Mo's Smokehouse BBQ - San Luis Obispo

MO’S SMOKEHOUSE BBQ

1005 Monterey

San Luis Obispo, CA 93401

805-544-6193

11:00 AM to 9:00 PM          Monday through Wednesday

11:00 AM to 10:00 PM        Thursday through Saturday

Closed                                   Sunday

http://www.smokinmosbbq.com/

 

Finding barbeque on the Central Coast is not what it once was. Who knew it could be so daunting?   Many of the restaurants don’t do it every day.  The social organizations that once set up barbecues every weekend are now limited to special occasions and holidays by the need to conform to some new health and licensing regulations.  Expansion of the towns has also taken its toll.  Some of the barbecue places we dropped in on when we traveled through the area have been displaced by new shopping plazas.  One that we went to in Grover Beach is now a used car lot.   Another in Pismo Beach is now an empty lot being prepared for a commercial development.  A couple of the places in Nipomo are still in business, but one we used to go to is among the missing.  After a frustrating morning and early afternoon running around the Pismo Beach/Arroyo Grande area we decided to drive up to San Luis Obispo and try Mo’s  (Yes, we know that there is a Mo’s location in Pismo Beach, but we weren’t hungry when we were in that area.)

Mo’s is located in the corner of an historic building , across the street from the courthouse, in downtown San Luis Obispo.  When you enter you are in the quintessential restaurant designer road house.  There is lots of corrugated sheet metal, old wood and exposed brick covered with rural commercial signs and old license plates.  Most of the memorabilia on the walls seems authentic.  There are also many photos on the wall that are different from the usual photos put up by restaurant designers.  The photos are of barbecue places and people barbecuing from all over the country.  It lets you know that this place is all about the que.

You walk up to the counter and order.  You are given a little pig shaped, numbered table flag to put on your table so that when the order is ready they know which table it is for.  They give you your drink glasses and the drinks, except for the beer and wine are self-serve. You know you are in a Southern style establishment because they have fresh brewed sweetened and unsweetened tea and fried green tomatoes on the menu.  And, to Sharon’s delight, as we have found all over the Central Coast area, they serve Pepsi not Coke.

To get our sampling of the que Sharon ordered a Three Rib Combo and I ordered a Pulled Pork Sandwich.  The combo had Mo’s Memphis Ribs, Philthy Phil’s Ribs, and Sweet Carolina’s Pork Ribs, and came with a Corn Muffin and Grandpa Tom’s BBQ Beans with a choice of Coleslaw or Potato Salad.  The sandwich comes with a choice of BBQ Beans, Coleslaw or Potato Salad.  When the food arrived, the portions were more than generous.  We ended up taking half the sandwich and an order of coleslaw with us.  As a side point, when we travel we have an electrically powered picnic cooler in the car, and we stay in rooms with refrigerators, so that we have no problem taking leftovers.

Mo’s Memphis Ribs

Pork ribs, properly slow smoked are a delight.  These certainly are.  They are juicy, almost fall off the bone tender, and very flavorful.  They are hickory smoked using a Memphis style dry rub.  Then they are sprinkled with vinegar and covered with Mo’s regular barbecue sauce.  At first bite we knew that these were the best ribs, so far, that we’ve had in the central coast area.

Philthy Phil’s Ribs

Philthy Phil’s Ribs are the same great hickory smoked ribs this time sprinkled with vinegar and covered with a mustard based sauce. Personally, I like this Southern Carolina style sauce best.

Sweet Carolina’s Pork Ribs

Another version of the great hickory smoked ribs with a sweet and tangy sauce.  Although sweet, this sauce had a bit of a bite to it leaving Sharon’s mouth with a slight burn indicating some kind of pepper, most likely cayenne, in the mixture.  Still, they are great ribs.

Pulled Pork Sandwich

Have I had better pulled pork sandwiches?  Well yes, but not by much.  Maybe it was just the way I was feeling that day since pulled pork doesn’t get much better than this.  Juicy and flavorful, topped with coleslaw.  Very traditional on a nice fresh French bread roll.

Corn Muffin

It’s not one of those muffins that reach for new heights as a baked good as some of the more up market places have attempted but is quite good.  This is an in-house made muffin that tastes good, doesn’t completely fall apart when cut into and stands up to the honey butter that comes with it.

Coleslaw

This is a simple, competent slaw with a creamy style dressing that is not too wet.  It goes wonderfully on the pulled pork sandwich.  If you have read my posts you know that I prefer a good vinaigrette based dressing but if I have to have a conventional creamy dressing I want one like this.

