The Flame BBQ

While I drove by The Flame dozens of times before actually going inside, I've been there several times now. It's probably because it's close to where I live, but mostly because it's so darn tasty. The brisket, I have to admit, may disappoint. But that's only because everything else is so much better in comparison. The ribs and pulled chicken are great but the pulled pork is A-MAY-ZING. I've had several of their side dishes and cornbread and my tummy always ends up with a smile. They have some good daily/weekly deals, too, so if you're planning to stop by, check the menu online first. But for reals, the pulled pork - it's the best I've had so far in this city. So moist and tender...the stuff dreams are made of.They are closed on Mondays and only open on Sundays for catering orders. I try to forget this as I have several times tried to call ahead a take out order on a Monday. I've also experienced the catering a few times and never been let down.

I had food from The Flame at Millvale Brew Fest (2016) and had the pulled pork sandwich which was ok. However, the man I took as being the owner or manager wasn't the nicest person around. I was in line for the buffet and couldn't decide if I wanted the pulled pork or Italian sausage sandwich (took me about 20 seconds). It was between sessions so it was down time and I was the only person in line. When I couldn't pick a sandwich immediately this guy got testy with me and said, "come on, come on, make up your mind". He made me feel like an idiot. If I wasn't starving I would have walked away without eating at all. I can tell you I'll never give them my patronage. Seriously who does that?

Sigh.... Last week was the second time my hubs and tried The Flame BBQ. We wanted to love it so badly. The pulled pork was ok, honestly not much better than I make at home in my slow cooker. The brisket was dry and flavorless. The absolute worst was the ribs. They were like trying to bite through a stick of beef jerky. They were dry, flavorless and just awful. The sauce is tangy, kind of interesting but not good enough to improve the flavor of any of this dry meat. The mac n' cheese had zero seasoning and the coleslaw may as well had been from the grocery store shelf and the cornbread actually was from the grocery store, I could bet all I have that they aren't making that in house. Oh, I almost forgot, we wanted to try their fries with pulled pork but they "didn't have the fryers on" Uhmmm, what? My husband loves BBQ and I ordered a lot from them for us to try and I was so disappointed and wasted a lot of money. It's worth it, north hills folks, to drive a little farther and get better BBQ.

This is one of those 'local gems' that you've got to try! This place is hidden in plain sight along Babcock Boulevard in Shaler (North Hills) in a converted house. You can't miss the large "The Flame" sign.Inside you'll find a few small tables and patio chairs, soda cooler, and TV. You could definitely eat here, but we usually do take-out. The owner is always there...ready to give suggestions and free samples. The menu has tons of options from ribs to chicken to homemade macaroni and cheese. Every side dish you need for the complete BBQ. Yesterday - he gave us a free BBQ chicken breast to try!I love the sampler platters - filled with pulled pork, chicken, ribs, and 2 sides of choice. The meat is perfectly smoked and flavored and fall-off-the-bone tender. The pulled chicken and pork doesn't come drowned in sauce - but you're welcome to add it! The BBQ sauce is sweet and tangy with a hint of spice. They also cater parties and deliver. A must try!

Boss Hog 8" pulled pork sandwich did NOT taste fresh and did not have much flavor. Sauce had too much vinegar, although the roll seemed fresh. Cornbread muffin was somewhere between North & South. Not sweet but not really Southern either. The place is not particularly clean and the owner is not very friendly. After walking in, we stood there silently while he waited for the lotto numbers to be announced. He got up, took our order without saying much - no greeting, menu suggestions or free samples as the previous poster reports. We sat down and he brought our food out silently. He then busied himself in the back while we ate and didn't say much when we left either. The item we ordered was (I believe) his signature sandwich. So, one would think it would be sorted out well, but this was not flavorful and I don't think particularly fresh. We wanted a bbq place we could depend on, but we won't be returning to this one.

Matt Plautz recommended this to me. The boss dog was out of this world. Snacked on a few of those while talking to the owner about how bad Jersey Mikes is. He's right Jersey Mike's ain't fire but it's bomb. Might bring my boy Tony Miller there next week to get some baked beans

I ate here this past Saturday afternoon with my girlfriend for lunch. My girlfriend and I both love BBQ and even though we have driven past this location many times (and I have eaten here a few times), it never really comes to mind whenever I am trying to think about a place to eat. Due to that we made sure to plan ahead of time and finally made it here. The inside of the place is not much to look at with only a counter to order, a cooler full of drinks, 3 tables, a TV and some magazines. It is clean though and probably serves the number of eat in people well as I remember having a conversation with the owner a few years ago about how most of their customers order their food to go.Upon picking up a menu I was pleasantly surprised to see that they have really expanded it from the last time that I was which was at least a year ago. After consulting with my girlfriend, we decided to split a beef brisket mac and cheese and also a miss piggy platter on which we ordered some pulled pork, collard greens and black eyed peas. It came out to us in about 10 minutes which seemed to be a more than reasonable time frame. The first thing that I noticed was that the beef brisket was shaved very thinly over top of the mac and cheese. It also had a nice smoky flavor which helped the dish immensely as I did not think that the mac and cheese itself was anything impressive. As a matter of a fact we decided to put some of their BBQ sauce on top of it in order to give it some more flavor which it definitely did. The pulled pork on our miss piggy platter was extremely tender and had some good flavors to it but the sides were both interesting. While the collard greens also had a good flavor, the bottom of the cup that it was served in was filled with some type of liquid whenever I was finished. Then the black eyed peas had something sour, probably kraut, in them. I still an unsure of how I felt about that as at times I thought the sourness added something to the peas and at other times I thought that it was a bit much. In the end my girlfriend and I ended up finishing everything and definitely left the place feeling satisfied.The bottom line for me is that I would definitely head back here again in the future. Their BBQ sauce is good and their food reasonably priced for what you get making for a good meal.

We used The Flame for a large indoor event and ordered $1000 worth of food. The pulled- pork with their homemade BBQ sauce is the best! All their sides are excellent, especially their greens, pierogies and baked beans. I would NOT recommend their hamburgers or hotdogs. They're not grilled. They appear to have been mass baked in an oven. Spend a little more and get their shredded meats or ribs or brisket. Overall, I highly recommend them and plan on using them again in the future.

My family loves this place for the food and the excellent staff. All of the meats are really good and the sides rock. My favorite is the bbq beef. We had Lou cater our family reunion. Everyone loved it!

Some of the best baked beans I ever had, kid who served me I think his name was Nick looked a little high. The pulled pork was the best around town and the owner is from beaver county. Good customer service except the owner kept talking trash on Jersey Mikes