Barbecue is good for us.

3227A Lakeshore Ave
Oakland, CA 94610
(510) 627-0067 (was disconnected when we tried it, but hopefully it’s fixed now…)

Hours: Tue-Sat. 12:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.

The Nutshell

Taste of Joy is good, especially for the price. The brisket and especially the were tender and smoky, and fit well with the middle-of-the-road sauce. The sides were extremely good and clearly homemade. The only real knock on Taste of Joy is that we had to wait almost 30 minutes for our to-go meal, and when it came out our orders were mixed up and they had run out of corn-bread. We’re hoping it’s a fluke, and I suspect we’ll go back.

The Place

Taste of Joy is in a little cave of a storefront along Lakeshore where a crepe shop used to be. It’s dark but nice inside, although a little strangely decorated for a BBQ joint. They don’t sell alcohol and they don’t take credit cards. We rolled in at about 6:45 on a Saturday, and it wasn’t particularly crowded when we got there. But after we ordered, it took them almost 30 minutes to produce our order to-go. That’s long for any take-out place, but particularly bad for BBQ, considering there wasn’t a single thing on any of our plates that wouldn’t have been made in advance. Let’s hope it was a fluke.

The Sauce

The sauce was good, though it was a somewhat nondescript, sweet Kansas City style. Especially with the brisket, some thought it needed a bit more spice, and the addition of some hot sauce really improved the meat-sauce match. I thought it was good for ribs, but I tend to prefer that style.

The Meat

Between us we ordered both the ribs and the brisket. The ribs were quite good, not dry at all, firm, with a nice pink smoke ring. Not the best ribs around, but far from the worst. The brisket was not quite as tender as the ribs, but had a great beefy flavor and plenty of smoke.

The Sides

We were pretty impressed with the choice of sides, and they were all good. Excellent, creamy home-made mac & cheese, potato salad with a mustardy kick were the two biggest hits. Collard greens were good but maybe a little over-salted, and the black eyed peas were a little bland. Yams were sickly sweet. It’s too bad we couldn’t try the cornbread!

In the End

Taste of Joy has a bunch of things going for it. It’s decent to good BBQ in a very cool neighborhood near Lake Meritt. More than that, it’s a great value. We came away with plenty of dinner for about $40. We’ve certainly had better BBQ elsewhere in the Bay Area, but walking from Andrew’s place over there and ending up with a really nice BBQ meal was a treat.

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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.

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Saturdays, 9 am to 2 pm
Grand Lake Farmer’s Market
Oakland, CA

Sundays, 9 am to 1 pm
NewPark Mall Farmer’s Market
Newark, CA

Phat Matt’s BBQ is a catering and farmer’s market operation that serves brisket, tri-tip, pulled pork, and hot links fresh from their mobile smoking rig. I’ve had their pulled pork twice now. Usually they drench the pork in a thick, dark sauce more appropriate for brisket or ribs, but this time, when I asked, they told me that the pork already has a light vinegar sauce on it, so I ordered my pulled pork sandwich sans the incorrect sauce. (Amusingly, the guy plating the meat was in such a groove that he had to make the sandwich three times before he managed not to squirt the extra sauce on top, it was so automatic for him.)

It was a good move: their pork was tender, moist, and tasty. It had a good deal of smoke flavor, but my taste buds and the bags of charcoal I saw sitting around the smoker led me to believe that they are probably not smoking with hickory as is traditional for pork shoulders in North Carolina. (UPDATE: I guessed wrong! They do smoke with hardwood. See below.) Smoking with charcoal alone does impart flavor, but it’s harsher and less sweet than what you get from a good hardwood. When Judd and I smoke, we use a mix of charcoal (to sustain the fire) and hardwood chunks soaked in water (so they smolder nicely instead of catching fire).

Nonetheless, with the addition of a little of my homemade eastern Carolina-style vinegar sauce, my pulled pork sandwich turned into the closest thing to the real North Carolina deal that I’ve found in the Bay Area. Maybe next time I can talk them into selling it that way all the time — in the meantime, try picking up some pork from Phat Matt’s and adding your own vinegar sauce. The recipes from The Lexington Collection will steer you right. I use Dennis Rogers’ version, scaled down because I don’t go through a gallon of sauce as quickly as you might imagine.

UPDATE: Charlotte, one of the owners of Phat Matt’s, reports that they do slow-smoke their pulled pork and brisket offsite over various hardwoods and that the charcoal I saw is for grilling other meats. Also, they will provide more of their Lexington-style vinegar sauce upon request, which is great news for lovers of NC-style ‘cue. See her comment below for more details. Thanks, Charlotte!