Grandpa Tom’s BBQ Beans

They have awards for their ribs posted as part of their décor.  What I wondered is why they don’t have awards for these beans.  These are way up towards the top of the list of great BBQ beans.  Made with two different kinds of beans, pinto and kidney, a sprinkling of finely chopped onions and generous amounts of pork in a tomato based sauce that is savory but not sweet.  You could almost make a meal out of a bowl of these beans.

This is the first place in the Central Coast area that we have found that uses slow smoking instead of the direct grilling style barbecue that is considered Central Coast style.  OK, I guess that we must admit to being barbecue snobs, but we were not only delighted but relieved to taste the que at Mo’s.  My real connection to Central Coast barbecue is tri-tip.  I love tri-tip, but prepared in the slow smoked style that keeps it juicy and tender.  What we were finding in the area for both the pork and beef tends to be a bit on the dry and tough side.  On this trip it was a relief to eat at Mo’s even if we did not try their shredded beef or tri tip sandwiches.  They don’t offer any beef dishes on the combo plates, which is a disappointment.  They also serve smoked chicken, which we did not try during this visit, and some desserts.  To our dismay, they were out of the Southern Cream Puffs served with hot fudge.  Our rating for Mo’s is between an eight and one-half and a nine.  If you are in the area, driving to Mo’s is worth it…definitely destination que.

BBQ Land - Santa Maria

“Humor keeps us alive.  Humor and food.  Don’t forget food.  You can go a week without laughing”

Joss Whedon

 

BBQ LAND

1975-A South Broadway

Santa Maria, CA 93454

805-346-8537

805-346-6166

805-346-8538 (FAX)

11:00 AM to 9:00 PM          Monday through Sunday

http://www.bbqlandsantamaria.com

 

Still in Santa Maria searching for good que.  That’s not to say all we do is look for barbecue.  Sharon is a bit of an antiquer and there are several thrift shops in Santa Maria where we have found good items in the past.  We found a few interesting items this time too.

We’ve had barbecue in Santa Maria before, a long time before, and the town is not the same place it was twenty years ago.  Many of the places we used to go are no longer there, and now we write this blog, so Santa Maria is a fresh experience.

The first thing we do in a different town is ask people we meet where they go for barbeque.  With some recommendations we also examine the phone book.  Yes, we read the phone book.  Not all barbecue places have web site or are reviewed on the Internet.  We also simply look around as we drive around since we have found several great little places by simple observation.  BBQ Land is one of those places we found in the phone book although we later found they had a web site.

It’s hard to miss their sign on the roof, even though BBQ Land is a little hole-in-the-wall place in an older strip mall.  They modestly claim to be “Santa Maria’s First Choice for BBQ”.  We reserve judgment until we have tried a few more places. 

Inside BBQ Land is basic snack shop.  You order at the counter from a menu posted above and get your drinks from a Pepsi dispenser.  There are tables and chairs, some hold four people and some six, and there is a large flat screen at the end of the room that was, mercifully, not tuned to a sports channel.  There is no particular design coordination and you would not call the look restaurant designer anything.  The menu has several panels with sandwiches, drinks, sides, an incredible array of items, and there is a separately posted, hand-written kids menu.  About half of the menu is barbecue. 

There are combo plates on the menu which allowed us to get a good sampling.  Sharon ordered a number 13 combo which is two Pork Spare Ribs and two Baby Back Ribs along with a choice of three sides.  I ordered a number 9 combo which is two Beef Ribs and two slices of Tri-tip with a choice of three sides.  The choices of sides with the combos are Rice, Beans, Potato Salad, Macaroni Salad, Coleslaw, French Fries and Garlic Bread.  Sharon ordered Beans, Macaroni Salad, and Garlic Bread.  I had Beans, Potato Salad, and Coleslaw.  The astonishing thing was that these combos were only $10.45 each!

Tri-tip

There were two generous, but thin slices of tri-tip with visible grill marks, on my plate.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that the meat was moist, tender and flavorful.  The smokiness of the red oak, combined with the flavor of the rub, was all through the meat. Neither the smoke nor the rub was overwhelming and I found this to be tri-tip as good as it gets.

Beef Ribs

The beef ribs were not as good as the tri-tip.  The flavor was beefy but they either had been too close to the fire or cooked too long because they were a bit chewy and dry. The char on the outside was not as tasty as it could have been almost as though the rub were put on only as a suggestion.  Not to say they were unacceptable just that I have had a lot better.

Pork Spare Ribs

These were large, meaty ribs and would have been wonderful if they had been slow smoked.  As done here they were a bit chewy and dry.  Done directly over the fire they cook faster and don’t pick up either the true flavor of the smoke or the rub.  This combination of somewhat dry meat and mild flavor seems to be common in Central Coast barbecue.  Again, this meat was more than acceptable, but not great.

Baby Back Ribs

These had a bit more flavor than the spare ribs, but much the same comments can be made about them.  I think they were cooked a bit too fast.

