Robert Earl’s BBQ

I went twice and on both occasions they were closed when they said they were open. I even ordered online and they canceled my order. I went there, door was locked, posted hours said they should be open, people were in the store but they said it had been slow so they closed early (this happened TWICE) in 1 week. Never tried their food but their customer service is horrible. They were rude, don’t answer the phones, aren’t open when they say they are, Their website ordering system sucks, etc. Really unprofessional, what a disappointment.

This place is the BEST! Super Bomb BBQ, my friends and I all got pork rib tips, with baked beans and potato salad, it was all on point and amazing. We got it about 15 – 20 mins after waiting and ate in, theres plenty of paper towels for messyness and they had drinks that were very reasonably priced at $ 1. The atmosphere was chill and this place is cool. Will definitely return to get more bomb ass bbq!

My experience with Robert Earls was fantastic all the way around! They offer easy online ordering, and got my order correct. When I arrived I could smell the bbq smoker from outside and I knew I found a good place. The staff was incredibly nice. Most importantly the food was awesome! I got a brisket dinner and a spare rib dinner, mac n cheese, beans, greens and the banana pudding. everything was great! Best bbq I’ve had in a long time. The small sides were just that.small. I’ll know for next time. However they served a very generous portion of ribs and brisket, I didn’t need the larger sides.

I just don’t know how I feel. I really wanted to love this place. Everyone was extremely nice and there was definite southern hospital. The price was reasonable but the flavor just wasn’t there for me. I felt that the meat was served a bit cold and the sides were just oily with not a lot of flavor.

Really great brisket and ribs — perfectly tender and smokey. The sauce is a bit sweet, not quite as good as bludso’s, but still good enough.
Where Robert Earl’s really fell short was the rib tips. What we received was dried out and chewy, which I would have thought was impossible given the fat content of rib tips. So while the ribs and brisket were an A+, the ribs were a straight F.
Sides were good, but nothing to write home about. Mac and Cheese was bland, greens were over salted, and potato salad was standard.
Will be coming back — hopefully rib tip debacle was a one time thing.

First choice for REAL food for us! Can taste the love in the food. Love this place and will keep comin back when I need stick to my gut deliciousness!!!

Absolutely the best BBQ in Long Beach.
The brisket, ribs are smoked perfectly every time. The chicken is moist and delicious. (so many bbq places have chicken that is dry as dust)
The Mac and Cheese is great.
I’m telling you, It’s the real deal!!!

I have real problem: I LOVE rib tips. Not those dry, burnt tips where the gristle’s so hard you might break a tooth biting into it. No way, I want juicy, slightly charred but with the meat and gristle tender. Robert Earl fits the bill.
My problem is that this shop is less than a mile from my house. I’m over there all the time buying my beloved rib tips by the pound. I get the sauce on the side since I only want a little sauce.
I have tried a few other meats: ribs and brisket. They were good but my beloved rib tips keep calling me back. I will continue my love affair with Robert Earl rib tips until I’m ready for my next addiction.

I had the tri tip, mac and cheese, greens and a soda for lunch. The tri tip was good, sauce was a plenty. My surprise was the mac and cheese was AWESOME! I wished I got a large side of that. The greens were good and tasty. The soda… well that was a different story since I didn’t have it in my bag when I left the place. I didn’t realize that until I was heading back.
No private parking lot and only street parking was there, but its located on a not so safe part of town during the night. I would recommend coming this place during the daytime.

Lookie here… lookie here now… you best get some of this BBQ in your mouth. Give it a shot — rate it yourself. But, REBBQ is doing something right. Excellent kiss of smoke on all the meats… and even in the beans. That’s right… get on it! Juicy brisket and tender ribs — don’t mess around and get the spicy sauce. Buttery cornbread muffin to close it out… sweet Jesus… you here me?
Great to see a small business putting it on the line and pushing out a great product. Stay loyal to your quality and the love you put into it. Let’s get some classic blues on the overhead though. See you soon.

