Shorter’s Barbeque

We were on our way back from the bay area with empty bellies and wanted a good BBQ place. So of course I consulted Unilocal (surprising, I know) and found this gem. I was a little apprehensive about it being that is in the bowling alley but was too starving to care.
We were given a very friendly greeting. The employees/​owners were very nice and welcoming. We even spoke with Dave for quite some time, he challenged my hubby to try a super spicy sauce they had. Needless to say it was a little more than he prefers but he was a good sport. But the owner did warn him to only take a little and he decided to drunk a piece of meet in it, so he brought it upon himself.
My husband and I both ordered 2 meat dinner place. I got the ribs and the brisket with greens and mac&cheese. My hubby got the trip tip and links. With coleslaw and mac&cheese. We shared the meets and I have to say everything was super delicious.
The links were a little spicy for me but good. Tri tip was so flavorful and tender. Ribs are excellent! And the brisket was very delicious however I prefer slices and this was cut up into bits and seemed to have lost a lot of the bark that I love so much.
The greens were good but I think needed something, other places I’ve been do they put pork or bacon for extra flavor which I prefer. Mac and cheese was good. I did not try his coleslaw.
Overall the food was good but a little pricey. The employees/​owners were very welcoming and fun to chat with. I definitely plan on coming back when I am in the area.

It bamboozles me that this place has so many good reviews. This place is not worth the price what so ever. Went in and ordered a 3 piece catfish with a side first off it was $ 12 on top of that the side was 4 oz so they expected me to pay for 3 pieces of fish and 2 teaspoons of Mac & Cheese. Hell naw. I went there before and ordered a brisket sandwich which was $ 10 and all it was, was bbq meat and bread WTF?!

Was in Tracy visiting friends and had a craving for BBQ. I mentioned this and was planning to head over to Concord when they suggested Shorter’s. Saw the high review rating and was easily convinced. We made our way there and right when we pulled in, I saw the big smoker outside just smoking away, that’s when i knew I was in for a treat! I will say that being almost part of the bowling alley, it was a little weird.
Food;
I had the the 2 meat combo that came with 2 sides. I went with Tri-​Tip, Pulled Pork, Potato Salad and Red beans & Rice. The plate (to go box container) was packed high with meat. You really get your $ 23+ worth with their plate when it comes to meat. My sides, I hate to say it but they sucked… The potato salad and the red beans & rice were lacking flavor. They were bland.
If you decide to get the 2 meat combo, the sausage is really good but you only get 2 of them and in my opinion, that’s just a waste of money cause we were charged the same as if you ordered any of the other meats.
Service:
You order at the counter when one of the employees can make their way out to the front. Its pretty busy, so expect some wit time to order and get your food. In my opinion, if you arent in a hurry, its worth the wait.
5 stars for the smoked meats but –1 star for the sides. If im in the area I would stop by again but only order meat.

The owner is friendly and the BBQ is NO lie hands down best TRI-​TIP sandwich I’ve had thus far!
I asked for the spicy but don’t tempt DAVE the owner! He will light up the BBQ
Must TRY!!!

Ate here a couple days ago, went home satisfied ! I love shorters ! Everything I’ve had there so far was BOMB.

Oh man. Where do I start… First off. I love BBQ… and this place… oh man! speechless. Hospitality was good. I like the home feel atmosphere as well. I had the Chicken bbq dinner and I don’t usually eat the whole thigh if its too bloody. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t bloody at all. The meat is so tender. the sides were super good. I just wish they had the spicy mac and cheese. other than that all around good for me! I definitely returning any chance I get!

Food was just eh… took over an hour and no one offered an apology or even a soda for the inconvienece. I am not one to trash talk, so I ll stop now, but many more complaints. I wasn’t the only one complaining btw. Will never go back.

