Otis Jackson's Soul Dog-Closed

Otis Jackson's Soul Dog
5166 Lankershim Blvd
North Hollywood
(818) 980-6847

As I mentioned in my review of Papaya King, which opened near Skooby's in Hollywood, Otis Jackson's Soul Dog opened near Vicious Dogs, in North Hollywood. What a great idea, combining soul food and hot dogs!!




I got the two piece fried chicken basket, $9.99 with double mac and cheese. You get your choice of pieces, so I got a breast and wing. Soul Dog mentions their hot dogs are all beef, natural casing with no nitrates and their chicken is free range chicken. One taste and you can tell the quality of the chicken and hot dogs!

The chicken was a bit salty but otherwise this exactly what fried chicken should be. Crunchy and flavorful on the outside, moist and tender on the inside. The skin was coated with a nice batter that gave it great flavor, though a bit salty. The inside of the breast piece was so moist and tender. WOW, I was very impressed.

The mac and cheese was a bit greasy, but had a lot of flavor. The macaroni was perfectly cooked and the cheese was baked right in.

The menu said hot water cornbread, and I was really looking forward to having hot water cornbread again, but I was told they no longer serve hot water cornbread. I like cornbread, but I LOVE hot water cornbread.



I also got the all beef hot dog with mustard and onions, $3.99. My game plan for any hot dog place, is to try a hot with minimal amount of toppings. If the hot dog isn't good, no amount of toppings can make up for it. But, the hot dog at Soul Dog is awesome; an all beef hot dog with a ton of snap and bursting with flavor. The spice mixture is right on, and you can taste the quality of the hot dog. The hot was lightly toasted and held up well. Next time I'll try a mac and cheese dog, a hot dog topped with mac and cheese. The hot dog is a bit pricey, but worth it. I would rather pay $3.99 for this quality hot dog, than that crap from Papaya King.

Service is great!! You are greeted when you walk into the restaurant by the owner, at least I believe he is the owner. He is very nice and welcoming. Then you are greeted by the cashier, who was a very nice young lady. In addition to greeting people, the owner brings your food to your table. The food came out quickly and was served hot.

I will be coming back to Otis Jackson's Soul Dog, very soon. I will try one of their signature hot dogs, but I may have to get another helping of their great fried chicken. What a great addition to the North Hollywood restaurant scene!!

Joe Peeps New York Pizza

Joe Peeps New York Pizza
12460 Magnolia Blvd
North Hollywood
818-506-4133

Having gone to Joe Peeps in Whittier, I was looking forward to trying the Joe Peeps in North Hollywood. This is the original Joe Peeps, in the LA area. Later, they opened the Whittier location, but they are now, separate pizza restaurants.



I wanted to try this slice and I got a cheese slice, $2.25. Joe Peeps has a blue collar pizza-which is like a NY style pizza, and a 5,969 calorie pizza. I thought the slices would be the the blue collar but it was the 5,969 calorie pizza slice. It was bad. The cheese was so bland and tasteless. The crust was cardboard. The sauce had too much oregano. I was not impressed at all.

Service was good. The guy who helped me was nice and friendly.

I would not go back to the Joe Peeps in North Hollywood. So disappointing, that the original Joe Peeps, isn't as good as the Joe Peeps in Whittier.

Swingin Door Texas BBQ

Swingin Door
11018 Van Owen St
North Hollywood
818-763-8996

If this looks familiar, it should; this used to be Swinging Door BBQ. Swinging Door closed down in the summer of 2008 and reopened as Swingin Door, in 2009. It is the same location and smoker, the differences are; the lack of G at the end, a new owner, and sadly the BBQ isn't up to Swinging Door.




A good addition to their menu is, spare ribs. Spare ribs can be so much better than baby back ribs. I go the regular plate combo, 1 meat, spare ribs and one side, mac and cheese. The spare ribs are St. Louis style ribs, not rib tips, but they lacked flavor and taste. While the bones were big, there wasn't much meat on them either. What meat was on the ribs were too mushy. Either they were oversmoked or the quality of the meats isn't up to par. There was a hint of smoke flavor but this lacked a bark and seasoning. The BBQ sauce was bland too.

The mac and cheese was also bland. Somebody at the table said "The mac and cheese is all butter." and it really was. This was creamy but didn't have much of a cheesy flavor.




I wanted to try their championship ribs, so I got half a rack, $13.99. Championship ribs need to be ordered a day in advance. The championship ribs are "wet" baby back ribs. They are basted in a pretty bland sauce. Again this had a hint of smoke flavor but they lacked a real bark and any seasoning. So bland. There was more meat on the ribs and since they are baby backs, very tender. But overall very average.

Service was very good. They are nice people and very helpful.

I was sad to find out that Swinging Door had closed. I was happy to find that Swingin Door had opened but disappointed in the quality of the BBQ. I wouldn't go back.

KC BBQ Company-Closed

KC BBQ Company
10863 Magnolia Blvd
North Hollywood
818-754-0030

Today was a good and bad day. Bad in that I found out the Swinging Door BBQ is now closed. But about two miles away a new BBQ place opened up. I'm sure glad KC BBQ Company is now opened.

KC is the BBQ capitol of the US. They BBQ anything and everything, over hickory.

KC BBQ Company was opened up by a guy who lived in KC and learned to BBQ from some of the best pitmasters around. In KC there is debate about which BBQ restaurant is better, Gates or some other guy. Gates kicks ass, trust me.

Anyways since we're not in KC, but snobby LA, KC BBQ Company has to cater their business to their customers. So that means no spare ribs, only baby backs. The half order of baby backs, $14.06, were sooo good. Now as readers of The New Diner know, I think spare ribs are yuppie, white suburban food. I hate it. But I will eat it. These ribs were so moist, tender and flavorful. TThey had a nice bark and good amount of meat on them. The BBQ sauce was a mild tasting sauce. Not too sweet and not hot. I think just right for the ribs. But I just couldn't help thinking how great spare ribs would be from KC BBQ Company.