Beans

These are better than good beans and made in house.  Any place else they would be serving them as chili!  They had a flavorful tomato based stock, herbs and spices, onions, navy beans and pork all cooked together in a tasty concoction.

Coleslaw

The side is a nice serving of a simple cabbage and carrot slaw with a tangy, creamy dressing that is not put on too wet.  Another thing made here, this is a delightfully competent coleslaw.

Potato Salad

The third winner in the side order department is a competent conventional potato salad with a nice mustard tang.

Macaroni Salad

Another homemade delight, the macaroni salad was delightfully tasty with a mustard and tangy mayonnaise sauce.  And the pasta was al dente, just the way we like it, with green onions, celery, and red bell peppers for crunch.  

Garlic Bread

This is made on a fresh French bread, was not soggy, not too garlicky, and had a very nice crunch to it, toasted perfectly.

Our comparisons of the Santa Maria style barbecue preparation to the slow smoked methods we have come to like made me speculate that Sharon and I were becoming barbecue snobs.  Her reaction was simply, “Yes.”.  Be that as it may, the meat here was not quite up to the standards of the sides.   It is obvious that someone in the kitchen has an idea of what they are doing, but as carnivores we have to give this place points off.  Santa Maria’s First Choice?  They’re trying, but they have a ways.to go.  We rate them a seven and a half.

Shaw's Steakhouse & Tavern

THIS PLACE IS GONE!  (FIRE)

“Seize the moment.  Remember all those women on the ‘Titanic’ who waved off the dessert cart.”

Erma Bombeck

SHAWS STEAKHOUSE & TAVERN

714 South Broadway

Santa Maria, CA 93454

805-925-5862

No Website

Well, we intended to take a road trip this weekend, and the Sunset Magazine showed up with an article on Central Coast Barbecue, so we decided to make Santa Maria our base for the weekend.  Driving up here from the LA area used to be a pleasure trip.  Now it seems that bumper to bumper traffic is normal on 101 from Thousand Oaks to Santa Barbara.  The first seventy-five miles of the trip was a chore.  After Santa Barbara is was as we remembered it.   Still, we didn’t get to Santa Maria and get checked into our hotel until dinner time.

After that trip we were a bit peckish.  After driving around town looking at likely places we settled on Shaw’s Steakhouse and Tavern.  It’s rather unprepossessing from the outside since it was probably some sort of warehouse many years ago.  Inside you quickly realize that it’s just short of what would be considered a fine dining restaurant.  The interior is converted warehouse with lots of wood and has photos of old food establishments, retail and wholesale on the walls.  There are no windows and the interior probably could use a bit of an update. 

The staff is courteous and fast and you can watch the meat being grilled through a glass wall.  Make no mistake, this is Santa Maria style barbecue, seasoned meat grilled over a red oak fire, not the long, slow smoking that is barbecue in other places.  No traditional barbeque sauces basting the meat.  It makes for quite a show.

Of course, since this is a steak house, the menu does not have the combo plates that allow us to get our usual sampling of the que, and since there was just the two of us we couldn’t order several plates and share Chinese food style.  We settled for two dinners.  Sharon ordered the Beef Ribs and I ordered the Tri-tip.  All the dinners come with a relish plate, house made mild salsa, piquinto beans, and choice of soup (French Onion this night), or salad (House Green or Caesar), and baked potato, French fries, or steamed rice.  Our server, Holly, had excellent timing so that the salads and the main course arrived promptly but we had enough time to ourselves to have a relaxed dinner.   After our main courses Holly began to recite the dessert selections, but Sharon stopped her at the Cherry Bread Pudding with Grand Marnier sauce.

Beef Ribs

The meat here is served dry, just the way we like it, so that you can enjoy its real taste.  The ribs done over the open, red oak, flame are not as moist as those done in a smoker.  They were chewy, but not tough, and had a big beefy flavor.  Central Coast barbecue is done simply and the dry rub, apparently just salt, black pepper and a bit of garlic or garlic salt, made a tasty char on the outside.  If you want sauce you can use the house made salsa which is a mild salsa cruda.  These are great ribs.

Tri-tip

Tri-tip is the quintessential Central Coast meat.  Here it is done in true Santa Maria style, simply with a minimal rub over an open red oak fire.  This serving was done properly with the whole piece grilled over the red oak and properly sliced in the thick slices that should retain the juices.  In this instance there wasn’t that much juice.  My problem is that I’ve been spoiled by having experienced it done slowly in a smoker so the meat is tender and juicy.  Done in true Central Coast style I find it to be a bit dry.  Maybe I am just spoiled, but this one was tasty but tough.

