text: Fast-service BBQ places abound in just about every town and city, and they all deliver pretty much the same menu: BBQ brisket, pulled pork, chicken, sometimes ribs and burgers.  Tom's is the same.  Usually the ambiance is booths and plain tables-and-chairs.  Often you order at a counter and they bring you the food.  Tom's is the same.  Prices are usually a bit more than fast food but not as much as regular sit-down restaurants.  You guessed it - Tom's is the same.\n\nBut this Tom's has a problem.  Consider the brisket platter for about $10, which consists of brisket, a biscut, and a side.  What could be so bad?  Well, it was the brisket.  The portion consisted of about 3 ounces (maybe 4) of meat utterly covered in a sweet BBQ sauce -- not cooked with the sauce, just inundated with it.  Ok - scrape it off, you will suggest.  So I did.  What was underneath was small slices entirely from the fatty part of the brisket.  Half of my small portion of meat was fat, and not crispy tasty fat but soggy discouraging muck.  The pictures on the wall showed lots of lean slices from the first cut of the brisket -- misleading? or downright fraudulent?  Now I see why they put 6 ounces of BBQ sauce on 3 ounces of meat.\n\nI notice that the rest of our group of six was eating their food, mostly, but without any outward signs of real pleasure.  That at least was comforting - misery loves company.