Smokey’s House of BBQ

Loved this place. Beer was served below freezing. So sad to find it closed.

I love good BBQ and just moved into the area, was happy to see a BBQ place right near me.
Then I made the mistake of trying it…
Just terrible on all levels, service pathetic and slow, pulled pork was awful, as was the brisket and the bbq sauce is below a canned product in look and taste.
Can’t wait for them to go out of business…

Service was good. The guy was very polite and friendly… there was only 1 other party there during lunch hours which should have been a clue… I ordered half a pulled pork po boy with sweet potato fries. The fries were hot fresh and tasty… the sandwich how ever was Luke warm at best… nothing special. Giving 1 star for the nice server. the 2^nd star for the hot and tasty sweet potato fries. Disappointing

Came here for lunch and enjoyed a pretty solid experience. Brought my family in for dinner a couple weeks later and was very disappointed. Our simple order of three burgers took over 45 mins to arrive despite the fact that we were one of two parties in the whole place. Our burgers were ordered medium well and well done but arrived raw. Burgers were sent back for another extended wait. The waitress was nice and apologetic but the meal was ruined. The normally fantastic sweet potato fries were scorched as well. The only highlight was the baked beans were awesome. Sadly, really great baked beans aren’t enough to make up for a bad dining experience.

We were pleasantly surprised how good the food was given some of the other reviews on Unilocal.Baby back ribs and tri tip steak were both very good and sweet potato fries and creamy corn were great as well.

It’s a shame this place is so poorly run as the bbq is good and we have little choice in this area. They really botch it with very high prices, especially at lunch. About the only reasonable choices are a half Po boy with either a salad or soup for $ 10.00. If you want a proper bbq lunch like Lucilles expect to drop $ 20. That is why the place is deserted at lunch

My family and I wanted to try some place new, so we went here for our moms birthday lunch. It’s safe to say, we wish we stuck with one of our regular spots. There were only 3 other people in the restaurant and still the service was terrible. Not as bad as the food though, pulled pork, ribs, grilled veggies and even just chicken fingers were all nasty.
Should be called burntys rather than smokeys!

Way over priced for what you get. Definitely not impressed. Place was empty. Should have taken a clue.

Dry, dry, dry… Smokey’s used to be better and now its degraded to cafeteria quality BBQ. On the upside there are two Jail cell booths the kids will love and they let you draw on the wall in the jail cells… but the waiter barely spoke English and there is no noticeable smell of smoke in the restaurant or the food… Try bad to the bone instead

Their food is killer! I’ve been to most of the other bbq’s in south OC & this place is the best. Their corn bread, coleslaw & tri-​tip is delish! Their service isn’t awesome, it’s not the worst, but pretty unimpressive to say the least, that’s why they’re not getting 5 stars. Granted, I’m only there for to-​go lunch so perhaps the experience is different if you are sitting down to dine.

Pulled pork sandwich was delicious. Bread on it was really tasty. Fries were hot and fresh. Overall food and bbq sauces were pretty damn good!
Service was off. Only one guy working. Was running around like a chicken with head cut off. Poor management on that end. Nice server, but you could tell he’ll quit soon since I doubt he’s happy not getting the support he needs to deliver acceptable service…

The only redeeming factor for the restaurant is the one guy who was running the entire place on a Tuesday night — I didn’t see another employee the entire time we were there. The reviews weren’t great but we tried it anyways because there weren’t many places within walking distance of our hotel.
Here’s what we had:
Cornbread — soggy/​uncooked in the middle and lacking flavor
BBQ Burger– asked for it «medium» and received it «well done». Flavorless and dry
Fries– unfortunately, the only good part of our two meals
Pulled pork — sauce was too sweet without any bite.
Mac and cheese — wet and soggy
Definitely would not go back. Try the pizza place next door. Much better option in the area.

First time here at Dana Point and had some free time and I’m always down for some BBQ and Unilocaled this place up. It didn’t have the best reviews but I’m willing to give them a chance and prove them wrong… unfortunately they weren’t able to.
First off, parking is great and at first glacé it seems like they have their own parking lot but it’s shared with others at the plaza. Parking is directly in front of the restaurant so it leads you towards Smokey’s. The interior has a western theme to it with jail house seating, bbq signs from other states, and country music playing on the speakers. Kind of like those restaurants you see on tv shows but the staff here don’t dress up.
When I came in there wasn’t anyone to greet me. I thought it was one of those places where they had to seat you but from what I saw that wasn’t going to be a problem because they were only four other parties there at the time. I went to the men’s room first to wash my hands and say it was decent and well kept. Sat down at one table and waited for to be served. The thing I noticed immediately were the tables being really sticky. If your wearing a dress shirt or any exotic/​expensive fabric/​clothing you may reconsider resting your arms there.
I eventually got service who gave me a menu finally, they weren’t that busy to begin with. Ordered my food and waited. The waiter was all business so if your looking for one of those perky happy go lucky types this might not be for you but I’m indifferent as long they do their job correctly. There were a total of 3 members on staff when I was there one waiter/​manager, 1 bus boy, and one cook. Food took a while but they were understaffed but it looked like it wasn’t gonna be a problem because people aren’t gonna line up for this place.
The food itself was very underwhelming. I got Smokey’s BBQ Burger with everything and my two sides of bbq beans and shoestring fries. I’m a fries lover but these fries were bland to me and I didn’t even feel bad for not finishing them. The bbq beans tasted like Bush’s baked beans, not a bad thing but I have a feeling it could be from a can. The burger was big and wet. The toasted bun they were served with you can tell it was stale just by touching them, the burger was cooked decent, the toppings make it a mess to eat and not in a good way. Picking it up to eat the juice was dripping all over the place, very disappointed in the burgers here. Good thing it was a spacial I would hate to find out what their bbq would be like since they were twice as much.
All in all, service was decent and attentive but the food and overall experience won’t have me coming back anytime soon.