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5250 Foothill Blvd
(between Congress Ave & Fairfax Ave)
Oakland, CA
(510) 261-1299

Hours: 7am to 8pm, Mon. – Sun. (though they closed at 7pm on a Sunday when we went)

The Nutshell

Edible. Pork ribs were just ok. Sliced beef was our favorite. Sides were decent to awful. You can do better elsewhere.

The Place

Simpson’s is on a corner right on Foothill Blvd., not far from High St. It’s quite easy to get to, just down 580 to High St., left on Foothill. Simpson’s definitely has a vintage storefront, and inside it’s pretty quaint. There’s a small dining room, brightly lit, maybe 10 tables covered in red table cloths and plastic. I’d sit there gladly, but we did take out. We showed up at about 6:30 on a Sunday, shortly before closing, and were the only ones there. The folks who work there were very nice, and gave me a cup of sweet pink lemonade while I waiting about 10 minutes for my order.

The Sauce

Andrew, Rachel, and I agreed on our opinions of most things we ate, but on sauce we differed a little. I appreciated the sauce. It’s thick, deep, molasses brown, and sweet. Too sweet, but only just for me, more so for the others. It doesn’t have a lot of character beyond sweetness, unfortunately, but if you like that kind of sauce, it agreed with the pork ribs well enough.

There was some debate about whether the pork and the beef actually had different sauces. Our order of sliced beef came swimming in a pool of sauce that I think was different. It wasn’t quite as sweet and had more of a brown gravy flavor. Actually, it complemented the beef quite well, I thought. Still not much in the way of character, though.

The Meat

We tried the pork ribs and the sliced beef. We got generous portions of ribs, but the best we can say about them is that they were… diverse. Some were very chewy, dry, others fatty and thick. Several were just right – tender and moist. They’ve definitely seen some smoke – there’s a nice pink ring on some of the ribs, and a hint of the smoke flavor. Andrew commented that the meat itself seemed to be of pretty high quality, though I’m not sure I agree. Unfortunately, any pork or smoke flavors were overpowered by the sickly sweetness of the sauce. In the end, we happily ate our ribs, and admitted that there wasn’t anything overtly bad about them taken together, though that’s not much of a recommendation.

The sliced beef we liked somewhat better. The portion was slightly smaller than the ribs, and it came swimming in sauce. Again, the quality varied a bit from piece to piece. Some were thick and tough, others mostly fat, and a few tender and lean. We all agreed that the beef was better than the ribs. I took a bit home to Tamar, our expert on sliced beef, and she agreed that it was ok, but immediately noted that there was almost no smoke flavor. Actually, there wasn’t much flavor at all beyond the sauce. Again, not much of a recommendation.

I want to give Simpson’s the benefit of the doubt. It was late on a Sunday, and our food was clearly reheated after sitting around all day. Maybe if we had come at a different time we’d have gotten fresher stuff. However, I’m still skeptical. The variable quality of the meat and the lack of flavor wouldn’t have changed, and whatever flavor was there would have been overpowered by the sticky sweet sauce.

The Sides

By and large we were not fans of the sides. The potato salad was interesting – full of mustard and dill (??) – but too sweet. The greens were much too salty, and the black eyed peas were a little bland, though decent. The slaw was just plain awful – none of us could take more than one bite. It was like sugar with a little cabbage. Yuck. The baked beans might have been the star, but we were pretty sure they came from a can, so that’s not saying much.

In the End

I doubt we’ll be going back Simpson’s. We can get much better BBQ in the East Bay, without having to drive down to East Oakland. Mostly we hated the sides, and thought the whole meal didn’t have much character. That said, the people at Simpson’s were very nice, and they serve a wide variety of soul food. Looking at the reviews on Yelp, a few folks say their breakfast is good. But here we’re all about BBQ, and judging Simpson’s on BBQ alone, we’re not impressed.

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6609 Shattuck Ave. (North of Alcatraz)
Berkeley, CA
(510) 595-5323

Hours: Somewhat variable, but generally lunchtime through evening.

The Nutshell

Best sauce in the Bay Area, bar none: thick, dark, sweet, and smoky. Good pork ribs and brisket.