We used to go to Shorter’s when they were downtown. When we saw they were going to open at the bowling alley we were very excited. After their ‘soft opening’ at the bowling alley I went and ordered 3 dinners to go. I had to wait an hour for our food. This past Friday my husband wanted to try it again as several months had passed and he figured they would have worked out the bugs. I call in our order of 3 dinners to go. The lady who took our order said it would be ready in 20 minuted. My husband went to pick up the food and when he got home, all he said was «don’t say a word». It took an hour on top of the original 20 minutes for the order to be ready. We will not be coming back which makes me sad as the food is very good, but the service is such a MAJOR FAIL.

I visited Shorter’s on this past Sunday and the ribs are very good. Price is much higher than the other BBQ places, like Dicky’s and the new place called Que 225. I was disappointed on the 3 meat plate value. $ 26.99 per plate. They didn’t offer me the family pack deals and I spent $ 53.98 on two dinners when I could have got Rack of Ribs and 1 lg side and 8 pc BBQ chicken and 1 large side for $ 55.98 for an extra $ 2.00! I could have gotten alot more food for the price of two small dinners with two small sides. All other places charge $ 11.95 for their rib dinners, pulled pork, chicken. The ribs need to be a better quality of bones. I want ribs not rib nuggets. Some of the meat has lots of fat and gristle chopped on the ends of the meat, so you get two bones and 4 chopped gristle ends. I want chicken, breast, wings, legs, not the back of chicken with very little meat on it. The wait time is long, long 30 minutes or better. Three things to make the ribs better, 1) the meat itself needs to be seasoned. The sauce does not make the meat taste like it is seasoned with salt or pepper. 2) lower your prices on the 3-​meat plates. You are $ 12.00 more than the other places and it should be much lower than the family pack dinners. 3) Better quality of ribs with less fat and gristle. More bones and not nuggets by chopping the meat into squares. Give me a slab, half of slab or ¾ of a slab.

Worst service ever. I waited for over an hour for chicken strips and sandwich. The bread was also moldy when we recieved our food.

1^st time to Shorters. I had the BBQ ribs. Very nice. Meaty ribs and the sauce is cooked into the meat and not an overly sweet sauce. Meat was not over cooked and dry. Nice portions. The negative is the wait time. We were told 15 minutes well we waited more like 45 minutes. Large parking lot but on a Friday night it was quite crowded. Restaurant is a part of a bowling ally. Don’t go if you are short on time. I believe they take telephone orders.

Arrived at 11am, came into the store to find the staff telling me they are not open because Shorter the owner is out running errands and they dont know what time they will open. Came back 2 hours later and the same staff said Shorter is still out and is so busy and they are still waiting for him to get back so they can open WTH??? Then the waitress stated «Maybe you should tell Shorter not to do this to us anymore and to come to work on time.» Unbelievable…

Ok, now if you have seen any of my other reviews I love me some BBQ. I have worked for a Bay Area BBQ restaurant and I love BBQ. So I tried Shorter’s Barbeque in Tracy, I do wish Unilocal let us do half stars because I would give Shorters 3 in a half stars but I just couldn’t do 4 at this point. The first thing is the flavor is very good, it’s got a great smoke flavor (matter in fact, many hours later I could still taste that smoke, so that’s good smoke flavor). The sauce was good (a little thin but good). I got a 3 way combo which I tried the beef brisket, pork ribs and chicken. The brisket was a good but I am use to Texas style beef brisket slices, where you get long thin slices of brisket but Shorter’s serves it chopped up which it was drowning in sauce which made it hard to taste the brisket (if it wasn’t for the beef brisket, I would of scored 4 stars). The chicken was very good, had a nice smoke taste with a mix of dark and white (I prefer dark) pieces of chicken meat which the meat came right of the bone, mmm very good. The pork ribs were also very good, again great smoke (you could even see the pink smoke ring which I shows they know how to smoke the ribs) and the meat just slid right off the bone, so great job on the ribs. I got two sides you have a few choose from fries, garlic fries, cole slaw, collard greens and a few others, I choose the potato salad and red beans and rice (some of the sides cost 50 cents more then others when orders with the meal). The potato salad was good, I like that they added some chopped hard boiled eggs to it, most BBQ place just add pickle relish, mayo and mustard to the potatoes, so this was better then most. The red beans and rice was good, the red beans were good but when you mix them with the rice and it became really bland (but that’s why there BBQ sauce just dip them in the sauce). Again the sauce was good but thin, it had a good smoke flavor, sweet with a little tangy as well. I do wish they offered a mild and a spicy BBQ sauce as well. I was disappointed they offered no kind of bread with the meals, no sliced bread or even my favorite corn bread. They do look to have some good desserts like banana pudding, sweet potato pie, peach cobbler and many more. Overall, I will probably go back and maybe bring some friends. I will say they are pricer then others, the 3 way combo was $ 26, most places I go are around $ 20 and I honestly found no reason they should be over 20% more then the others. The food is overall very good, price is a little high.

