Ozona Pig
311 Orange Street, Palm Harbor Florida, 34683
727-773-0744
My family and I actually ate here a few weeks ago and I have just gotten around to downloading the pictures. I had a copy of the menu; however, I left it at the house in Florida. So here goes….
I heard about Ozona Pig when I was in Palm Harbor in February. One of the contractors that were working on my house told me about it. I didn’t go at that time as I was alone down there and I think that good barbeque needs to be enjoyed with a group. I suggested this to The Captain one night when I was getting sick of eating Grouper. The Princess had just come home from a month in Italy, so pasta was out and Joe just eats chicken tenders wherever we go anyway. Surprisingly, The Captain agreed to go, so Pig it was.
Ozona Pig is located off of Alternate 19, off Tampa Rd in Ozona (Palm Harbor). It’s sort of tucked away behind the Pinellas trail and the whole neighborhood has a very Florida Keys feel to it. They have a small parking lot behind the building, which we were able to park in no problem, and they also have a few spots out front. It wasn’t very crowded but it was a Monday night and it was early.
We sat inside because of the heat, but they have picnic tables outside for when the weather is a little more agreeable.
It smells heavenly inside, meat lover’s heaven! The waitress came right over and took our drink order, no cocktails tonight, Joe had a soda, The Captain and I ordered unsweetened ice tea and The Princess had her usual just water. After examining their pretty extensive menu we placed our order: Pulled Pork nachos for an appetizer, Joe ordered the kids Chicken Fingers, The Captain and I both ordered the Beef Brisket Dinner Plates, and The Princess ordered a Boss Hog Salad with pulled Pork.
The nachos came out soon after we ordered; the standout in this dish was definitely the Pork. The nacho chips were pretty standard and I was a little disappointed with the “canned” cheese sauce, but the pork (of course the reason we came here) was amazing! It was tender and succulent, cooked perfectly and smoky; if I could have I would have wiped the cheese off and just ate the meat and chips. Of course, we kept the cheese on it, much to my cardiologists chagrin, and we ate the whole plate between the three of us (Joe don’t do that).
The dinners came out timed perfectly with us finishing the appetizer, which adds extra points in my book. So many places bring the dinners too soon after the appetizers, but not so here. Joe’s chicken was pretty much the standard fried tenders and French fries which he said were very good and Joe gave extra points for having honey mustard (not all places have it and sometimes he is relegated to ketchup only).
The BBQ plates included the brisket, a deviled egg, baked beans and cole slaw.
The beef was smoky and flavorful. I am pretty picky about the tenderness of my meat, much more so than The Captain, the meat to me was a little chewy, but it wasn’t tough, and it wasn’t dry, sometimes brisket barbeque can be overdone and dry which this wasn’t. The deviled egg could have used some more seasoning, but it was a nice touch to the plate, the cole slaw was your average coleslaw not too much mayonnaise but for me the shining star on this plate was, believe it or not, the beans! They were sweet and tender with a hint of….brown sugar? Maple syrup? Overall this dish was very good and both The Captain and I enjoyed it.
The Boss Hog Salad with pulled pork.
This was a nice dish and I guess she liked it because she pretty much ate the whole thing, at least all the meat out of it. Basically, mixed Greens topped with pulled pork and a very tasty dressing: Mandarin orange sesame ginger vinaigrette…..Whew! That’s a mouthful! There were a few cubes of cheese on the dish, and salad was a nice size, just big enough.
No dessert was ordered as we were pretty full and not to mention that Strachan’s Ice Cream (I will review that another day) is right down the road. . They also have a pretty good looking breakfast menu that looks interesting.
Overall, I think that we all enjoyed our meals and the whole “feel” of the restaurant and we will definitely return on our next trip down to Palm Harbor.
Have you been to Ozona Pig? If so, please comment, I would love to hear about your experience.
Happy Eating!
Chrissy.
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