Tag Archives: BBQ

by | July 29, 2009 · 10:48 pm

Bondi – Australian for BBQ

by Brian

I recently got the opportunity to check out a nice little BBQ place in Venice.  My buddy Jason told me about Bondi BBQ and graciously offered to help me eat their food last weekend.  I also got the chance to meet his awesome fiance, Angelica, and I must say that as far as girls go, she’s pretty rad.

Bondi BBQ – On Windward Ave. right by the beach in Venice

Bondi BBQ

Because this place came so highly recommended, I had high expectations going into the meal.  This was also my first trip to Venice as an adult, so I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect.  Turns out that it’s pretty much the same as it was when I was a kid, with plenty of awesome people watching to be had.

The restaurant, itself, is not very impressive.  It’s pretty much all bench seating and the tables you see out front are where we ended up eating.  The weather is usually pretty good down there, so sitting outside is a great option because it can get a little stuffy inside.  They also have a back patio, but when we sat down back there, to look at the menus, we quickly noticed that there were way too many flies hovering around to risk eating there.  I really hope they get that sorted out, because if it were a little cleaner, it would have been a nice place to enjoy the meal.

We ended up ordering a combo meal called the Tail Gator, which included one pound of tri-tip, one BBQ chicken, a full rack of ribs, two sides and two loaves of garlic bread.  The total, with soft drinks and tax, came out to about 90 bucks.  So it’s obviously not super cheap, but considering the amount of food we got, I thought it was fair.  They say that the Tail Gator serves 3-5 people, but I think you’re probably stretching it a bit to feed 5. Continue reading →

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by | July 20, 2009 · 11:58 pm

Willy’s Smokehouse – A New Favorite Emerges

by Brian

Hey, everybody!  Sorry for the lack of recent updates.  Mikey and I have been slackin’ on our pimpin’ over the past few days, livin’ it up and enjoying the good life.  But don’t you worry; we’ve also been eating some good stuff and will be writing all about it this week.

Coming up, we’ve got some fine Italian food, a new episode of The Catch, a pizza that might be our highest scoring ever and some authentic Mexican cuisine.  But for tonight’s post, I’ve got the latest and greatest BBQ in our area.

Willy’s Smokehouse – Just off the 101 at Chesebro, in Agoura Hills.

For those of you who don’t know, we’ve been doing quite a bit of BBQ lately.  We’ve had good experiences and bad, but I think Willy’s has emerged as my latest favorite.

Willy’s is a small place, right beside the freeway, and if you’re not looking for it you’ll drive right past.  That would be a huge mistake though, because the barbeque is as down-home and delicious as you’ll find anywhere in L.A.

I originally heard about this place through a friend who works there.  Usually I take these kinds of recommendations with a grain of salt because, as an employee, he or she has a vested interest in the restaurant doing well.  So I looked it up on a few of the rating sites and verified the legitimacy of Willy’s.  It checked out, so I decided to check it out.

Patio

My friend and I rolled up at around 7:30pm on a Tuesday night.  It wasn’t too crowded, which made me think that either a lot of people still don’t know about it, or they just can’t find it, call off the search and settle for the Wood Ranch down the street.  Fine by me.  It was a nice night, so we snagged a booth outside on the patio and started looking over the menu.  Continue reading →

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by | July 5, 2009 · 9:54 pm

Thousand Oaks Elks BBQ For The Community

by Brian

Hey Everyone!  Mikey and I hope you had as memorable a 4th of July as we did.  But now, we’re back to the business at hand: bringing you good food that you might not have known existed.  Occasionally, I also like to spotlight organizations that give back to the community.  After all, EatMeCalifornia.com is all about the little guy. (Mikey, that wasn’t a fat joke)

Elks BBQ – On Conejo School Rd. north of T.O. Blvd, Thousand Oaks

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As the sign on the right of this picture says, they BBQ every Saturday.  The 4th of July was no exception.  I’ve known about these guys for years, but am always surprised that a lot of people don’t.  They are really close to where my Mom lives and on a breezy day, I swear that the delicious, smoky scent can be detected from her front door.  Yesterday, I had a craving for the one thing they make that I always fall back on: the tri-tip sandwich.

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For six bucks, you too can have a fist-sized portion of juicy, tender tri-tip, on a garlic roll and slathered in their own sweet barbeque sauce.  It’s fantastic and the other great thing about it is that all the profits from your indulgence go back to the community.