Seriously some next level BBQ!
Light on the wallet and heavy on the gut!
The staff was amazing too, they made us feel very welcome as if we were invited to a backyard family BBQ. We will definitely be returning, I would definitely be proud to get fat here.

First time here, was very busy and they seem to be a bit understaffed to keep up with the demand which is the main reason for the 3 stars. I had the «two way» combo with ribs and hot links, macaroni & cheese, coleslaw and potato salad. The sauce is tasty and the links were pretty good. The ribs were a bit on the dry end but still were satisfying. They just need to smoke them at a lower temp for a bit longer… The Mac and cheese was pretty tasty as well as the potato salad. The coleslaw wasn’t anything to write one about but all and all it was a decent meal. The only problem was it took about and hour after the order was placed to receive my food along with every other guest who placed an order. Some people either canceled their order or just left. They need another order taker and cashier to keep up with a busy restaurant. I will definitely be calling ahead next time to place my order

I ate here for the first time yesterday (Feb 13) and it really impressed me. They have 3 bbq sauce options relating to heat. I had mild and cyan pepper and the cyan was amazing. Their spicy bbq spaghetti was ridiculously good as well. To top it all off I got their banana pudding which had actual banana and vanilla wafers in it to make a great meal even better. The food is a little pricey, but is worth it if you prefer a fresh hot meal.

Very disappointed. I will say, the ribs were delicious but my sides were obviously microwaved. Molten hot lava on the outside and cold in the center. Service was extremely slow for microwaved food. Sorry guys not coming back

I’m very disappointed to say that I was not impressed at all. I’m not one to criticize or feel responsible to write a review but in this case I felt the need. I live in the neighborhood of shorters new location, both my husband and I were excited to try some good bbq and possibly a new favorite place. We stopped by just for a quick bite and it was definitely not that. We decided on pulled pork nachos expecting some wow but all we got was a 40 minute wait and ALOT of chips with some basic nacho cheese and maybe a cup of pulled pork slapped on top. I hate that we had this experience cause I really feel there is some good food were missing out on.

My brother and I own Valley Quick Lube, they just moved across the street in the Bowling Alley. We are so glad they did, we have ate here for the past 3 days in a row now.

YES! Your reading this correctly. Dave Shorter and his families BBQ business are back In action,! With one tiny exception. Shorter’s BBQ is now located ancient the West Valley Bowling Alley. But I promise, Dave is back to serving up his still great BBQ plates you’ve come to love, especially Mom’s BBQ Spaghetti.
Keep in mind if you plan on visiting Shorter’s anytime soon that, they just reopened and their place is and probably will be under construction for sometime to come. A prolonged work in progress if I may be so bold.
I don’t recall the exact number but, since 2000 and just months before Dave Shorter took over his current digs, this new place was the home to approximately four other restaurants. And with the arrival and departure of each place that has passed, they all took a hand in making some kind of change to the place. Be it in the kitchen or the exterior, changes were made. Not trying to make excuses but, its going to take Dave a bit of time to make this place his own.
Because of the current work in progress. I gotta knock Shorter’s down a star. Sorry Dave but, I still love you and your chow.