Joey's Smokin' BBQ

4645 Carmel Mtn Rd
San Diego, CA 92130

Did I take a wrong turn and end up at Lightning Jack’s again? No, it’s right, Joey’s Smokin’ BBQ is set in a strip mall between Starbuck’s and Daphne’s with a fountain feature just like Lightning Jack’s, go back and check the review yourself. This place, however, is not set in the Clairemont hood but the much more affluent neighborhood of Torrey Hills in the Carmel Valley area.

Too late for lunch, and too early for dinner, I walked towards an empty store. Luckily, they had something called the Southern Sampler which could give me a taste of their Pulled Pork, Pulled Chicken, and brisket in one order. The chaps behind the counter recommended the cornbread and beans highly so I took their advice.

As I listened to the bluesy music playing in the background, I looked around my environment and could honestly say that this place didn’t really scream BBQ. In a few more minutes, there they were: my Southern Sliders. I took them to a table outside to catch some of the last hours of light. My, there they were: the plain white bread rolls filled with meat. A small cup of beans, and a birthday “cornbread” cupcake that was too sweet and soggy. How underwhelming. Let’s get back to the chase. The brisket was the most edible, probably because it was still moist. The pulled pork comes in next, and then the chicken was basically inedible because it was dry and tasteless. The spices that were dusted on the meat after cooking was all over the place and it was likely a mix of chili, paprika, and garlic. Sounds better than it tastes. The sauce was used sparingly but tasted artificial. (And this Joey’s Smokin BBQ place is going to be popping up all over San Diego and Orange County over the next year???)

As I trudged through my meal I watched a troupe of teenage girls on their cell phones calling their parents to be picked up. In a few minutes a parade of Mercedes, Volvos, Hummers, and BMW SUVs pickup their corresponding princesses and finally the air is cleared of their celluar-ly intended hormonal banter. I looked out in the distance where a hideous yellow Bently was parked and thought to myself, “Gosh, all that money and you don’t have any taste selecting a proper color for such a car” and then I thought again, “All the money around Torrey Hills and they can’t buy decent BBQ that has any taste.” So there you have it, NO TASTE coming to a strip mall near you. Yay : (

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West Coast BBQ

6126 Lake Murray Blvd.
La Mesa, CA 92942

Like a couple of determined gold miners, we hit the BBQ trail again looking for good BBQ. Up to this point we had encountered a lot of setbacks and disappointments, but we weren’t going let up and get ourselves stuck in average BBQ country. We were looking to stake a claim to good BBQ.

Straggling in 15 min before their closing we entered, and couldn’t help but notice that this place was different. It looked very “civilized” compared to other BBQ joints we had visited. I’ve seen this kind of place before. “Yeah”, says Good Bro #1, “Looks like an upscale bakery I’ve been to”. As we were greeted and promptly welcomed to sit at a table, something was nagging at me. Hey, it’s my nose. It’s telling me to pay attention to it. It smells ….. BBQ! Menus were placed in front of us, real honest to goodness menus with pictures, not a piece of paper with print on it that had been through several generations of copying.

Looking at the menu we see that they offer a wide variety of food options in addition to BBQ. Before I get too excited here, let me mention that they also do catering and they have a BBQ express window near the entrance to the restaurant for all those folks that like to take their food to go. After looking at the menu a while, I’m ready to order, but Good Bro #1 wants to have a little shop talk with our server. So I join in and we ask all kinds of questions about recommendations, sides, and BBQ sauces. Surprisingly, our server didn’t show even a pinch of annoyance at all our questions. In fact, she was very helpful at talking over the menu with us.

We both ended up ordering the three meat combo plates with chicken, beef, and ribs and we couldn’t decide on one BBQ sauce, so our server brought out all three. This is a lot of food, since the combo plates also come with two side dishes and a serving of hot bread and butter. The ribs were tasty without BBQ sauce, the beef was a little dry, but still tasty, and same goes for the chicken. The most fun was trying out the three different BBQ sauces, Traditional Texas, Southern Smooth, and Chipotle. Each has it’s merits, but all were pretty darn good. But let's talk consistency, the viscosity of sauce should not be water. Otherwise, I would gladly be pouring my drink on my BBQ. Thankfully, this place understood this concept. The Chipotle sauce had a a nice thick consistency and the taste was surprisingly good. It was the standout but let's not forget the Traditional Texas or the mustardy Southern Smooth. The side dishes were also good. I tried the coleslaw and the baked beans. Good Bro #1 tried the salad, (yes salad he needed some roughage after weeks of eating meats and bread) and the chili.

It was getting late, all the rest of the tables were cleaned up and they were closing the registers. If we stay any longer we're gonna have to do dishes or load the wood into the pit smoker. We both had smiles due to the level of service here and we even got to talk to one of the owners who was genuinely interested in how we liked our meals and was happy to answer any questions we had about the food, the restaurant, or the catering.So if you're in the land of average BBQ, head on over to West Coast BBQ. They'll treat you right, and you'll find the food to be a real treat.

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