The Elks are the third largest provider of college scholarships in the United States, behind only the federal government and the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.  Mikey and I are all for education, especially when it seems that people nowadays are only getting dumber. (Except those of you who read our site, of course.) Continue reading →

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by | July 1, 2009 · 7:33 pm

The Ventura BBQ Wars Continue – JD’s Louisiana BBQ

by Brian

As most of you know, I had an absolutely horrendous BBQ experience a short while back at CJ’s in Oxnard.  Honestly, it had more to do with the service than the quality of the food.  But still, who wants to give their hard earned cash to a bunch of jerks, right?  Right.

Well another Ventura county BBQ-er managed to get wind of that post and comment on the site.  Here’s a slightly edited version of what he wrote:

Hello Brian…

I checked out your review of CJ’s BBQ and I think that you are a guy that tells the truth…  I want you to check out JD’s Louisiana BBQ and let me know what you think…. I will guarantee you that you will be treated well and fed the best BBQ in this town!!!! You don’t even have to tell me when you come… All I want is a honest and fair review…  JD’S LOUISIANA BBQ CO.

Now, since I love BBQ and also the crushing of my enemies, I thought, what better way to get even with CJ’s than to review every barbeque restaurant in the area?  Thus Ventura BBQ Wars was born.  Of course, Mikey and I are sworn to remain fair, impartial and dedicated to bringing you the god’s honest BBQ truth.  Here we go…

JD’s Louisiana BBQ – On the corner of Patterson Rd. and Wooley Rd. in Oxnard

outsidejds

I’m just gonna come out and say it.  The only thing CJ’s has on JD’s is a larger selection.  But I think there’s something to be said for doing less and doing it better.  I mean seriously, since I got my iPhone, I’ve learned that I can twitter (@EatMeCalifornia), check the Dodgers score, adopt a Rwandan orphan and buy Mikey’s fossilized chest hair on Ebay, all from the comfort of my local starbucks.  It’s almost too much to bear.  Sometimes, simple is better. Continue reading →

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by | June 21, 2009 · 8:32 pm

My Crappy BBQ Experience at CJ’s

by Brian

As most of you know, the majority of my reviews on EatMeCalifornia are positive ones.  After all, we want to promote local businesses that have great food, great service and all the things that make a meal memorable.  CJ’s had none of that.  In fact, when scouring my experience for positive things to say, I only found two.  First, CJ’s serves barbeque.  Second, their spicy barbeque sauce is really good.  Unfortunately, they don’t serve anything that I’d like to put the aforementioned sauce on.

I didn’t take a picture of the front of this place, mostly because I don’t want you guys to go there.  Here’s why… Continue reading →

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Filed under Oxnard, Ventura County

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by | May 18, 2009 · 3:59 pm

Pulled Pork = Tri Tip?

by Mikey

A new bbq joint opened up not too far from me, so you know I had to check it out.  Plus, the place has my name stamped on it, so I had to find out if it was worthy to be a part of the Mike empire.  I’m on the fence with this one folks.  This place kinda left me confused, bewildered, and just a touch bamboozled.

Big Mike’s Smokehouse – In Ventura on Telephone Road near Saticoy

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Continue reading →

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by | May 17, 2009 · 8:05 pm

‘Nardfest ’09 aka. California Strawberry Festival

by Brian

Did you know that there are like 80 billion festivals in California every year?  Enough festivals to have one per person, per day, for about a century.  But what makes the California Strawberry Festival so special that EatMeCalifornia would do a whole post on it?  Not much, really.  Mikey and I just needed to get out.  Plus, I was upset that Mikey didn’t take me antiquing on the way home from SF last weekend.

California Strawberry Festival – In an undisclosed location near the University of Oxnard (Oxnard College)

(not as gay as it seems, yet still relatively gay)

(not as gay as it seems, yet still relatively gay)

As always, when considering an event Mikey and I ask one small but crucial question.  Will there be booze?  The answer in this case is a resounding YES.  They had strawberry beer, (which was quite nice) strawberry margaritas, strawberry wine, strawberry champagne and a whole lot of other stuff.  I would tell you about all of it, but I don’t wanna sound like that retard from Forrest Gump.  That guy was retarded, right?

Anyway… Booze?  Check.  Food?  Oh hells yeah!  Here are a couple of the delicacies that we sampled on this fine Oxnardian day: Continue reading →

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