Willy's BBQ & Grill Smokehouse

THIS PLACE IS UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT AND HAS BEEN RENAIMED!  We will re-review.

 “Meat isn’t murder, it’s delicious.”

--- John Lydon

WILLY’S BBQ & GRILL SMOKEHOUSE

(Soon to change its name to TAVERN 101 BAR AND GRILL)

24834 Roadside Drive

Agoura Hills, CA 91301

818-991-7227

11:30 AM to 10 PM              Monday through Sunday

http://willysbbqandgrill.com/index.html

We were actually intending to try to find que in the other direction.  The place we wanted to try was in East Pasadena but they are closed on Mondays.  A chance Google turned us on the Willy’s.  The afternoon was free so why not?  When you’ve driven to Palmdale just to sample some que driving to Agoura is no big deal.

Willy’s is easy to drive by if you are not paying attention.  It is a small place on the frontage road at the south side of the 101 freeway in Agoura.  There are many other businesses that are more noticeable.  Willy’s hides behind a tall, blank wooden fence that makes the patio, in front of the building, habitable for dining in nice weather despite its proximity to the freeway.  There is a small parking lot behind it, accessible down a narrow driveway, on the west side of the building.  The lot is shared with some office space behind it.  It’s OK to park on the street.  There is a sign, barely visible over the top of the fence, but we found it because the smoker was going leaving a telltale plume of hickory scented smoke from the back of the building.  We parked in back where the large trailer smoker was intruding a bit into the handicapped access space. 

We entered from the rear where the signage says “Tavern 101”.  I really can’t say that the interior is restaurant designer roadhouse.  This place IS a roadhouse.  It seems to be a somewhat upmarket (7 flat screen TVs) country bar with a kitchen attached.  The woodwork is oak and some reproduction, humorous, bar signs (along with a couple of real pipeline warning signs) are scattered around the room.  The seating is all at tables with the ones around the edge of the dining area and in the bar proper being at pub height.

Since it was at the beginning of the lunch hour on a Monday morning we were the only customers in the place.  We were greeted by a bright, pretty, and very helpful server named Paige who was wearing a T-shirt that had the “Tavern 101” logo.  When asked about the name she said that they were changing it to differentiate them from the barbecue place down the street.  She gave us our menus and took our drink orders.  The setups on the table were real metal flatware wrapped in real cloth napkins.  There were four squeeze bottles of barbecue sauce on the table, Sweet, Mild, Spicy, and Turbo.  Paige also informed us that if the Turbo sauce was not hot enough they also have a Nytro sauce by request.

The Lunch menu says nothing about combo plates, but two meat combos are available by request.  Sharon ordered a Beef Brisket and Baby Back Ribs combo with Baked Beans and Macaroni & Cheese for sides.  I had a Pulled Pork and Tri-tip combo with Sweet Potato Fries and Coleslaw.  We were given a basket of Corn Bread while we waited for our orders.  The food arrived quickly, but Sharon’s meat was not dry, as ordered.  The kitchen made up a new plate immediately.  By this time there were other customers there and they were working on other orders so the response was impressive.

Corn Bread

The basket had four squares of a sheet pan cornbread that was moist but crumbly.  It was not too sweet and had kernels of corn in it.  It was a good appetizer, but is not firm enough to stand up to un-melted butter.

Macaroni & Cheese

The macaroni was a penne regatta and was cooked al dente and mixed with a creamy cheddar cheese sauce.  It was very tasty and good as a side dish but not a main dish mac and cheese.

Baked Beans

This was a conventional side dish serving of beans in a pleasantly not too sweet sauce.  With a little searching I found some small pieces of pork in it.  Again, strictly a side dish and not beans you would be tempted to make a meal out of.

Coleslaw

What I would refer to as a competent coleslaw, multiple cabbages with carrots, it had a cream style sauce that was a bit too creamy and wet to my taste.  However, it did not taste bad and went very well on a pulled pork sandwich made with the leftover pulled pork.

Sweet Potato Fries

We tend to avoid sweet potato fries most places since they are usually underdone and nasty. These were properly done and very tasty.  Not only were these crisp and hot as served, but they were even good the next day as nuked leftovers.