The Place

Flint’s was closed for the first two years I lived in Oakland, but it was all the more tantalizing because it’s only a few blocks from my house. It’s not much to look at — just a bare storefront with white cinderblock walls and a white counter with a cash register and a few fliers. No tables; it’s take-out only. There’s a fridge behind the counter, usually half-full of sodas and the occasional piece of pie, and a bench of questionable structural integrity by the door that you can perch on while you wait for your order. In other words, it’s the prototypical barbecue dive joint.

Last year, after being pleasantly surprised by the lit neon “Open” sign and the smoky aroma, I wandered in, and Flint’s quickly became one of my favorite BBQ sources.

The Sauce

I have a confession: I’m a North Carolina-born vinegar sauce partisan, but the dark, smoky sauce that the folks at Flint’s heap on their meat is so delicious that I can’t pass it up. It’s thick and brown-black, like some sort of Texas crude, and just as well-guarded: you can’t buy the sauce alone, so you’ve gotta pony up for some meat if you want a fix. It seems to be a ketchup-based sauce, but that’s not what you’ll detect when you taste it — the complex flavor includes hints of chocolate and molasses. The medium sauce gives a good amount of spice that builds as you’re eating.

You’ll want every last bit of the bread in the baggie to sop up all the spicy, smoky goodness.

[Seriously, this sauce must be made with crack. I would spread it all over wet cardboard and eat every bite. -Judd]

The Meat

When I first started visiting Flint’s, the brisket (or “sliced beef” on their menu) was always my order of choice. It’s not too fatty, not too lean, not too gristly, and fairly tender, though not melt-in-your-mouth. But they often run out, in part because a pound of the stuff is a great deal — a hearty dinner for two, including double portions of the sides. One of the women behind the counter told me that they keep making more to meet demand, but demand just keeps increasing, so they are still out much of the time. Call ahead if you want to be sure they have it.

During one of the brisket shortages, fortuitously enough, Judd and I decided to try the pork ribs, which it turns out are perhaps even better-suited than the brisket for the delicious sauce. They’re not as good-quality meat as the ribs from KC’s or Great American — a bit more gristle and connective tissue — but they’re thick and well-smoked, pink-tinged with delicious chewy and crunchy bits around the edges.

Avoid the beef ribs; they’re fatty and unappealing. For that matter, avoid beef ribs in general.

The Sides

Flint’s serves just two sides: baked beans, the basic kind from a can; and a decent potato salad. The dense, chunky potato salad provides a nice, cooling antidote to the sauce as the spice builds in your mouth.

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The Great American BBQ Co.
2009 High St. (Corner of High St. & Marina @ the foot of the High St. bridge.)
Alameda, CA
(510)865-3133
Hours: Tues-Thurs. 11:00 am-8:30 pm, Fri. 11:00 am-9:00 pm, Sat. 12:00 pm-8:30 pm, Sun. 12:00 pm-8:00 pm

The Nutshell

Great ribs, mediocre brisket, ho-hum sauce but great side dishes.

The Place

The Great American BBQ Company is barely in Alameda, just over the High St. bridge from 880, so you can stop on your way to the Oakland Airport. It’s pretty nice inside, though it feels a bit like the inside of an Applebee’s. Still, it’s clean and there’s plenty of seating, which is more than you can say for a lot of joints.

The Meat

I had the ribs and Andrew had brisket. My ribs were quite good – they’re served dry (the sauce is on the table in squeeze bottles) so you can get a good taste of the rub they put on. These are some tender and meaty spare ribs with a nice smoky flavor and a beautiful pink ring. What stood out for me, though, was the nice pork flavor – I think that’s mostly about the quality of the meat. Fair warning – I ordered the 6 rib entree not knowing how big and meaty the ribs would be, and I basically rolled out of the place. For only about $8 you can get the 3 rib entree with two sides and cornbread – plenty for lunch unless you want to lose most of the afternoon like I did.

Andrew’s brisket was less impressive than the ribs. The top layer of marbled beef was nice and pink, so it was clearly long-smoked, but Andrew found the rest of the meat too dry and a little tough. Again, the beef flavor was nice and so was the rub, so maybe this was just a bad batch. Andrew also got a hearty portion – 3 or 4 big, thick slices, so it’s certainly a good value.

The Sauce

The sauce is nothing to write home about. It’s a pretty standard Kansas City-style brew, and it’s served in squeeze bottles on the tables, which I don’t care for. It’s nice to put on only as much as you want and to choose from mild, medium, and hot, but I like my sauce warm, and constantly squeezing out sauce when your hands are already covered with ribs and sauce is no fun.