Some people may not know the difference between ribs. There are usually three kinds of ribs. Spare ribs and baby back ribs are PORK ribs from a pig. St. Louis ribs are spare ribs, with the top part cut off. Baby back ribs are cut from the top of the rib cage on a pig. They are close to the loin, which is the best cut on a pig. Baby back ribs are more expensive and easier to BBQ.

Spare ribs are taken from the belly side of the ribcage. They are bigger, have more fat, and are tougher than baby backs. But spare ribs in the hands of a great pitmaster, can be BBQ'd to be tender, not fat, and better tasting than baby backs. It takes a skilled pitmaster to make great spare ribs. Anybody can make a good rack of baby back ribs.

Beef ribs are from a cow. Beef ribs are bigger, since cows are bigger than pigs. If done correctly beef ribs are tasty.

There is nothing fancy about KC BBQ Company. The red and white checkered table clothes are clean but fading. They fake log cabin wood planel is always a welcoming site. But really what gives a damn.

Service was poor. When I got there somebody else had just finished ordering, so I walk up to the counter and the guy behind the counter, walks away and cleans off a table. He couldn't wait five minutes, after I order, to clean the table? When he gets back, he talks my order and things are fine. But I don't think it's good customer service when somebody walks away from a paying customer.

Dispite the poor service, I would go back because the ribs were great. I will try the beef ribs because the table next to me ordered some beef ribs and they looked so good.

Update March 14, 2009



WOW what a change. First the KC BBQ Co has been fixed up. New coat of paint, the bar, which is attached to KC BBQ Co is opening tomorrow and has a great selection of beers.

I got the burnt ends sandwich, $8.99. Burnt ends are brisket. When pitmasters smoke brisket, the ends always get burnt. Pitmaster cut off those ends, when the brisket is done, chop them up and serves them.

This was really the first time I've ever had burnt ends and they were great. The ends had a wonderful smoked flavor. Very good stuff. The BBQ sauce did not overpower the flavor, many times the meat is drowned in BBQ sauce and the smoked flavor is ruined. But this is a very good example of burnt ends. Remember KC BBQ means a sweeter sauce, though some places have made a spicer version.

Service was also much better. I walked in and was greeted. I told the guy that I had a group of about 12 people. He saved an entire section of seats for us, even though the group wasn't scheduled to arrive until 30 minutes later.

Vicious Dogs

Amy K, is from Chicago and said the Chicago dog here is very good. Now I'll be honest, I think Yelp is filled with a bunch of liberal assholes, who voted for the wrong candidate for President and wouldn't have a clue if an 18 wheeler ran them over. But even those assholes may find a good restaurant every now and then. Amy K is pretty cool, though her choice of baseball teams leaves a hell of a lot to be desired. Plus being from Chicago she must know her hot dogs.

So I go to Vicious Dogs and I have high expectations. So I ordered just the all beef Vienna dog, $2.99, but I don't like all the crap that comes on a Chicago dog. So I just ask for mustard and onions. The manager says, you can put the condiments on yourself from the table. OK I figured. You can get your hot dog grilled, charbroiled or fried. I asked for grilled but got a light charbroiled. Not off to a good start. Then I go to the condiment table and the onions are in a container and the mustard is regular French's mustard. Nothing fancy, but what the hell?

So I bite into the dog. It's a good sized dog but doesn't have a good snap. Terrible in fact, almost as if there isn't a casing. Or the damn kid burned the casing off. But once you got past the charbroiled, the hot dog was OK, nothing great and certainly not how Amy K described it. The only thing I did like about the hot dog was that it came on a steamed poppy seed bun.

Service was bad. From the first picture you can see the manager sitting outside reading the paper. I thought he was a customer but no, he's the manager. Inside I see a couple surfing the net and hanging out, again, I figure they are customers. So the guy from out front comes in asks what I want, I place an order for the Chicago dog. Then the kid comes up from cyberspace and starts cooking my hot dog.
They are friendly enough but damn at least pretend like you work there.

I would not go back to Vicious Dogs again. I had high hopes but they didn't come close to being met.

The Swinging Door BBQ-Closed

The Swinging Door BBQ
11018 Van Owen
North Hollywood
818-763-8996

The Swinging Door is a new BBQ place that has many of the idiots at Chowhounds debating about what real BBQ is. Well Swinging Door is real BBQ. They smoke the meat right in front of the restaurant. You can smell smoke a mile away. I guess The Swinging Door was having issues with running out of meat, especially beef ribs when they first opened. Well beef ribs are not on the menu anymore. But I'm sure the idiots on Chowhounds will find something else to cry about.

I ordered the Basket of Ribs with one side for $9.50. The ribs are listed as ala carte but the Swinging Door is nice enough to give you a free side order, I ordered Mac and cheese.

I loved the ribs. They were nice and tender. Had a great smoke flavor, look at the smoke ring in the picture of the ribs. They are great. The BBQ sauce is a light, sweet tomato based sauce that was OK. But the ribs are the best ribs I've had at a BBQ in the Valley. The mac and cheese isn't anything special but when the ribs are great, who cares?

The service is great. Friendly and helpful. They even allowed me to sample their links, brisket, and chicken breast while I was waiting. I saw them slicing the tri tip and it looked sooo good, next time I am order the two meat combo and get the ribs and tri tip. The link was good, mild and not too spicy. The brisket was nice and tender and the couple slices I had there was no fat. The chicken was a little overcooked but I liked the flavor and would order it again.

I think I found my favorite BBQ place in the Valley. Great service and great food is a combo that can't be beat.