Beans

These are the locally grown piquinto beans in a thin sauce.  They are not over cooked and the sauce is subtle but very interesting.   It is not sweet but has a savory combination of what tastes like a light beef and tomato stock, a bit of cayenne, and bit of meat that seemed to be beef, not the usual pork or bacon.   While it looks to be thin and anemic when placed before you it turns out to have a very appealing flavor.

Salads

Sharon said that she hoped that we would get good salads in farm country.  They were fresh and crisp with homemade croutons.  Sharon was not disappointed.

Potato

A good, loaded, baked potato with shredded cheddar cheese and crispy bacon.  This is something that a restaurant of this caliber doesn’t screw up and they did not.  Believe me; I have seen it done at some other places.

Rice

The steamed rice was a bit lumpy as though it couldn’t decide if it wanted to be fluffy rice or sticky rice.  Strange!

Garlic Toast

The garlic toast was done on what seems to be fresh Italian style bread.  It is buttery, but not soggy, not over garlicky, and has a sufficient amount of Parmesan cheese and toasted crispy with a nice crunch when bit into.   This is much better than most garlic toast servings.

Cherry Bread Pudding with Grand Marnier Sauce

At the end of the day what do you do with the left over bread that you have not made into garlic toast?  You make a totally evil dessert.  A bread pudding made with cherry pie filling and drizzled with a sauce made with Grand Marnier definitely qualifies as evil.  Sharon is a connoisseur of bread pudding and she found this to be one of the better ones.

OK, Shaw’s is not a usual barbecue place.  It is an old fashioned steak house, somewhat up market for the area, with a menu that you would expect at a steak house, but with meat done Central Coast barbecue style.  The que was about an eight, good but not outstanding.  As a steak house I would rate the place an eight and a half.

Pecos Bill's Barbecue

“Ask not what you can do for your country.  Ask what’s for lunch.”

--- Orson Wells

PECOS BILL’S BARBEQUE

1551 Victory Boulevard

Glendale, CA 91201

818-241-2750

11:00 AM to 3:00 PM or until the meat runs out Wednesday through Sunday

pecosbillsbarbeque.com

I’ve said that I have been to some hole-in-the-wall barbecue places, but no place fits that description more literally than Pecos Bill’s.  Right on the sidewalk, you walk up to a window, not a counter, but a window, in the kitchen wall to order.  Except for a few patio tables with umbrellas that they put out on the sidewalk during business hours, that’s it.  It’s been like this since 1946 when the original Pecos Bill and his son built the stand in 1946.  The current owner, the grandson of the original Pecos Bill, is still using the original barbecues built in 1946 and some of the original, irreplaceable, custom built pans.  (He knows a good welder.)

The menu is very limited.  This is one of those places that serve up what you could call an old fashioned working man’s lunch.  (O.K. they don’t have beer.)   They have quarter pound sandwiches, Shredded Beef, Shredded Pork, Sliced Ham, Sliced Turkey, and on Saturday and Sunday only, Pork Spare Ribs by the pound.  The other meats are also available by the pound… literally all meats are only sold in one pound packages.  The available side orders are Coleslaw and Baked Beans.  The only beverage is fresh squeezed Lemonade, but if you ask, you can get a cup of water.

We showed up at two in the afternoon on a Saturday and luckily they hadn’t run out of anything.  To get a good sampling of the que we ordered one of each sandwich, a pound of ribs, a half pint of coleslaw, and a half pint of beans.  We ordered the sandwiches dry with sauce on the side, but the ribs were already sauced.  There is no complaint about the speed of the service since you are standing right there at the window while they make your order.   Foregoing the lemonade, we took the que home to eat.

Shredded Pork

No one would complain if they called this pulled pork.  It’s moist and flavorful and not fatty.  The smoked flavor is subtle, so much so that we couldn’t identify the wood.  Without the sauce it was very satisfying.  With the sauce, well more on that later.

Shredded Beef

The flavor is definitely beef, but the smokiness is subtle like the pork.  I found it quite satisfying, without the sauce.  See a pattern here?

Sliced Ham

Ham on the menu is a sure sign of an old fashioned barbecue place.  This is a decent ham sandwich it’s just difficult to decide if they got the ham and smoked it or just heated up a smoked ham. 

Turkey

This seems to be a rolled turkey breast that they heated in the oven.  Not that that was a bad thing since it was moist, tasty turkey, but it just didn’t seem to be barbecue.  The sauce seems to work better on the turkey than on anything else.

This brings us to the subject of the sauce.  Supposedly this is a Tennessee style hickory sauce.  It’s not like any sauce I actually encountered in Tennessee.  I don’t know if this is a definitive style barbecue sauce from the Oklahoma/Arkansas area of the country, or it’s just an old fashioned sauce recipe, but this sauce tastes and feels on the tongue, like a gravy with a bit of cayenne in it rather than a barbecue sauce.  That’s why it works better on the turkey. 