The Sides

The sides at the Great American BBQ Company are great. Andrew and I agreed that they’re the best of any place we’ve tried so far. Andrew liked the mac & cheese, which was fairly standard but not at all rubbery, and the slaw was well-seasoned. The potato salad was similarly standard but well seasoned but the baked BBQ beans were fantastic.Good cornbread too, I thought, though it’s the cakey kind which Andrew, being a good Southerner, doesn’t care for.

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KC Barb-Q (note the unusual spelling)
2613 San Pablo Ave (at Parker St.)
Berkeley, CA
(510) 548-1140
Hours: Tue-Thu 11:30am-9pm, Fri-Sat 11am-12am

The Nutshell

The best cooked ribs in town, and everything else is good but not great. Don’t expect much from the side dishes.

The Place

KC’s, on San Pablo just South of Dwight, looks from the outside like a hole in the wall. Inside, though, it has more character than any other BBQ place around. The large and rustic dining room is chock full (inexplicably) with vintage stoves, washing machines and the like, and there’s a giant wagon cart in the middle. Its really a great place to sit, though – Jane’s thinking of having a party there.

The Meat

Ribs are the thing at KC, so of course I’m happy. Andrew and I agree that KC’s smokes the best ribs of anywhere in town. The meat is obviously very high quality – tender but dense and good to bite into, nicely marbled but not fatty, very little gristle. They must take a lot of care smoking these ribs to pink perfection, though they wouldn’t give away any of their secrets.

The Sauce

Better than average, for sure, but not as good as Flint’s sauce, which remains our favorite by far. It’s a good consistency, fairly tomato-ey but with a bit of dark molasses sweetness to match. Usually they ask you to pick the spicyness, though this last time we were there they didn’t ask. If they do, get the medium – it’s not too spicy, but it builds a little over time.

The Sides

Your entree will come with beans and potato salad but don’t get too excited about either. The beans are almost certainly canned, and the potato salad tastes like an upsettingly sweet dill pickle.

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Looney’s is a relative new-comer to the East Bay BBQ scene, opening less than six month ago in a colorful building at the corner of Bancroft & Oxford.

The Nutshell

Overall, I’d say that Looney’s could be a good happy hour spot, especially given its proximity to the Berkeley campus and the giant projection TV that dominates one wall. The BBQ is mediocre, and the sides disappointing. But they have a good beer selection, great hush puppies, and wallet-friendly prices.

The Food

The pork spare ribs I had were mediocre at best. They were quite smoky, which was good, but not tender enough. They may have needed more time in the smoker, but I also think the quality of the meat was slightly below average. The sauce at Looney’s, which they call ‘Texas Barbeque Sauce’ style, is a strange fruity mess. And there’s nothing Texas about it. It’s more like a chutney than anything else in both taste and texture. The flavor isn’t bad, but rather than complementing the meat it overpowers with a mix of acid and fruit. The sauce on Andrew’s pulled pork sandwich was different.

[Andrew adds: It wasn't quite the classic North Carolina vinegar sauce, but Looney's clearly understands, at least, that it isn't supposed to be the thick ketchup-based sauce that you find on other types of BBQ. This is the third time I've had their pulled pork, though, and it's not consistent. It has ranged from reasonably authentic, with a thin, tangy vinegar sauce on tender pork, to mediocre, with a greasy reddish sauce. This time, it was somewhere in between. That said, it's rare to see North Carolina-style pulled pork at all in the Bay Area, so if you've got a craving and don't have eight hours to smoke a butt yourself, Looney's is one of your only choices.]

We tried three sides — BBQ beans, whipped sweet potatoes, and spicy slaw. All three were disappointing, underwhelming, under-seasoned. The BBQ beans were downright gross. The slaw had promise, but aside from a hint of spice it was so bland.

Not all was lost, though. The highlight of the meal was the hush puppies, which I highly recommend. Andrew’s had ‘em a couple of times, and this time they were great — good corn flavor, nice coarse meal, well seasoned and spiced. They were ridiculously crispy, right on that fine line where nutty fried goodness threatens to turn to bitter blackened ass. Another 5 seconds in the fryer and they’d have been lost. [Andrew adds: Amen. Best hush puppies I've encountered in the Bay Area. Nontraditional bits of peppers or something in them, but it works.]

Service, etc.

Our service was quite good, though it wasn’t crowded at all when we were there. Looney’s is a nice place to sit, and is decorated in sports bar style. Anyway, Looney’s will surely feed the campus crowd just fine, but it’s nothing to write home about. I’d go there for a pitcher of beer and some hush puppies during football season, but for ribs I’m going elsewhere.

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