Rocklands Bbq Food Truck - Rockville

Open since 2004, this restaurant serves barbeque using their own sauce. Their original sauce was INEDIBLE. More on that later. They have 3 locations around the DC area. The first location opened in 1990 on Wisconsin Ave in Washington DC. It's still open. With 33 years of experience, they should be making exemplary barbeque. I have been trying to find a place that sells properly cooked barbeque meats with great flavors. This wasn't the place. My wife and I got 2 platters and a drink. 1) Three Meat Platter It had pulled chicken, chopped pork, beef brisket, 2 sides, a potato roll, and a small cup of their original sauce. A description of the AWFUL sauce is down below. The potato roll was soft and moist with a light sweetness and potato flavor. It was as good as any. They offer 25 sides. We chose sweet potato fries and brussel sprouts. A. Sweet potato fries It had brown sugar with a touch of salt. The brown sugar and sweet potato flavors went well together, but it was a little too sweet. It was slightly crispy and luke warm. If you like sugary fries, get these. B. Brussel sprouts They were cut into quarters and boiled with a few tiny pieces of bacon. It was oily even though it wasn't pan-fried. Go figure. The bacon was soft and mushy with no flavor. At least the brussel sprouts were cooked properly. Skip this side dish unless you want salted boiled brussel sprouts. C. Pulled chicken It was dry white meat with little flavor. So, my wife mixed it with their sweet and smoky sauce. We ate it the next day. It was better in taste and moisture. The sauce was sweet, smoky, tangy, and a little peppery. D. Chopped pork It was moist and very soft, almost mushy. It had good flavors of pork and seasoning, but they were light and easily overpowered by sauce. Needs fixing! E. Brisket It was moist, tender, and savory. It was sliced thin and easily chewed. The amount of fat was just right, and it was distributed well. One the best examples of brisket that I've had in a long time! F. Original sauce It had a strong vinegar and black pepper flavor with light flavors of ketchup, molasses, and spice. The sourness was overwhelming. The smell of vinegar was strong. The sauce at the self-serve counter was the same. This was the absolute worst barbeque sauce that I have ever tasted other than some North Carolina sauces. I hope this flavor isn't the norm. If it is, then call it North Carolina style sauce so people know. It's the considerate thing to do. 2) Chicken and Rib Platter It had a quarter chicken, 2 pork ribs, and 2 sides. We chose chili and beets. There was a choice of dark meat or white meat chicken. We chose dark meat. A. Chicken leg quarter It was moist and tender with some savoriness and a nice roasted flavor. This and the brisket were the best meats all around. B. Pork ribs They were moist, a little chewy, and slightly burnt. The pork flavor was weak due to their overpowering sour sauce. The texture was average, and the flavor needed vast improvement. C. Chili It had ground meat, green peppers, onions, kidney beans, and celery in a tomato sauce. It had well-balanced flavors of sweet, sour, peppery, and savory. The meat was in little chunks instead of a fine ground. Overall, this was tasty and satisfying. D. Beets They were marinated beets and diced onions that were sweet with a hint sourness. The beets were soft and cube shaped. It was a simple tasting dish with no depth in flavor. The service was polite, helpful, and quick. It took only 12 minutes for the food to be ready. The dining area and restroom were clean. The restroom was old and worn looking. They have a large variety of hot sauces and other sauces for sale along with their t-shirts. The drinks were self-serve. They don't have hot drinks. There's free parking in a small lot. Only 3 dishes were enjoyable out of the 9 dishes. This is what they serve after 33 years of experience!! Experience is only useful when it's used. Re-evaluation of the food preparation or ingredients is needed. We won't be back until improvements are made. For now, I don't recommend a visit.

I take it back. I take back my original review. Maybe it's because I live in Alexandria now and I have come to LOVE Rocklands. I'm sorry for what I said when I didn't know any better. I'm going to blame it on it being a catered event and maybe it was sitting out too long (it was 14 years ago since that review so I don't really remember but that's what I'm going to blame it on) Since then I've tried many of their specials and often order their bbq pork by the pound for sandwiches at home. Thank you Rocklands!

Update #2: Been here 2-3 times since, cookies are still over baked (they use to make them way better) but haven't had an issue with the wings. They have some of the best wings in the area and service has been great. Kudos to getting it right.

Amazing BBQ for an amazing price. The amount of meat that came with the pull chicken sandwich is incredible, packed with flavors and juicy. I also got the sliced pork sandwich which was amazing as well the pork was cooked just right and had little parts of fat that makes it taste so good! Restaurant is very clean and comes with many free sides like pickle radish and tons of condiments on the table. Service was really quick and kind food came within 5 minutes! Only bad things were the sides, Mac Cheese was cold and tasted cheap and the coleslaw was really watery. For a extra $5.50-6 for two sides I was a little disappointed.

This was my first time getting food from Rocklands. The service was quick and the food was just as delicious. I will definitely be back to check out the other menu items.