Coleslaw

This is what I call competent coleslaw.  It has two cabbages and carrots with a creamy type dressing.   It isn’t my favorite type, but worked very well when I put it on part of the shredded pork sandwich that I had perked up with a Carolina style barbecue sauce to make a proper pulled pork sandwich.   

Baked Beans

There is nothing exciting here just OK beans.

Pecos Bill’s is another one of those barbecue places that is a local tradition.  Here is where Sharon and I disagree.  Many of these places survive on their nostalgia value but are not what I would call good barbecue today.  I think that Pecos Bill’s is surviving because the beef, pork and ribs while done in an old fashioned style it’s one of the better old fashioned styles.  If I were in the neighborhood at lunch time I would have no hesitation in dropping by for a beef or pork sandwich as long as I ordered it dry and brought my own sauce.   One of their Shredded Pork sandwiches, with a half pint of coleslaw, and a proper Carolina style barbecue sauce would make one of the better pulled pork sandwiches you could get.  Sharon was turned off by the ham, turkey and the sauce.  She feels, not without a certain justification, that buying good que should not be a do it yourself project.  Sharon felt her experience would give them a rating of five.  I would give the beef and pork a seven. 

Texas Best BBQ

WE WERE WRONG, THE LOCATION IS NOT GONE.  IT'S NOW AJ'S TEX-MEX BBQ!  WE WILL RE REVIEW.

“The myriad of flavors explode on my tongue, shimmy through my mouth, slap my taste buds and call them filthy bastards, and I love it.”

---Stacy Jay, Romeo Redeemed

TEXAS BEST BBQ

12123 Riverside Drive

North Hollywood, CA 91607

818-761-5451

11:30 AM to 9:30 PM          Every Day *

No Web Site

We were driving down Riverside Drive one morning on our way to breakfast and some errands after an early morning doctor’s appointment when we just happened to notice Texas Best BBQ.  It is a real hole in the wall place wedged into a Jurassic (in Valley terms) proto strip mall next to a bar.  It was originally a cafe called Kerry’s.  Since some of the best que we have found has been in real hole-in-the-wall places, we resolved to try it.  The next evening, we did.

I tried to look up their web site only to find that they didn’t have one.  Well, that’s understandable.  Web sites have to be maintained and this is a very small operation and they are occupied with producing and serving food rather than maintaining a web site.  This means we actually had to go there to see the menu.  There are a couple of picnic tables out front, for outside dining, but I, personally, would not sit outside on a sidewalk alongside Riverside Drive, even if cars on the road today aren’t the polluters that they were 40 years ago.  Inside there is just enough room for three small tables and some chairs.  There is a walkup counter for ordering and the menus are to be found on the counter.  There is also an open pass thru to the bar which is probably the reason they got a “B” from the Health Department.  This may turn some people off, but having been in food service ourselves we know that it doesn’t take much of a slip up on an inspection to get a “B”. 

We started to order anyway, but ran into a problem that is common with small barbecue operations.  They run out of things.  They load the smoker with what they think will sell the next day, open at 11:30 and start selling.  In a traditional Texas, hole-in-the-wall barbecue, the business hours end when they run out of meat.  This doesn’t miss it by much.  At 6:00 PM they had already run out of some of the meat we wanted to try.  We decided to try it at a later date.

A few days later we tried it again, and they did have the meat, but there was a large family group that had two of the tables pushed together and the other table was occupied, so we went takeout.  They have two meat and three meat combos at $15 and $20 respectively which is remarkably inexpensive as barbecue goes.  We ordered a two meat combo with Barbecued Chicken Breast and Pork Ribs and a three meat combo with Pulled Pork, Beef Ribs and Tri-tip.  The sides were Coleslaw, Mac and Cheese, and a double order of Baked Beans.  (They already had run out of one of the other sides.)  While we were waiting for our order to come up there was a steady stream of to go orders so we could see how they were running out of things.  It wasn’t too long before we had our bags of Styrofoam trays and containers to take home to enjoy in the comfort, and quiet, of our own dining room.  (Yes, we have an actual dining room and actually use it.)

Coleslaw

The mix of cabbage would have been good, but they mixed it with the most annoyingly cloying mayonnaise based dressing that I quit after one bite.  I didn’t even entertain the idea of making a pulled pork sandwich with it.  They really need to change this.

Baked Beans

The beans were as good as the coleslaw was bad.  It was not an elaborate haute cuisine concoction of baked beans that you might find at one of the up market barbecue places (See our post on Baby Blue’s) not the traditional too sweet tomato based sauce, but a fairly conventional baked beans with pork, spices and chunks of peppers and onions.  It had a subtle, tomato based sauce that did not overwhelm the other ingredients.  The thing is that it was done absolutely right, with the flavors combining to tickle the palate.  I’ll warn you that it is a bit on the peppery side and it was a bit too much for Sharon.  You won’t want a bowl of these as an entrée, but you won’t find a better side dish of beans.

