Black Bear BBQ, Blacktown

Low and slow. That's the ethos behind Black Bear BBQ, serving up Texan-style woodsmoked barbecue. You'll find them in the back streets of Blacktown, feeding a non-stop queue of hungry tradies and office workers. There's nothing fancy here. Just massive serves of meat served up in takeaway cardboard boxes, and that's exactly the way the locals like it.



You'll know you've arrived when you spot the picnic tables out the front and the giant light bulb letters spelling BBQ.


Black Bear BBQ menu

It's one helluva meat fest on the menu. Vegetarians aren't really catered for here, unless you're happy with slaw, pickles and a handful of crisps.

Order at the counter (yes, they have EFTPOS) and enjoy the spectacle of your meat being carved up before your eyes.


Barbecue pork ribs

Barbecue porks ribs are cut through with ease...


Beef brisket

but it's the huge slab of beef brisket, covered in a deep black bark, that's guaranteed to get your mouth watering.


Lunch for three

The meat boxes range in price from $15 to $25, each bolstered with crisps, pickles and a rainbow slaw of cabbage, carrot, celery and corn. The drinks fridge includes plenty of American favourites like Dr Pepper and Canada Dry.


Half rack pork ribs $35

We feast on all the meats, starting with a half rack of pork ribs. They're impressively tender (only a smidge dry at the thicker end of the rib) with its sweet glaze enhanced by a generous dousing of barbecue sauce.


Hungry Bear Box $25
Links, brisket and pork belly

The Hungry Bear Box yields a triple threat of links, brisket and pork belly. The brisket has a lush layer of fat although it's not quite as smoky as we expect, even with the visible smoke ring. There's a good ribbon of fat running through the pork belly, cooked to a caramelised juiciness.


Sausage link with cheese

The sausage link is a real highlight through, the springy smoky sausage stuffed with cubes of cheese. I'd definitely order this again.


Beef short rib box $25

The beef short rib box usually comes with only one rib but because there are only two small end ribs left in the tray, we score both. Win! It's a fatty reward, just the way we like it, the beef cooked long enough so the fat has rendered throughout. Suze reports that it was heavily smoky in flavour on her last visit. Today there's a subtler imparting of smoke to the meat.

Here's the bad news. They're only open weekdays although they do open most Friday nights - I hear the queues are hectic so be prepared to wait. Otherwise you can do as we did and take a day off work for a trip out west. They're open from 6am for breakfast (brisket and egg roll, anyone?) with lunch (and the meat boxes) starting at 11am.






Black Bear BBQ
11/27 Forge Street, Blacktown, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 8605 3953

Opening hours
Monday to Thursday 6am-2pm
Friday 6am-2pm, most nights 6.30pm until sold out 


Related Grab Your Fork posts
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American barbecue - Oxford Tavern, Petersham
American barbecue - Surly's, Surry Hills
American barbecue - Vic's Meats at Sydney Fish Market, Pyrmont
Smoke - Firedoor, Surry Hills
Smoke - LP's Quality Meats, Chippendale

Kansas City barbecue: Gates, Oklahoma Joe's and Arthur Bryant's
Texas barbecue - Franklin, Ruby's, Green Mesquite, Salt Lick and La Barbecue

House of Crabs, Redfern

Rubber gloves. Check. Paper towels. Got it. This ain't no CSI scene. It's just another day, another bib-fest at the newly opened House of Crabs.

Sydney might be all up on American sliders, pulled pork and Reubens, but the Louisiana crab boil had yet to make our shores. Until now.

House of Crabs is the latest addition to the Drink n Dine portfolio, the group that includes The Carrington, The Abercrombie, Forresters, Queenies and Santa Barbara.


House of Crabs

It sits on the first floor of The Norfolk Hotel, once home to Drink n Dine offices. That's all been cleared now into a quirky space of booths, blackboard menus and nautical paraphernalia. Think dinghies hanging from the ceiling, gas lamps, nets and heavy ropes. They've even remodelled the bar so it looks like a boat. Impressive.