While in the area in between soccer tournaments, we came across Smokeys BBQ. It was EXCELLENT! Service, food, atmosphere… super cute! We sat in a booth made into a jail cell. Kids loved it! Jamie are waitress was amazing!!! Will be back for sure!

We tried this place for the first time after a long beach walk and were very pleasantly surprised. Great selection of draft beers and excellent menu. My friend ordered a delicious burger with sweet potato fries and cole slaw. It was up there among the top three burgers I’d ever tried. Super high-​quality beef and the bun was outstanding! (Next time I’m gettin’ a burger!) However, I did enjoy my beef brisket po’ boy with shoestring fries a lot. And my mom loved her baby back ribs, which she ordered off the 65+ menu (also the kids’ menu).
The restaurant is on the darker side – which was relaxing – very clean, and with nice décor. Overall comfortable with nice ambiance. I will look forward to going back (and gettin’ my own burger!)!!
The only negative was that the waiter spoke so, so fast, it was hard for me to understand him, let alone my 75-​year-​old mom. I don’t know why these young waiters can’t just calmly and slowly explain things these days.

Good atmosphere attentive server on this visit. Clean, new interior. Beautiful view of the pacific and the strip mall it resides in is quite nice. Now, about that ‘Q. It’s at the top of my list of unremarkable bland BBQ. I got the pulled pork and brisket. I literally couldn’t distinguish between the two (not a good indicator for sliced brisket). The slaw was bland, the beans from a can and, yea you guessed it bland. The sauce was sweet and unremarkable with overwhelming smoke. Very vanilla overall and I guess if you’re from SoCal and never have had proper Q, you may think it’s good albeit for a proud 21 $ entry fee. As for me, if I ever can’t make it in what I’m doing, I know where to open a Q business and give these folks a proper meal. Four stars for service and environment. One for the food. We come for the food so two s overall! Put some love in yer food people!
Cheers yall, be good!

Sucks!!! We used to come here from time to time. And now we will never come again. Our first time… about 5 years back, the tritip sandwich was excellent! Very generous with the meat they packed in there. Slowly but surely everything’s been falling apart. Servers suck… Watched our food sit at the counter for at least 10 minutes before it was brought to us. Oh and did I mention there were only 3 other tables being waited on? Got our sandwich tonight and was extremely disappointed… TWO OVER COOKED slices of tritip in a huge baguette! Wtf?! We used to be able to share this sandwich because of all the meet they put in it! Now… heck no! Glad we ordered two! Bread oa filling! Uhg… Never coming back. What a shame. $ 1 tip for leaving our food there for 10 minutes and not being attentive to fill our drinks. Never coming back…

I almost feel bad for the servers here. Whoever runs this place hires people with absolutely no knowledge of smokehouse bbq.
I got the two meat plate, brisket and pulled pork. The meat was old like few days old… My wife’s corn bread was stale. This was just one of the worst bbq experiences I’ve ever had. Avoid this place and eat at McDonald’s if you want gross food.
I’ll add the prices are really high for the quality of food.

Driving on PCH, we passed by this place, heading to the Dana Point Harbor, and decided to stop here for dinner, to give it a try. I looked on Unilocal,and noticed the ratings given, which didn’t give me a good feeling. When we walked in just after 6pm on a Sunday, a red flag to this place, should have been that there were only 4 tables with patrons. One would think that a restaurant in a nice upscale area, with a nice-​looking interior, ocean view and good food, would be full of people this time of day… but it wasn’t.
When we first walked in, the hostess said we could sit wherever we wanted, and her greeting wasn’t the friendliest, IMO. We opted for a table with chairs, instead of a booth. Upon sitting down, I noticed the roll of paper towels on the table were dirty with sauce from someone else’s sauce-​covered fingers. GROSS! We ordered food for someone who was sitting in the car, first, then ordered our food. It only took about 10 minutes to get our food, which was a platter of 4 meats and 2 sides that I shared with my boyfriend. To say the least, I don’t know how he liked his beef ribs, but there wasn’t much beef brisket given, but it was bland and cold. Their cajun hot link sausage was cold and cut up weirdly, and the country smoked chicken was okay. The beans tasted as if they were poured out of can. The seasoned fries were the best thing I had to eat from this experience.
Anyone wanting to go here, read others’ reviews for a heads up. This was my first time here and it will be my last. Just yuck!
Just because this place is located in Dana Point in a nice area, doesn’t mean it will be good.

My son really loves this restaurant.
The views are beautiful,
and the food is good. With it’s jailhouse booths, the ambiance here is pretty fun too!

My son ordered the chicken tenders and fries.
He really enjoyed these and gave them two thumbs up. I ordered the tri-​tip salad.
Other than the tri-​tip being just a tad overcooked, I still thought the salad was pretty good. My son said the onion rings that topped my salad were «awesome».
Customer service here was excellent here. Our waiter was great. He took our orders quickly, and he was constantly checking to see how we were doing. He seemed patient and attentive the entire time we were here. The wonderful customer service at this establishment was refreshing.
My son really thought his meal was great, while I thought my meal was fairly average. But with service this wonderful, I’m hoping the food on future visits will be, as my son mentioned, «awesome»! I can’t wait to come back and see if my son is right.