Mac and Cheese

The mac and cheese was OK but I think that they were just about to run out of it and our serving was dug out of the bottom of the tray.  The cheese sauce was a bit dry and the macaroni seemed a bit overdone, but our impression was that if you got it when the tray was fresh that it would have been one of the better mac and cheese preparations.

Barbecued Chicken Breast

This IS barbecued chicken.  It has a great smoky flavor and is done through but moist and tender.  Someone really knows how to barbecue.  Not only that, but the chicken must have been a monster.  The breast was quite enough for a serving for both of us with some leftovers for the cats.  This chicken passed the kitty test with flying colors.

Pulled Pork

Having had pulled pork in the South I can truthfully say that it is as good as you will find anywhere.  It is tender, moist and the flavor is smoky and distinct from the other meats.  Again, the portion was much more than adequate; in fact I had a couple of lunches out if it in the following days.  The only thing that would have been better is if they had supplied a real mustard based southern style barbecue sauce to go with it. 

Beef Ribs

While these are conventional beef ribs, not the “Texas Ribs” they are still a good sized portion and as flavorful as any Texas Rib I have had.  One of the nice things about Texas Best BBQ is that they serve the barbecue sauce on the side and you really get to taste all the meat with just the smoke and the rub before deciding if you want sauce.  This seemed to have been done with a plain salt rub, real Texas style.  I didn’t want any sauce.

Pork Ribs

The pork ribs were not quite fall off the bone tender, but close.  The important thing was the flavor, again, distinct, and smoky.  Again, it seemed to be a salt rub, and we could not discern any herbs and spices in the rub.  If they were there, they were incredibly subtle.  There seemed to be a whole slab of ribs on the plate, and we had leftovers…really good ribs!

Tri-tip

What makes tri-tip so wonderful is that when it is done right the experience of eating it is somewhere between a steak and a roast.  In other words, it’s tri-tip!  They did it right here.  It’s served sliced, but not too thin, so you get the chew and the juiciness with the wood smoked flavor.  As usual with Texas Best the portion is not stingy and the leftovers gave me the opportunity to be creative.  I made a tri-tip salad that was the following evening’s dinner for both of us. 

One of the sure signs that the grill master knows what he or she is doing is that each different kind of meat has its own distinct flavor.  At Texas Best BBQ someone knows what they are doing.  Sides aside, this is a place to come for the meat.  And, the portions are really Texas sized.  This place is a fantastic value for the money.   They may be relatively new here, but they can really show a few of the old legacy traditions in barbecue a thing or two.  We rate it an eight and if they improve the coleslaw, and are more careful with the mac and cheese, with their meat they would get a nine. 

Bandit's Grill and Bar

“If I had to narrow my choice of meats down to one for the rest of my life, I am quite certain that meat would be pork.”
---James Beard

BANDIT’S GRILL AND BAR

1980 Ventura Blvd.

Camarillo, CA 93010

805-455-4742

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

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

banditsbbq.com

 

The report from someone Sharon knows was glowing. .They have their own sauce, he said.  Bandit’s is great.  Everything was good from the Tri-tip Nachos to the ribs, so naturally, we had to check it out for ourselves.  We had been intending to get together with a couple who live in Oxnard and they were invited to meet us there at 6:00 on a Sunday evening.  They arrived along with their four-year-old son.

Bandit’s is on a street corner in Old Town Camarillo a nicely revitalized area of a town that was bisected by the 101 freeway.   The exterior and interior décor of this location is Southwestern Cantina.  I have not seen the other locations in Thousand Oaks or the one in Park City, Utah.  The bar is attached but has a separate outside entrance and a closed, connecting door to the restaurant.  This makes it extremely easy to keep the family oriented side of the restaurant separated. There were only two big screen televisions visible in the restaurant area still tuned to the inevitable sports channel.   Although the restaurant had not filled up for the dinner hour it was evident that it could use a larger waiting area.  After a brief wait we were seated at a wooden booth that was large enough for a child and four adults that act like children.