That's not a boat, that's the bar!

Crab Boil and swimming pool margaritas

There's a huge communal table running down the centre of the main dining area but everyone really wants to settle down into the red-and-white striped booths. Budweiser six-pack carriers have been refashioned into condiment containers. You'll find all the cutlery, crab crackers, scissors and rubber gloves you could possibly need.

Yabby blackboard special above a corner booth


Lobster fries $12

The menu is split into snacks, bigs and The Boil. Snacks include the Redfern prawn roll ($9), fried school prawns ($14) and a bbq octopus taco ($6) but our merry group of four (Suze, Mr and Mrs Thye and I) get stuck into the lobster fries, a pile of chips doused with lobster gravy.

The smell of lobster is intoxicating when this first hits our table but it doesn't come through taste-wise in the gravy, which is a little on the thin side. Nevertheless it's a fun dish to start with as you pick your way through the bounty of bacon, sweet burst of corn kernels and stretchy layer of melted cheese.


Little neck clams $20 for 500g

Bigs include fried chicken ($18 for a burger or plate), blackened fish ($22) and flat iron steak ($28) but today we only have eyes for the boil. The seafood comes in 500g lots, boiled in a large pot of water then transferred to a plastic bag and drenched with your choice of Cajun, Mexican, Oriental or lemon pepper sauce.

It all arrives steaming hot, and you're encouraged to tip everything straight onto your table - already covered in butchers paper. Forget about using cutlery. Roll up your sleeves and get in amongst it. The bib is highly recommended but we all pass on the gloves. How can you lick the sauce off your fingers if you're wearing those? Aye aye?


Queensland prawns $25 for 500g

The Queensland prawns are king-sized monsters, with easy-to-peel shells that reveal flesh that is firm and sweet. Sucking on those heads is a meal in itself (do it - it's the best part), and the lemon pepper sauce is a winning combo.

We'd ordered our little neck clams with the Oriental sauce but it tastes more of smoked paprika to us (maybe we got the wrong sauce?). It's wickedly hot too, with a burn that builds with every mouthful as you scrape each tender mollusc from its shell.


Yabbies $34 for 500g

Yabbies are a blackboard special today. We score about half a dozen in our 500g bag, tricky ones to release amid a tangle of legs but worth pursuing to find the delicate sweet flesh underneath.


King crab $45 for 500g

And then there's the king crab, their long legs easily cut open to reveal the crabmeat inside. We had ours with Cajun sauce - amped up with cayenne pepper and spices. The only sauce we're really left wanting for is garlic butter sauce. Come on guys... please?



By the time you've finished eating, your table will be piled high with shells, paper towels and debris. You'll probably have sauce on your cheek as well. Cleaning up is easy though, with everything rolled into a giant ball by your friendly server.

Wet towels are the fancy Korean kind, tiny white tablets that are "watered" in a dish until they rise and swell into pillars you can unravel into a moist towelette. They'll clean you up into a somewhat presentable state but bank on visiting the bathrooms too - they're only a few steps away on the staircase landing but just be warned they're unisex. No, you haven't wandered into the wrong bathroom.


Neapolitan ice cream waffle sandwich $12

There's only one dessert on the menu: the neapolitan ice cream waffle sandwich. It's unashamedly over-the-top and lurid, a thick slice of neapolitan ice cream shoved between two supermarket-style waffles, drizzled with a berry coulis, chocolate sauce and showered with toasted almonds.

Messy but crowd-pleasing fun. Just the way we like it.




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House of Crabs
Level 1, The Norfolk Hotel
305 Cleveland Street, Redfern, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9699 3177

Opening hours:
Lunch Friday 12pm - 3pm
Dinner Tuesday to Saturday 6pm - 12am


Related Grab Your Fork posts:
LA Koreatown - The Boiling Crab

Surry Hills - Forresters
Surry Hills - The Carrington
Chippendale - The Abercrombie