Lucille’s BBQ in Lake Forest, California is part of a multi-county chain. We were going to celebrate our son’s 23rd birthday. He’s at a fraternity and we were having a family party for him and our daughter later in the week. So he decided it was a pay night his way. There ended up being 18 people.
The restaurant doesn’t take reservations so my son and his girlfriend decided to come down and put their name in at 5:45 and told everyone to be there at 6:30. It was Tuesday, so we honestly didn’t think the wait would be that long. Are we ever wrong?
We were finally seated at 8:30. By then, we had all decided exactly what we were going to have: most of our clan had work or classes to attend early the next morning. The waiters took another 10 minutes to take our orders.
My husband and I were paying for the birthday boy, his girlfriend, our daughter and son-in-law, and ourselves. The four young men ordered some kind of barbecued meat sandwich. My husband and I were going to split a rack of beef short ribs, but were told the rack had 7 ribs, about half of what is served at another BBQ chain (Claim Jumpers) and for about a third more in price. So my husband chose a different dish to share. He was $2 more, but he thought they’d be generous with the chicken (also had tritip and 2 beef ribs). We ordered it with their cole slaw and very small potatoes.
The food was delicious, I’ll give you that. The chicken was juicy, the ribs were too sweet for any of our tastes, but they were meaty, and the tritip was okay. Nothing special really. The coleslaw was (for a complete change from most restaurants!) almost completely devoid of dressing. The budget fries were also tasty but we thought they might have been sitting around for a while as they were quite limp.
We were starving! Especially since we hadn’t eaten since around noon. Honestly, compared to the taste and quality of Claim Jumpers, we were disappointed. My husband and I always share a meal there and still come home with “a little more”.
Most of my son’s friends had a good time, most ordered beer or other alcoholic beverages and enjoyed being together, which is the whole point of having a party!
For a group of this size, the servers did a pretty decent job. They keep the refillable drink cups full, only messed up 2 orders and they were nice. They brought our son a birthday ice cream at the end and led us in the usual song.
When our bill came it was $95 which included tax and tip. Now, before you think that doesn’t sound too bad, remember a couple of things: We had 5 meals (don’t forget, my husband and I split up) and we all had nothing but water to drink.
I think one of my son’s friends said it best during our long time before we sat down: “Hey Adam, there’s a Fuddrucker across the street, I called and now they’ll set up a table and it’ll cost us half.” !”
Enough to say we should have listened!