Tags
bbq, conesus lake, Dinner, finger lakes, food, lakeville ny, Restaurant Review, ribs, the three legged pig
The lucky first culinary blog of the Western Finger Lakes region goes to The Three Legged Pig in Lakeville – for BBQ and beer. Why a pig with only 3 legs you ask? 
This place is super chill. Kind of a cross between a juke joint and a gas station pit stop, you can walk in and pick your own table, bring kids and get a quick delicious meal without any fuss. Unfortunately it was also chilly, I was cold and I noticed that several people kept their coats on. That wouldn’t stop me from going back though; it’s a great value.
The servers were quick and accommodating – they shared all of the work so we met them both. The food was really well done. We tried the redneck egg rolls which were slightly larger than a typical egg roll and stuffed with veggies and smoky pork. They served this with a sweet/spicy dip. I really liked these. They kinda trick you because you can’t help but expect the taste of a Chinese egg roll but then you get the smoke. A combo meal in addition was more than enough food for 2.5 people. The #4 that we ordered included ribs, pulled pork, jalapeño corn bread, sweet potato fries and an extra side of coleslaw – all delicious. Ribs were nice & charred, the pulled pork was tender and vinegary. The corn bread was slightly undercooked and not particularly spicy but was still good.
The fries were hot and crispy on the outside, soft on the inside and the slaw was fresh and crunchy and not soggy at all. King was a big fan, he pounded his dinner. 
The Three Legged Pig leaves a few different kinds of house BBQ sauces on the table – all of which are good if you like it sweet. A regular house BBQ, a mustard sauce and a spicy sauce. The only down side to this place is that they were all too sweet for me, even with the vinegar on the pork. However, don’t let that keep you from making a stop here. We had a great dinner plus a whole leftover meal to bring home for around $30.00. Next time you’re trucking down the 390 past Conesus lake, make a quick stop here or order their catering for your lake picnic.
Especially if you’re even remotely like me (having enormous difficulty actually adhering to a recipe), these great folks can save you a lot of trouble. Part of their model is to choose items that are common and either commonly messed up, not as good as they could be or way to complicated for a normal person to have time for. Then, they experiment with different methods, ingredients and equipment. You get the results of each, what tasters liked best and what flopped. Take 5 minutes to read their kitchen diary entry before each recipe and save yourself a lot of trouble while learning methods and chemistry at the same time.
We ordered drinks first – wine and beer all around and a craft cocktail to taste. We chose what we thought was the most bad-ass one on the menu: the Spanish Harlem. Let me preface this by saying that these lovely ladies enjoy whiskey of all kinds and generally drink it neat, so the issue here is not toughness. We thought – r
ye, mezcal, vermouth, lemon – awesome, what could possibly go wrong? Unfortunately only 2 of 5 liked it enough to have more than one sip and 0 of 5 would order this again. The words “cleaner,” “gasoline,” and “bacon” were used. I was happy with my malbec, but there are plenty of other options.
Our suspender-wearing server was knowledgeable, polite, prompt and sufficiently indulgent of 5 women more interested in talking that focusing on the menu. All of the food plus 6 drinks ended up costing us each a little under $38 plus tip, which I thought was very reasonable for the experience we had. I will not order another Spanish Harlem, but I will go back.