So, 1^st review here for 1^st time… note: Texas bbq sauce is generally not my favorite so i won’t review that part. It tasted like Texas style sauce.
1. Price — about right
2. Rib tips — good cut and tender with that bark you like
3. Ribs — see rib tips
4. Chicken — white meat, moist, perfectly cooked
5. Beans — solid
6. Potato salad — solid
7. Macaroni — the only meh; baked nice but more pepper than cheese
Will be back… no mac

Okay so I’ve gone back a few more times here and decided to bump this up to 5 stars because well the owners are just so damn sweet!
Yes, your food will likely not be ready in the 20 minutes they said it would be. If you’re calling in an order for pickup. Come in 30 – 40 minutes instead to avoid the wait.
I got the Pork Spare Ribs twice again and it was never at the same «boiled» consistency as the first time. They have the perfect amount of crust to tender ratio now and are seriously finger-​licking good. A full rack of these babies is more than enough for 2 people.
Beware though that sometimes they are sold out of certain meats or sides for the day. This place is starting to blow up and I’m scared I’ll soon never be able to get the full rack of Pork Spare Ribs for dinner near when they are closing :(Last time we had to get the Babyback Ribs instead — albeit also delicious, but not the same.
Oh and get the SPICY BBQ sauce, a perfect amount of medium heat for your lovely bones.

The food here is great… I actually stumbled across Earl’s because the «competition» had an issue for the day… just kind of surprised at the service though…
Wanted to place an order for my department lunch… so I called at 11:20am just 10 mins before they open, the lady refused to take my order so the food could potentially be ready by the time they opened. Why would you turn away business like that?
Unfortunately, I had to go back to the «competition» to make sure the food was on time for our lunch meeting.
I would go back to Earl’s though… just need to consider they are «limited» in their customer service skills.

Check out Robert Earls his food is so good it will make you run home and leave your car there

The best BBQ around! Hot, flavorful and tender. No need for BBQ sauce… taste the meat, it’s fantastic. Greens and baked beans were better than mine.
Forget about «that other BBQ place on Long Beach Blvd». This place is 110 times better.
Come join the «family».

Had lunch catered into work today from Robert Earls
We had ribs, brisket, hot links, mac n cheese, coleslaw and baked beans.
As always excellent food, biggest winners from the shop. the Brisket was talked about the most people loved it
flavor for days
melts in your mouth
Mac n cheese all so huge favorite.
Ribs great
Beans great amazing flavor
Even colesaw was gone
which from other places is the least favorite.
Thank you Robert Earls BBQ you hit it out of the park.

They’ve lost one star since my last review. As you can see in my last review, I had problems, and it was my first time. It seems those problems persist. It’s something in the service that doesn’t translate. Then, is something about the inconsistency of the recipe that doesn’t vibe.
Yesterday, I ordered a rib lunch. The lunch comes with one side, so I got baked beans. The ribs were very tender; I’d do that again. The beans were so spicy, I thought it was from a Mexican restaurant. I had to throw them away.
I also ordered a brisket sandwich and a side of mac & cheese that I thought I would have for dinner. By the time I opened it up hours later, I realized it was pulled pork. While tender, this was not what my palate was waiting for. Also, the mac was salty. So salty I had to throw it away.
Sigh. Good barbecue, but something is always lost in this place. Not to mention that I called in, yet still had to wait 15 minutes. Next time I’ll just go to the tried-​and-​true Bludsoe’s barbecue.

Enjoying good BBQ caused me to visit this restaurant while I was in the LA area. It’s not far from Bludso’s in Compton which I really enjoyed. This hole in the wall restaurant does offer indoor seating which is a plus as this allowed me to dine in rather than eating the food in my car.
I ordered a sliced brisket sandwich and a side of their beans. When ordering I notified the cashier of my Unilocal discount and even showed it to her on my phone app. I thought I saw her enter the discount in the register.
The food came out less than 10 minutes later. The sandwich was on a hoagie roll and I will tell you the brisket was perfect!!! The meat flavor of the brisket was so good that I didn’t want to put any of their sauce on it. It was as good of brisket as I have ever had (5). The other reason that I didn’t want to put any sauce on it is because I didn’t love it. Actually I barely liked it (2.5). I thought it was a little too strong. I believe they have two types mild and spicy. I asked for mild. I hope that’s what I got. It wasn’t bad but it would have damaged the taste of that wonderful brisket. Also I liked their beans but because of the sauce that had been mixed in it I would only give the beans a 3.
During the meal the owners wife came out to check on me and was very nice and friendly. As I was finishing I noticed that on my receipt I didn’t receive the Unilocal 10% discount on the sandwich. I went back up to the counter and asked the hot (forgot to add that earlier) cashier about it. She was nice and said that she forgot to ring it up even when I showed it to her. She offered to make it up on my next visit but I told her I didn’t live here. I didn’t want to make a big deal of it because it was only a .90 discount so I told her to forget it. It wasn’t about the money just the idea. Also I couldn’t get too mad at that face!
I give an overall of a 4. A 5 for the meat but IMO the sauce pulled the score down along with the forgotten discount.