Tri-Tip

It was pleasing to find a nice, juicy chunk of tri-tip on my plate.  If it was sliced too thin I would have no one but myself to blame.  A proper smoke ring was visible when I cut a slice off the end.  The taste lived up to the visual clues…just how tri-tip is supposed to taste.  Tri-tip is usually done with oak and the hickory is a more subtle, but still excellent.

Baby Back Ribs

The Baby Back Ribs were, in a word, great.  They were just short of fall off the bone tender and were just smoky enough so they tasted properly barbecued without overwhelming the flavor of the pork.  These definitely do not disappoint.

Brisket

This is the one place they fell down.  Don’t get me wrong, it was better than many I have had, but this tasted like brisket my mother could have made if she was having an exceptionally good day.  It was a bit dry, too well done and didn’t have the full flavor of the smoke.  A bit of the mild sauce improved it.  The leftovers did, however, pass the kitty test.

Pulled Pork

Proper Southern style pulled pork, this has flavor that was not overwhelmed by anything else on the plate.  Of course, I had to make a pulled pork sandwich with the leftovers, the leftover coleslaw and a bit of the sweet sauce (It has a mustard base.) the next day for lunch.  It was great!  I did not give the leftovers the kitty test.  When it is this good the cats can get their own.

Paige said that they were changing the name to Tavern 101 in order to differentiate themselves from the barbecue place down the street.  Well it isn’t hard.  The place down the street is the original Wood Ranch Barbecue and while it ranks well enough it is not destination barbecue.  Willy’s is destination barbecue.  They smoke with hickory and while hickory smoke is a bit subtle for some tastes it is done right here.  Whatever they want to call the place this is great barbecue.  We give them eight and a half.  If the brisket was up to the standards of the other que it would have been a nine.

Ratttler's BAR B QUE

“The preparation of good food is merely another expression of art, one of the joys of civilized living…”
― Dione Lucas

 

RATTLER’S BAR B QUE

26495 GOLDEN VALLEY ROAD

SANTA CLARITA, CA 91351

661-251-4195

11:00 AM to 9:30 PM          Sunday through Thursday

11:00 AM to 10:00 PM        Friday and Saturday

Happy Hour 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM            Monday through Friday

http://www.rattlersbbq.com/

We started out a bit later than usual for the drive to Santa Clarita, but that worked out since the traffic was lighter.  That side of Santa Clarita is still “out in the country” and the drive from the freeway to the shopping area of town seems to be in the middle of nowhere at night.  The location is in a relatively new shopping mall just past a Sam’s Club.  There are a couple of rather noticeable gas heaters in the outside waiting area that show a spectacular flame but don’t seem to put out much heat. The interior is done in a Southwestern contemporary design with a repetitive theme of old cowboy boots decorated with paint and “jewels” that are spread around the room.  The designer must have gotten a good buy on those boots.  An amply stocked bar is in front of the line with the semi-open kitchen behind.  The only discordant note is a somewhat Damoclean assemblage that hangs over the interior of the entry.  It is a three tier assembly loaded with colored glass containers.  It seems sturdy enough for building and safety but didn’t make any sense to us.

The host seated us at a booth with a very practical and contemporary table top of wood bordered stainless steel.  The setups are real flatware wrapped in black real cloth napkins.  The only other table furnishings were salt and pepper shakers and a coffee shop style syrup dispenser filled with and overly sweet barbecue sauce.  (In the interest of full disclosure I did not ask if they had other sauces.)  Our server arrived promptly and took our drink order.  Sharon ordered water and I ordered ice tea.  Both arrived in quart sized Mason jars. 

The menu provides a good selection of appetizers, salads, burgers and sandwiches but seems somewhat limited in the barbecue selection.  The only meats on the barbecue plates are Baby Back Ribs, Prime Beef Ribs, Tri-tip, BBQ Chicken, BBQ Chicken Breast, and oddly enough, Salmon.  Combination plates are two or three meat and do not include the Salmon.  This made it easy to decide quickly on our orders.  Faced with a choice of only five meats (four since two of the selections are chicken) Sharon ordered a two meat combo with Baby Back Ribs, and Tri-tip and I ordered a two meat combo with Prime Beef Ribs and BBQ Chicken Breast.  The sides are also somewhat limited so I ordered Twice Baked Mashed Potatoes along with Nutty Coleslaw and Sharon ordered Baked Beans along with Macaroni and Cheese.  The Macaroni and Cheese is a “Specialty Side” and there is an “up charge” when you order it along with a meal.  While we waited for our order our server brought a basket of garlic rolls.  The food arrived before we finished the rolls.  After we sampled the que we ordered a small portion of Triple Chocolate Blackout Cake for dessert.

