lucille's smokehouse bbq

all ambience, no decent food. despite the site rating, entrees run $16-28, which is about 3 times what they're worth. the "smoked meat" shows little signs of smoke--there is no characteristic red rim on the brisket, for instance; it appears to have been pre-cooked (apparently, from the texture, with meat tenderizer and msg) before being placed briefly (perhaps 1 hour) in the smoker. the ribs were a bit better but still candy-sweet, with little smoke. the greens were inedible, the "biscuits"--well, i'd rather not say. avoid this place.

good bbq. so in so cal for the weekend, and met some friends for an early dinner. very popular on the weekends, about a 30 minute wait. for as busy as they are, the service was nothing short of great. waited for our table in the bar, ordered some beverages before our table. server was attentive enough that made us feel welcomed. bbq was good, had the sliders with cole slaw, spouse had the grilled salmon, prepared just the she likes it. noticed that our beer glass had a chip, they replaced it with a new beer, and did not charge us.

if you like bbq enough to put up with the questionable service, then go. the food is decent and the sweet tea is good. however, every time i've dined therr, i've walked out frustrated for one reason or another. i finally decided that it totally isn't worth the indigestion.

the staff is very friendly and the food is delicious. you start out with warm biscuits and their special butter which is so yummy! i recommend the fried dill pickles as an appetizer. they have lunch specials from ribs to a stuffed baked potato. i really enjoyed my experience and the food!

bad service, ok food. the whole dining experience was very disappointing.
lucille's took my reservation for the father's day 6/19/11 at 1:30 pm and called the day before to confirm the reservation. i confirmed.
when my family, my parents and i showed up at 1:25 they made us wait for over an hour. we stood in the waiting area, in front of the hostess watching other people being seated and the hostess was ignoring us. she was rude. i spoke to her 3 times but we didn't get a table until i spoke to the manager. the manager apologized but i could see that he hated my guts. this was my first time at lucille's and i was surprised how badly they treat their customers. if not for my parents i would have walked away.
the food was just ok.

loved this place from the very first bite! even had them cater my wedding, and everyone was so excited!

long wait even in off hours. we went on a saturday afternoon at 4pm and there were many tables open but a 20 minute wait! geez....they said they didn't have waiters to serve everyone and lots of people were waiting outside ahead of us. surprising for a saturday afternoon. we didn't stay but went to stonefire in irvine (love this place). suggestion when you eat at lucilles is to stop by costco's in the same parking lot of lucilles (by lowe's) before you eat here at purchase their $79.99 gift cards for lucilles which gives you two $50 gift certificates....so you pay $40 for $50 in purchased food. good deal.

i love love love this place and the food!!! you go in knowing your wallet will be a little thinner but know that you will have an excellent meal that will keep you wanting to come back again and again

it was good but my daughter had here retainer case out and the waiter took it from the table and threw it away. i asked her if they saw a retainer in the trash or a case but she said no. plus, the service was not the best.

very good food. always fills me up, and i still end up taking half of it home.

my favorite place to eat! the beef ribs are delicious!!

just awesome. one of my personal favorits! you cant go wrong here!

not the best. lucille's was okay food, but the service is lousy. me and my family waited for almost a half an hour to get waited to. then the food that they gave us was wrong. best bbq sause ever hands down though.

love me some bbq. best bbq chain in so. cal. hands down! bbq with all of the fixin's! great atmosphere but loud! food is consistently good, people are friendly, and you get what you expect. pricey - yes! happy hour - great! if you are going with a friend and just want to munch and catch up, the sampler platter is enough for 4 people or more! by no means "unique," but the portion size is great and the variety of bbq is good.

"rating system 1- 5". service: 5
ambience: 4
setting: 4
decor: 5
overall total: 21

let me start off by saying that it was probably an isolated incident that my babybacks were left on the grill a little to long, burning the sugars in the sauce yielding a bitter flavor. i was sad because i was looking forward to finding the ultimate bbqed babyback ribs that day, but overall the smoked chicken was excellent. i couldn't tell if the mac n' cheese was home made and didn't care much for the cheesey grits. the watermellon slices were a bit aged and i wasn't a big fan of the sweet cinnamon butter, but the waitress was kind enough to bring me regular butter to spread all over those delicious homemade bisquits. we all shared the "fried pickle" appetizer, which i thought was an incredible mix of sour and salty with a crunch finish, very good. i had the babyback ribs and smoked chicken with mac n' cheese and cheesey grits. they serve the food with watermellon slices on your plate and a basket of fresh baked bisquits and cinnamon butter.