 |
BBQ Land
1975-A S. Broadway, Santa Maria Su-Th 11am-9pm, F-S 11am-10pm Submit your review of this restaurant! I believe the saying goes “The Third Time Is The Charm.” Three tries? Quitter. It took no less than 5 tries for me to figure out the secret to the Luftwaffe of my reviews on this site and I am happy to say that I have found the secret to BBQ Land. I tried their ribs, twice, and the animals from which those had been harvested had less meat on their bones than Calista Flockhart. I like meat on my bones, in my women AND my BBQ so I will be steering clear of these for quite some time. I tried the tri-tip sandwich, and while it is a very tasty meal and excellent at space saving for real meals like “ALL YOU CAN EAT PIZZA NIGHT” it leaves an empty space in my stomach every time I try it.
I did figure out the secret to this place though and if you
are interested in a great BBQ lunch listen close. I finally
found out that if you order the Tri-Tip MEAL you get not
only twice as much tri-tip BUT ALSO a choice of THREE side
dishes. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a meal, not only will
it fill
your stomach but the tri-tip will tickle your taste buds
in
a way that only some sweet Santa Maria sautéed BBQ can.
So after several tries I have found the secret to BBQ Land,
and while it took a bit of prodding from the web-master (WTF
is on my iPod?? Who the hell put Jesse McCartney on here?
DAMNIT, ok back to the review) I decided to share it with you
fine fellow
members of the MJ Purgatory Media Corps so enjoy, enjoy that
sweet meat because I sure will. During trial week #7, after a heated discussion in the photographers tent a consensus was raised that BBQ Land, by virtue of its title alone, warranted closer inspection by the masses and deserved a lunch order. I made sure to warn my co-workers and competitors alike that the ribs were a woeful waste of time and money (see earlier review). Today the selections ranged mostly between the Bacon Monster Triple burger and the BBQ Tri-Tip sandwich with assorted side orders. One of the beauties of this establishment is that with any order you get your choice of two different side orders. The potato salad, coleslaw, and rice have thus far been a dissapointment while the ranch beans, garlic bread, and french fries are a welcome addition to any sandwich. The aforementioned burger is always good, three huge slabs of ground beef intertwine wonderfully with cheddar cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomatos, ketchup, mustard, bacon, thousand Island dressing, and mayonnaise. The tri-tip sandwich is excellent, if you are a 7 year old girl, the thing is no bigger than my thumb, it tastes excellent but in two bites I was left wolfing down ranch beans and potato salad in an attempt to fill my grumbling stomach. I
really want to believe in this place, I really do, BBQ
is one of my first loves and these guys
can make it, with a small restructuring in the size of
their portions it could be one of the greats. Unfortunately
as
it stands now it is only an also ran, a contender who
never reached
the potential of
the name, I will hold out hope though, I really want
this place to work but they only get one more try, hopefully
they read this first. We had lunch for eight delivered to the courthouse. The phone
order went smoothly with no mix-ups, all of
the boxes were clearly marked and Alma (the delivery driver)
was very
friendly. The food was good but the servings were a bit small
except for the burgers -- huge and delicious. If I have learned one thing about the Santa Maria dining scene it is that judging a restaurant by name alone can easily lead you astray. In this case, it is pretty much right on the money. BBQ Land is all about tri-tip, ribs, ranch beans, potato salad, and good old artery blocking fun. With a yearning for some ribs I ordered the half rack of beef ribs with my choice of two sides for a very reasonable $8ish dollars, however shortly after receiving my plate the BBQ Land train derailed. I found myself staring at 3 ribs.... and no meat. I swear, that poor bovine must have been raised on an Atkins diet because there was NO beef on those ribs. While I usually let this sort of thing slide, my hunger was not going to be quieted by this morsel. I mustered up the courage to complain and asked the waitress to replace my order of beef ribs with one of pork ribs, she very happily obliged and shortly I was staring at a nice little pile of 4 pork ribs. The pork was tasty, still a bit on the lean side, but I was able to keep my stomach from grumbling and the ranch beans and potato salad finished the meal off nicely. Was my dining
experience positive this time around? Not especially, but
I am willing
to give this place another
try because the idea of a BBQ Land is something akin
to Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory in my opinion and I hear
the tri-tip
is quite tasty, I would stay away from the ribs though.
Oh, and if you want to waste a few hours watching movies
with reasonably priced snacks the place sports a big screen
TV
which they play movies on during the day and use for
karaoke
during the night. |