«Welcome to the family!»
It was my first time at Robert Earl’s and I already felt like it was my 100^th time. At the counter, I took awhile to decide and the girl was patient with me, helping me with some suggestions. After I sat down, Robert Earl himself came out twice to make sure everything with my meal was A-​OK!
It’s not a real BBQ joint unless they run out of something. I was there at 7 p.m. on a Saturday and they were out of Mac ‘n’ Cheese, Cornbread, Chicken and Brisket (cooking, but 30 minute wait). If good is gone, you only have yourself to blame for not getting there earlier! That’s okay, there’s loads of other stuff to get.
2 Meat Combo ($ 18) — Your choice of meats and comes with two medium sides. They give a good amount of meat and the medium sides are pretty big, larger than some other places.
Rib Tips — Every piece is very well seasoned, meat is a little firmer than the pork ribs but still tender. Very smoky with some crusty on the outside. Good without the BBQ sauce and even better with it. For this one, I’d say getting it with the sauce on top or on the side, either is good, because you are going to want to put a lot of the sauce on. If it’s your first time here and you want to taste the pure meat first, then get sauce on the side. If you aren’t into working smaller bonier pieces, then don’t get rib tips. If you like nibbling around bones, you’ll enjoy these.
Pork Ribs — The pork ribs are some sort of amazing. Get this with the sauce on the side so you can taste how good the meat is. Crusty and evenly blackened outside, but juicy on the inside. Slow cooked over peach and cherry wood. Even as I was driving away after my meal, the smoky goodness was still lingering in my mouth. The meat doesn’t fall off the bone, but it is very tender. If I had to choose, I’d choose these over the rib tips. Can’t really go wrong either way.
Spicy BBQ Sauce — This has some kick to it. If your mouth and stomach is really weak on the heat, then get the regular sauce. It’s not going to burn you, but it will let you know that you are hangin’ with the spicy.
Brisket — I am trying you next time!
White Bread — I was given two pieces.
Baked Beans — Loved the beans. Sweet and tangy but not too, too sweet. It has a little bit of spiciness to it too.
Potato Salad — Weird to say that nothing in particular stood out, but I really like the potato salad and will be ordering this again. It’s not too salty or too creamy. There are some spices mixed in, but only to give it flavor, not heat. Potatoes were just the right texture, not under or over cooked. The slightly subdued potato salad was a good balance to the sweet and tangy beans and the smokey meats.
Banana Pudding — The pudding is off the charts. It’s a very smooth pudding, on the sweeter side, no banana chunks but solid banana flavor all over. I think they let ‘Nilla Wafers sit in there until they get soft. In every bite you will get an almost even portion of ‘nilla wafers and pudding. The small container is $ 3 and is really small, you could finish it in four bites. The medium is $ 6 and you get about double or maybe a little more than double of what you’d get in the small. Pricey, but if you like your banana pudding, you can’t pass this up.
The good thing about Robert Earl’s is that even though they may run out of some items late in the day, they still have plenty of good choices left. On a Saturday you will probably wait about 15 – 30 minutes for your order after you place it, which is better than the 30 – 60 minutes that you would have to wait at Bludso’s (2 miles away and they always run out of meat by 6 p.m. on Saturdays). Plus they have seats and tables!
What do you think of the food? Be ready to answer, because they will ask you!
If you are looking for some great home cooked BBQ to go with two sides of Southern Hospitality, you need to hit up Robert Earl’s!

Definitely a lot better experience than my first visit. So much better, I came back for a third visit a couple of weeks later. I’m a Bludso’s BBQ fan, but I don’t like the wait (even when I calling an order) and the awful parking issue there. So when I had a BBQ craving and I wasn’t in the mood to wait, I gave Robert Earl’s another shot. I’m glad I did.
Rib Tips — Delicious! They were tender and meaty. They give you a lot of meat, but only 1 pc of white bread. (1? Only, come on man)
Sparerib Dinner — it had a nice smoke ring to it. The meat was tender and with a bite was clean to the bone without falling apart. Perfect! My only issue, no bread. Maybe I should have been thankful when I only got 1 piece of bread. Lol.
Sides:
Baked Bean — one of the better baked beans I’ve had. Not too sweet, which is the way I like it. Yum!
Mac N Cheese — this was just okay. There is an up charge of $ 1 to get this with your meal. Pass on this one.
Peach Cobbler — Delicious! It was freshly made and still piping hot when I got it. Yum! My issue was they charge $ 3 for a 4 oz serving. It was a really small serving.
Price — it’s on the high side
Service was good. I just wish they mentioned the up charge to get the Mac n cheese.
Robert Earl made a push and is currently #2 on my BBQ list. Bludso’s is still #1
2015 Review #66