Bo’s Barbecue – Lafayette, CA
3422 Mt Diablo Blvd
Lafayette, CA
(925) 283-7133
Hours: Tues. – Sun. 11:30 – 2:30pm, 5 – 8:30pm
The Nutshell
We arrived with high expectations based on personal recommendations. We left feeling a little like we got hoodwinked. $80+ for three mediocre (at best) meals and some (admittedly very nice) beer. Bo’s is good BBQ for people who have never really had good BBQ.
The Place
Bo’s is on the main drag in Lafayette, down towards the end with very little around. Perusing the reviews on Yelp, it seems like a lot of people like Bo’s because it’s one of the few night-spots in Lafayette where you can sit, listen to music, drink a beer. They’ve got a nice, clean, open dining room. Service is at the counter and they bring the order to your table. The night we were there, a fun 4-piece blues band was playing. We sat and listened a long time after our BBQ was done.
The Sauce
We tried both the ribs (long and short ends) and the brisket. All were served dry with sauce on the side. You get a really pitiful amount of sauce in a tiny stainless steel cup. Extra sauce will cost you $2. What?
Tiny sauce cups and highway robbery for an extra (tiny) cup would be tolerable if it were great sauce. But it’s not. It’s fine – it tastes like any one of a number of bottled sauces from Safeway. Quite sweet, not much spice or smoke or heat. They can’t have added much in the way of drippings, since there was no discernible meaty flavor. We all agreed that the sauce was equally appropriate for the beef and the pork, but mediocre on both.
The Meat
I ordered ribs (long end), Andrew ordered the short end, and Tamar ordered the brisket. Our ribs were falling off the bone, but not at all tender – almost dry, like they’d been sitting in a heating cabinet for a long, long time. Some of Andrew’s short end pieces were so dried up they were inedible. I know Bo’s touts the quality of its meat – Niman Ranch. But, honestly, we couldn’t tell. Other than falling off the bone, the ribs were not at all porky or smoky or seasoned. In fact, they were light on flavor all around. There was a small bit of the Brown, but not much. We were all surprised at how bland the ribs were considering the nice pink smoke ring.
Tamar’s brisket was marginally better. It was also falling apart, and not quite as dry as our ribs. Again, though, very little beef or smoke flavor. We began to ask each other which we liked better, the pork or the beef, and Andrew said “You know, it’s kind of hard to tell the difference.” We all agreed. If you close your eyes you wouldn’t have been able to tell beef from pork.
The Sides
You don’t go to Bo’s for the sides. There aren’t many choices. Each of our meals came with a tiny glop of potato salad (which wasn’t bad), a piece of baguette (Acme, OMG!), and a few greens. Not exactly authentic.
In the End
I can see why some people like this BBQ. It falls apart, and when you dip it in some sauce you get seemingly tender, sweet BBQ sauce flavor. Make a night of it with some beer and a band and it seems like a great spot. But don’t be fooled. This is not good BBQ, or at least it wasn’t on the night we were there. If you’ve ever eaten great ribs or brisket, you won’t be impressed with Bo’s. If you want quality ribs, we recommend KC’s (for the quality meat) or Everett & Jones (for the value and the beer). For brisket, Great American is still the best around.
Compared to almost any other place we’ve reviewed in the Bay Area, Bo’s comes out the worse. That’s especially true if you look at value for the buck. We spent more than $80 for three meals and some beer. Admittedly some of it was nice beer, and their selection is very good. Still, it’s expensive BBQ, and given that it’s not really very good, I doubt any of us will be going back.