• By GEORGE MORRIS
• Restaurant reviewer
• Published: Nov 20, 2009

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We’re not sure you have to be a dining snob to question a restaurant choice based on its exterior. First impressions and all that.

Cou-Yon’s Cajun Bar-B-Q in Port Allen (not connected with a similarly named restaurant in south Baton Rouge) is housed in a fairly nondescript building that we’d be tempted to drive past. That, however, would be a mistake. This place serves up some very good barbecue.

Now, everyone has their own ideas about barbecue, but there are some things we can all agree on. It should be moist and tender. It needs to be either cooked with a savory spice rub or served with a sauce that compliments the meat without overwhelming it. And, since we’re probably hungry when we arrive, get it to us quickly.

On our two recent visits, Cou-Yon’s nailed all three. That sort of batting average causes us to overlook aesthetics.

Speaking of which, the small interior has some nice rustic touches like weathered wood and corrugated metal trim to give it the appropriate feel. But, once we ordered, there wasn’t much time to consider that. On both occasions — a fairly busy weekday lunch, a weeknight dinner with few other diners present — the food arrived almost as soon as we sat down after filling our drink glasses.

The two-meat combo plate ($8.49) was a convenient way to sample Cou-Yon’s meat offerings. On our lunch foray, we went with pork spare ribs and sausage, which came with Texas toast, barbecue sauce, pickles, onions and jalapenos as well as two sides. The two ribs had plenty of meat on their bones and, like the sausage, were flavorful without any sauce. We were especially impressed with the ribs. Spare ribs can be chewy if not done right, but these were moist and tender.

Cou-yon’s Cajun BBQ offers two sauce flavors, smoky and sweet. We were far more impressed with the former than the latter. The sweet sauce didn’t pack much flavor, and its consistency was too watery. It didn’t seem to matter whether we used it or not. The smoky sauce was far superior, both in flavor and consistency.

For dinner, we had the moist brisket (they also offer a lean version) and chopped beef. Neither had a lot of seasoning, but the smoky sauce took care of that. The moist brisket lived up to its adjective.

After our experience with the spare ribs, we eagerly anticipated a rack of baby back ribs ($19) and were not the least bit disappointed. The ribs had a crisp, smoky exterior but tender and easily came off the bone, with enough flavor to enjoy even without the sauce — but why do that?

The sandwich combos ($6.50 for quarter pound, $7.95 for half pound) offer the option of lean or moist brisket, chopped beef, pulled pork, sausage or turkey along with one side order. We went with the quarter pound of pulled pork, which was, as expected, moist but not tremendously flavorful without the smoky sauce, but quite good with it. That amount of meat is quite sufficient for lunch, especially with the generous helping of rustic red potato salad, which has slices and chunks of potato in a slightly sweet dressing.

We had mixed opinions about some of the side items. We enjoyed the green beans, finding chunks of potato and onion in them and loads of flavor, and the macaroni and cheese was also quite good. Disappointments: the mashed potatoes were covered in a bland brown gravy; the cole slaw was dry and packed little flavor, and the onion rings were overcooked.

Only one dessert ($1.75) remained available on our dinner visit, but the apple cobbler with vanilla ice cream was a fine way to finish a meal.

The service, as we mentioned, was quite swift, and the manager stopped by on both our visits to make sure everything was all right. It certainly was.