★ (1 Star)

This could have been the best tasting barbeque I’ve ever encountered… had they been open during posted business hours.
I visited today only to see a Closed sign up with their hours stating they’re open between 11am and 3pm.  I was there at 12pm.

Perhaps they’re closed for good.

★ (1 Star)

I couldn’t believe all of these negative reviews about the County Line.  I think I had eaten at one once and liked it.  I had to see for myself what the deal was. . .

Well, my food was cold.  The waitress seemed indifferent to anything.  And, I’m not going to say it was County Line I got sick from that night, but sometimes you just have an idea where it came from.

The food was pricey for what it was and they seemed to use a ton of liquid smoke to flavor their barbecue.  Horrible!  I won’t go there again.

★★ (2 Stars)

This Bill Miller’s closes early, at 4PM!  Sheesh!  I know it’s downtown, but consistency of store hours between restaurants would be nice.

You know Bill Miller’s.  Cheap barbecue, sweetened iced tea (though I always get unsweetened.  Blasphemous, eh?), and mediocre service.  But, where else can you get two chopped barbecue sandwiches, fries, and a large iced tea for $3.79 (Today’s Special… shout it loud and clear!)?

My visit to Bill Miller’s today reminded me of eating lunch at a high school cafeteria.  10 minute wait in line, grab a tray, order food, find a seat and eat.  The food isn’t much better either, but it’s not bad for quick, cheap barbecue.

★★★★ (4 Stars)

Good Texas-Style barbecue!

It’s extremely difficult to find smoked brisket in SoCal so I was happy to see that Famous Dave’s indeed had some on their menu.  I ended up ordering the lunch combo with my choice of two meats: brisket and sausage.

The sausage was also reminiscent of Texas barbecue.  The serving of sausage was about double what I thought it would be and I ate every bite.  A little char, a little spicy = really good.

The lunch price was about half as much as what was on the dinner menu, so it definitely felt like a good deal.  For the fellow Yelpers who didn’t like the ribs, I’ve got a suggestion: Try The Brisket!

★★★ (3 Stars)

This is one of the few barbecue places I’ll visit with some gumption if I’m really wanting barbecue.  If there were 3 and a HALF stars on Yelp, I would give them just that.

The tri-tip is decent, but I think it’s the barbecue sauce, chili beans, and potato/macaroni salads that earn them the extra aforementioned half-star. Their dinner plates come with all of the above and also come with a piece of grilled garlic bread.

The first time I tried this place was about 10 years ago.  I was new to the area and had come to the conclusion that everywhere I go, when given the choice, I should order spicy foods HOT.  It seemed that for some reason HOT in the area meant medium or sometimes when I ordered spicy food medium it would come out mild.  So, using this same logic, I decided to get the HOT barbecue sauce at Just Barbecue.  I slathered it all over the tri-tip, even put some in the chili beans.  WOW!!!!!  There was smoke coming out of my ears by the time I was done.  Even the potato salad tasted SPICY!  I paid dearly for it, that night!  Today, I enjoy their mild barbecue sauce with only a couple of drops of the HOT barbecue sauce.  Even that at times seems a little too spicy.  But, if you’re daring, try the whole thing HOT!

★★ (2 Stars)

I’ve been to Marshall’s Bodacious BBQ a couple of times and wasn’t very impressed with them.  They sell California tri-tip style barbecue.

The last time I went I had one of their “dinner” plates that had tri-tip, sausage, and potato salad.  The potato salad wasn’t very good.  It was bland and just not what I hoped for.  The hot sausage was a type of sausage I’d never seen in a BBQ place before.  The only thing that it had going for it was the fact that it indeed was hot.  I like spicy, so it was okay.  The tri-tip tasted just like any other restaurant that serves mediocre tri-tip.  They had a couple of different barbecue sauces, one of which was pretty good.

Overall, I thought it was a little expensive for what it was, but of course I had the dinner.  The sandwiches are not as expensive.  I might stop in for a tri-tip barbeque sandwich in the future, but that’s about all.

★★★ (3 Stars)

I really think JD’s has the potential to be one of the better BBQ restaurants in the area.  The people working there were really friendly and helpful.  They are located in a small strip of commercial real estate in Oxnard.  If you don’t look for it, you might miss it!  Their hours seemed a little odd, but I don’t recall what they were!

In any case, I ordered the pulled pork sandwich and was disappointed to find out that they had run out of it.  It must be good if they ran out of it!  So, instead I opted for the BBQ sausage sandwich.  I really like the type of sausage they had.  In fact it was everything I was hoping for.  It reminded me of sausage you can get at almost every BBQ restaurant in Texas, but for some reason haven’t come across it in Ventura.  The price was right, and it came with a bag of chips.   I’ll definitely visit them again to try their potato salad and their BBQ tri-tip sandwich.

Anyone know where to get brisket around here?
(I’ve decided I’m going to end every BBQ restaurant review with this question until I find my beloved BBQ brisket in the Ventura area.)