Our server was prompt and cheery and answered the questions about menu items with authority.  The menu is not just barbecue.  There is an assortment of appetizers, soups and chili, appetizer salads, entrée salads, steaks, prime rib, seafood, burgers, tacos, and wraps and somewhere in the middle is the barbecue.  This gave us pause, but we determined to give them the benefit of the doubt and ordered anyway.  The four-year-old was the easiest to order for since he was excited to get an order of the appetizer Cheeseburger Sliders.   The barbecue combo on the menu is a two-meat, two side combo.  We ordered three of them to split between the four of us with a Barbecued Half Chicken, Tri-tip, Pulled Pork, Beef Ribs, Baby Back Ribs, and a Spicy Beef Link.  Since you can add a Skewer of Shrimp to any entrée we had shrimp with that.    The sides were Ranch Beans, Homemade Potato Chips, Corn Off the Cob, Creamy Coleslaw, Homemade Mac and Cheese, and Yams.  All this arrived promptly and nothing was cold that wasn’t supposed to be cold.  After the dinner we shared dessert, Leilani’s Mud Pie, Fresh Strawberry Shortcake and the four-year-old had a Kid’s Sundae.

Cheeseburger Sliders

The sliders were quite large enough that the four-year-old was quite satisfied with one of them.  He was into sharing and passed the rest of them around.  They turned out to be very good cheeseburgers with very good meat that was not overdone.

Corn off the Cob

The white corn was locally grown, fresh and sweet, but unfortunately, still had a lot of the silk in it to get caught in your teeth and gag you.  If the silks had been cleaned out by more careful preparation this would have been very good.

Ranch Beans

Not beans out of the can, but bland, these beans were simply mediocre.  And that’s about all we could say about them without being rude.

Homemade Potato Chips

Homemade style potato chips are usually a little thick and tough compared to almost transparently thin bagged chips.  These were no exception, if fact, they were a bit tougher than most but still tasty.  They went well with the cheeseburger sliders.

Creamy Coleslaw

Should have been a good mix of ingredients for a competent slaw, but it was a little too wet, something that particularly annoys me, and just bland.  While the pulled pork was not that flavorful I still don’t think that the coleslaw would have complemented it in a sandwich.

Homemade Mac and Cheese

The pasta was al dente, but if there was cheese on it you couldn’t find it.  Allegedly, it was supposed to have a white cheese sauce on it, but you just couldn’t find it.  Seriously, the macaroni would have been better off tossed with butter and herbs.  As mac and cheese it was bland and not worth ordering.

Yams

The yams were actually quite tasty.  They were savory without being too sweet and had a nice texture.

Barbecued Chicken

The chicken was done through and tender, but didn’t really taste as though it had spent any time in a smoker.  If you want grilled chicken it’s good, and there’s really nothing wrong with a good grilled chicken, just don’t call it barbecue or claim that it was smoked.  Real barbeque aficionados can tell the difference!

Tri-tip

The tri-tip was not sliced too thin, and had a noticeable smoke ring, but didn’t have the rich meaty flavor that you expect from barbecued tri-tip.  Again, it made us question their method of smoking the meat.  It certainly did not taste like it was done slow and low like most well done flavorful tri-tip.

Beef Ribs

These ribs were meaty enough, but a bit overdone, crispy and chewy.  To add insult to injury, they lacked flavor.  So all in all, they had no redeeming social value.

Pulled Pork

If you have had really good pulled pork, this isn’t it.  It was a bit stringy and while there was a smoky flavor it was barely there.  Again, leading us to question their assertion that the meat was actually smoked in the traditional fashion of low and slow.   The sauce was a bit too much for it and way too sweet.  I didn’t think it was worth taking home to test as a leftover sandwich.

Baby Back Ribs

These ribs were meaty enough and smoked, but the flavor was just not there.  If the meat had a rub on it before cooking, it was impossible to identify.   Or taste.   Soooo disappointing!

Spicy Beef Link

Presented sliced longitudinally like pickle spears, this was an excellent hot link.  It had a good combination of spices and just enough of an after bite so that you were sure that you were getting a hot link.  It was a bit too much for Sharon, but everyone else enjoyed it.

Leilani’s Mud Pie

Sharon tells me that the mud pie was rich and chocolaty, and better than similar mud pie presentations at other restaurants in the area.  I really cannot comment on this since it did not make it to my end of the table.

Fresh Strawberry Short Cake

Camarillo is on the edge of strawberry growing country.  Here, you would expect to have shortcake piled high with fresh strawberries.  Not so.  This is not, necessarily, a bad thing.  The presentation was of a light puff pastry split and stuffed with crème fresh with strawberries around it.  It was very light and tasty with some of the freshest strawberries you would ever want.

I can’t comment on the Kid’s Sundae, since that was not shared…thankfully.  However, it disappeared into the child with alacrity. 

