Lucille’s Smokehouse Bar-B-Que

February 1, 2008

Rancho Cucamonga, California – Ended up at Lucille’s  for lunch today. This is another restaurant that has been on my short list for a long time. Heard so much about the place. It is one of those places where you just knew it would be good.

I ordered online for take-out. Quick and easy. My order was ready when I walked in so I didn’t get a chance to take in the atmosphere.

Lucille’s has an extensive menu. I chose the lunch size BBQ Combo Platter. It comes with a selection of meats. Today I went with St. Louis-style ribs and the hot link. Iron Skillet BBQ Baked Beans for the side. It comes with a homemade biscuit with apple butter, and a slice of watermelon. Green garnish decorated the plate.

I got back to the office where I was visiting today and prepared to dive in. Almost immediately my high expectations were slammed back to earth.

At first I thought they got my order wrong. The portions were small. I’m used to barbecue joints that give you so much food you can make two or three meals out it. They give you a big shopping bag to carry your order out in, so I assumed that the portions therein would be sized accordingly. Then they put in a separate sack-lunch-sized bag just for the biscuit. The watermelon slice was just about the same size as the ribs; no joke. The ribs looked like they came from a dwarf pig. For the prices they charge I’d expect more food than that.

The ribs were very dry, possibly from yesterday. I could only get a hint of the true flavor because of its dryness. The last rib (the end of the slab, I guess) was burnt, more than grill-cooked BBQ normally is. Inside the container of beans were slices of onions with dust-speck bits of meat. The beans tasted more like onions than beans. Nothing special about the hot link except it was (spicy) hot. The best part of the meal was the biscuit and the lemonade.

I dunno. Maybe I need to try another location. Lucille’s has such a good reputation that they deserve another chance. They have about 9 others. So far I’m 0 for 2 with barbeque in the Inland Empire. (See the Woody’s review).  Come on, IE. I know you have some good rib joints somewhere.

Lucille’s Smokehouse Bar-B-Que in Rancho Cucamonga – 3 out of 5 forks, and a bunch of napkins. I’ll have to try another location and report back.

Update August 23/24, 2011: Revisited Lucille’s to give them another shot. This time I had the tri-tip sandwich ($12.99). Their menu says the tri-tip is “our most popular sandwich!” The meat did not taste like any tri-tip I‘ve had before. It tasted more like roast beef. I couldn’t taste any smoky flavor at all; which is odd because the word “Smokehouse” is right there in the name of the restaurant. And the consistency was not flaky. It was slightly gelatinous, actually, almost like filler had been used. The potato bun was good, though. So was the honey roasted peanut slaw.

Using the remaining balance on a gift card, I went back the next day and ordered the Texas-style beef brisket sandwich ($10.49). Now we’re getting somewhere. This time the faint smoky flavor came through in the brisket. And it actually looked like chopped brisket. Tasted like it, too. It would be nice if Lucille’s could put more mop sauce on the meat. I ordered the braised collard greens as a side. These were good; nice, bold flavor with a bit of a kick. Just like homemade. Like the beans described earlier in the review, there were tiny chips of meat in the greens. Another good thing was that they were not swimming in liquid.

Alas, a decent meal this time was not enough to boost its score. Lucille’s keeps its 3-fork rating. Still searching for really good barbecue in the Inland Empire. Can anyone help me out?