Review: Pete’s BBQ – Old Timer Holds Up!

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Of all the places I’ve reviewed this past year, Pete’s has been around the longest – 40 years at the end of this year! Pete Koutoulas opened the place in his early 30s, and he’s now in his 70s. And he still gets to the restaurant at 7 a.m. to start loading chickens into the rotisseried meats – which he believes may be 60 years old. This is truly a family and friends affair. Pete’s son, who went to school for real estate until his dad asked him to come in and help him, has worked here for 20 years.

It’s a family place, where old timers shoot-the-shit with Pete, have a sandwich, and inhale the aroma of roasting meats.

Don’t let the name fool you – this is no BBQ joint. It’s more of a cross between a hofbrau and a diner. What you get here is meat done on a rotisserie – their famous chicken, beef ribs, roast beef, turkey, and ham – meats that spin for hours on metal spits, basking in an electronic glow, slow-cooking, dripping their heavenly juices onto fabulously crispy skinned baked potatoes – just like on Paris’s Rue Mouffetard!

(Random, internet-cadged photo. Oh, la-la!)

Er, alright, if Paris were a Greek diner.

They also make a polish sausage and spaghetti dish. You can have any of the meats as a dinner or ala carte. Dinner gets you that luscious potato, two side salads (three-bean, tomato/cukes/lettuce, cole slaw, macaroni salad, or beets), and bread. You can also make like a cave man and order a whole turkey leg, and if they cooked two turkeys that day, you have a 50-50 chance of getting one. If they made two, your chances double. Apparently they sell a lot of turkey sandwiches at lunch time.

There’s a line out the door every night from about 6:30 p.m. (they close nightly at 7:30) – people waiting to buy whole chickens or slabs of ribs to take home to their families.

We stood in line one such night, waiting our turn to order at the counter and eat in. Pete’s isn’t a pretty place; it’s too bright and rundown, but homey and friendly, with Pete keeping up a cheerful running patter about how old he is. I used to come here years ago, but I always took my chicken home.

This night, I ordered the ribs.

Holy cow, don’t they look good? Well, they were! Very tender, meaty, and the sauce, if a little thin and brownish, wasn’t too sweet. My side salad was the slaw, which was fresh and tart, but nothing special. But oh, that potato…. Have I mentioned the crispy skin? The big scoop of butter? And don’t skimp on the sour cream – only $.75 extra, and worth every sou. I’d come to Pete’s for the spuds alone.

The BF wanted the roast beef, but at 7:00 p.m. they were out. “How often does that happen?” “Never!” So he went with ham instead.

You can see a couple of stray spaghetti made it onto the BF’s dinner. No matter. The ham was tasty and also tender, and they pile on enough of it that you can make yourself a bonus sandwich with that hunk of dutch crunch, which hides a secret surprise inside – a slab of butter. No one said this was health food. Please note, once again, the crispy skin on that potato. It is the stuff of dreams. And the beet salad may actually even be made with fresh roasted beets, but I’m not sure. Still, nice and earthy.

On our second visit, I ordered the chicken.

I kicked myself for not getting a half chicken, as I went with the quarter instead – all dark meat – but it turned out to be more than enough. This was my first time ever ordering it with the bbq sauce, and it was really good.   Much better than the chicken on its own.   What really surprised me was how that lettuce, cucumber and tomato salad held up. It looks like it’s been sitting in dressing all day, and maybe it has, but it wasn’t wilty at all. The dressing even tasted fresh, homemade, and the veggies were well-marinated.   For the sake of science, and for YOU, Dear Reader, we also ordered a side of the spaghetti. It doesn’t look like it would be very good, but surprisingly, we liked it. It had an unusual, almost nutmeggy seasoning to it, which gave it warmth. And of course, you’ll find no fancy-schmancy freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano over house-made, al dente pasta here. Nooooo. Nothing else will do than a half-dozen shakes of good old fake-parm-out-of-a-green-can over well-cooked noodles. Just like someone’s mama from the 50s used to make.

The BF finally got his roast beast – approximately five lbs. of thinly sliced beef, only slightly pink, but flavorful, and deceptively juicy and tender – swimming in au jus, of course.  This is kind of the BF’s ideal plate of food….

His macaroni salad lacked all semblance of flavor, to me, but otherwise, we deemed this second meal “Good!”

I can foresee us standing in that line again and taking a half chicken and a slab of ribs home, along with those incredible potatoes.

I asked Pete how many chickens he makes a day.

“Oh, I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head. “I never counted. A hundred, maybe?”

It’s the epitome of a hole-in-the-wall, serving reliable, tasty standards in gut-busting quantities and at incredibly decent prices to grateful Mission families. I hope they’re around for another 40 years.

Pete’s BBQ
2399 Mission St. (corner of 20^th)
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 826-1009
Cash Only