We had fun, more from the company than the food, and it was obvious to us that Bandit’s is trying a little too hard to be all things to all diners.  Maybe they were having a bad day with the smoker, but the feeling we got was that the que is not their main emphasis.  Considering the buildup we had we thought we was robbed.  For the que it rated six and a half.  And that is being incredibly generous

Chris and Pitts #6

“Fat gives things flavor.”
― Julia Child

 

CHRIS AND PITTS  #6

9243 Lakewood Blvd.

Downey, CA 90240

562-862-9069

11:00 AM to 10:00 PM  Sunday through Monday

Closed Tuesdays

http://www.chrisandpittsbbqrestaurants.com/

 

 

When we moved into our house, over forty years ago, there was a Chris and Pitts location within walking distance of our house.  We walked there at least once a week to enjoy barbecue.  I don’t remember it being fabulous barbecue, but it was certainly acceptable and the whole neighborhood hung out there.  It has been gone for years and now there is a Walgreen’s on the site.  The closest Chris and Pitts is in Downey, a half hour away by freeway in light traffic. We decided that in light, early Saturday evening traffic, it would be worth the drive, if for nothing else, the nostalgia value.

Coming off the southbound 5 freeway at Lakewood Boulevard the restaurant is a very short distance on the right.  Nostalgic it is.  Chris and Pitts was founded in 1940, practically Jurassic by Southern California standards, although this location probably dates from the 1950s.  The décor is the same as I remember from the former Valley location, 1940s faux Western hunting lodge right down to the cougar head on the wall which  is the product of a sculptor, not a taxidermist.  There is one feature that contemporary restaurant designers should note.  The take-out waiting area is completely segregated from the dining room waiting area.

The décor is not the only thing that seems not to have changed.  The menu looks exactly the same as I remember it from the early 1960s.  Well not exactly the same… the prices have changed.  While prices have risen, this is still one of the most reasonably priced, sit down, barbecue restaurants around.  There is a lunch and a dinner menu, that have selections that vary slightly, along with specials listed on an extra menu card at lunch and on a blackboard at dinner.  The center section of the menu is color pictures of the various dishes, much in the manner of some Chinese restaurants, and although they are probably fifty years old they still represent the current dishes quite accurately. The menu also includes grilled sea food and steaks, and there are some other sides for those, but it is mostly barbecue served as sandwiches and platters.

On the blackboard this night, was the rib combo from the lunch menu.  We ordered one of these, which includes two Beef Ribs, two Pork Spare Ribs and four Baby Back Ribs along with a selection of sides and a soft drink (eat in orders only) , and a Barbecued Chicken combo, one-half chicken with sides in order to get a good sampling.  The side selections are limited.  Every dinner and combo comes with Baked Beans, French fries and Garlic Toast.  At extra cost you can substitute a Baked Potato or Spaghetti with Meat Sauce for the beans and fries.  The food arrived promptly as the restaurant was just starting to fill up for the dinner hour.

Soup

There are three selections of soup that vary by day.  We didn’t try any of them this night, but opted for the salad.

Salad

This was a conventional tossed salad of lettuce and red cabbage served with packaged saltine crackers and blue cheese dressing.  The salad was fresh and crisp but the dressing was a bit tasteless and rather oily for a dressing that is supposed to be creamy.

Garlic Toast

A serving of garlic toast is a half of a long sandwich roll, slathered with garlic butter and put under a broiler.  It came out not garlicky enough, and a bit tough.

French Fries

These were very good steak fries, crisp and hot from the fryer.   No complaints here.

Baked Beans

We don’t know for sure, but our impression was that the beans were Campbell’s, right out of the can.

Baby Back Ribs

Not the best, but damn good baby backs.  They were meaty, in fact, more meaty than at most places, tender and had as smoky but subtle flavor that can stand up to the Chris and Pitts signature barbecue sauce.  I don’t know which wood they are using but I suspect it is mesquite.

Pork Spare Ribs

Again, these ribs are very meaty and subtly smoked and tasted almost like candy, indicating that the basting solution contained a great deal of brown sugar.  The favor is definitely different from the baby back ribs, but still stands up to the sauce…really good ribs.  Try them “dry” first before trying with the barbeque sauce.

Beef Ribs

While not the biggest beef ribs we’ve been served they are more than ample and quite flavorful.  Two days later, a leftover rib, microwaved to rewarm, was still juicy, tasty and delicious.  Also, try these ribs “dry” first before trying with the barbeque sauce.  That was always Sharon’s favorite way to eat them.

Barbecued Chicken

A bit of a disappointment here, the chicken was tender and done, but had no hint of smoke flavor.  It just seemed to be a good broiled chicken.

Chris and Pitts likes to brag that their food is still “Done the Old Fashioned Way”.  Where the meat is concerned this works.   You come here for the meat because the rest of it is mediocre.   The whole experience, ambiance, service and sides, could be brought up to date.  This would have to be approached with caution since the nostalgia factor may be a major factor in their market.  Even so, the ribs we tasted needed no apologies.  It is what it is, and we give it a solid seven.