fries & Sweet potato fries are now fresh cut in house... they are so delicious - that they don`t need seasoning at all! Try them out!
- Small portions! My apologies for this, a little bit of trial and error here but we`ve changed our in-house packaging... and will be moving to baskets to serve our food. This will improve the presentation as well as the portions.
- Potato salad - now cut smaller to accomodate dietary restrictions.
Thank you again for all of your feedback... as a new restaurant, we can`t possibly improve without it.
Feel free to contact me directly anytime at daryl@loudawgs.com
Cheers!
Oh... one more thing... we have updated the website with our hours of operation as well as a map of our location.... and we`ve had an amazing response to our baked bbq meaty beans... so if you have a chance - please try it out and let me know what you think!
Cheers!
The best damn sweet potato fries I've ever had.
And the ribs, mmmmmmmmm, now that's some good sauce!!
Lou Dawgs 4 life :)