Garlic Rolls

The garlic rolls should have been quite delightful.  They are baked in-house from commercially supplied dough.  Then they are dipped in garlic butter, dusted with parmesan cheese and finely chopped parsley.  The parsley is a bit disconcerting since it is so bright green that it looks like colored sugar for cookies.  Unfortunately, while they were acceptable, they did not quite have the flavor you expect from freshly baked rolls.

Nutty Coleslaw

This is an “A-“ coleslaw.  It is multiple cabbages with green onion in a spicy vinaigrette dressing.   It was not overly wet and my only complaint was that the dressing could have had a little more spice.  I found it just a bit timid.  In spite of that, there are many other places, barbecue and otherwise, that could learn to make coleslaw from this one.

Twice Baked Mashed Potatoes

Mashed potatoes with barbecue?  Yes, if they are these mashed potatoes.  These are so good that I am going to try this method at home.

Macaroni & Cheese

As a specialty side this comes in a generous serving.  The pasta is cooked al dente, and mixed with a creamy white cheddar sauce that seems to have a slight hint of garlic and onion powder.  This is similar, though not as rich, to the mac and cheese served at some other barbecue restaurants in the area.  It’s a good, competent mac and cheese but falls just short of great.

Baked Beans

This is a conventional side of baked beans in a somewhat too sweet sauce.  It is nothing to write home about.

Baby Back Ribs

The ribs had a puzzling skin on the back as though the chef had not pulled the silver skin off before putting it in the smoker or on the grill.  This made them very hard to separate even with a sharp knife.  The meat was fall off the bone tender which made this even more difficult since when you try to put a knife between them the meat falls off the bones into the plate.  Now I know that mesquite smoke is more subtle than most of the woods used in barbecue smoking but despite the tenderness of the ribs they didn’t taste as though they had been anywhere near a smoker.  Baby Back Ribs should not disappoint, but these did.

Prime Beef Ribs

Another disappointment, these ribs were tough, a bit dry, and surprisingly for an upscale barbecue place, actually stringy.  Tough beef ribs don’t allow the flavor to come through.  You would expect a big beef flavor, but it wasn’t there.  They just weren’t what I would call prime.

Tri-tip

Now this looked promising.  It wasn’t sliced too thin, in fact it wasn’t sliced but was a nice chunk of tri-tip.  The fact that it was a bit hard to cut with a steak knife was puzzling since it certainly was not tough to chew.  While it was tender to the tooth it did not have a visible smoke ring and the flavor showed it.  We were beginning to wonder if our taste buds had taken a vacation.

BBQ Chicken Breast

It tasted like a good grilled chicken breast.  It was tender and done though, but had only the slightest hint of smoke.  It was more flavorful than the baby backs, but not by much.  A better than average grilled chicken breast but not great as barbecue chicken.

Triple Chocolate Blackout Cake

This is a tall but average commercial “Death by Chocolate” cake.  It is kept refrigerated and served cold.  The small portion was more than enough for two so we took it home.  The next day, after a few seconds in the microwave to bring it to just above room temperature it tasted better. 

When you walk into Rattler’s you are favorably impressed.  The surroundings are clean and contemporary, the staff is young, bright and helpful, and you are set up for a good experience.  Unfortunately, the que doesn’t live up to the expectation.  While mesquite smoking can be subtle, compared to woods used by other pit masters, in this case it is just plain bland.  We came out feeling that we had been to a Stonefire Grill with proper table service.  It didn’t seem to be barbecue.  Not only that, but we experienced a bit of indigestion later in the evening.  Now indigestion is not necessarily the result of what you just ate.  It can be caused by food you had eaten as much as seventy-two hours earlier.  Unfortunately, when I tried the leftovers the next day I experienced the indigestion again.  It still could have been me and not the food, but even giving them the benefit of the doubt on that we still can’t rate them over a five for the que that night.  While they have been in Santa Clarita for over twenty years they are really have to improve the que now that there is a Lucille’s close by.