I've been going to Lucille's about once or twice every month or two. It's conveniently located just 3 minutes from where I currently live. When I feel like having some southern comfort food, I hop on over. My favorites are their garlic mashed potatoes, sweet potato fries, and mac&cheese. You can never, never ever, go wrong with mac&cheese (unless it's from a box, no thanks.)
A few weeks ago, I decided to try a different bbq restaurant, with hopes of finding something possibly better, and something for comparison -- Tustin Roadhouse.
It's located in old town Tustin. One thing they definitely got right was the "old" part. I felt like I was in a totally different era, considering it's just minutes from South Coast Plaza. Very different people, very different vibe, very different everything.
I appreciate places with creative coasters. This place had cardboard postcards as their coasters.
For two people, we ordered an appetizer, two entrees, and a dessert. It was a lot more food than we could handle, but we wanted to try this and that.
For our appetizer, we ordered the Spark Plug Buffalo Wings. It came with celery + thick and creamy ranch dipping sauce. It was good, but I felt the seasoning was a bit too overpowering.
We also ordered the full rack of St. Louis Spare Ribs. We were disappointed they didn't have the baby back ribs (what we normally order at Lucille's). It was definitely "fall off the bone" satisfaction, but I felt they forgot the glaze. The meat was good, but the flavoring could have been better. I even thought they forgot the bbq sauce? Thankfully there were condiments on the side so we could adjust to our
taste. On the side, it was served with coleslaw, baked beans, spinach (the dark blob next to the ribs), and a slice of their famous blueberry cornbread. Unfortunately, the only thing I enjoyed in this entire entree was the cornbread.
I've heard pretty good things about their Buttermilk Fried Chicken. The fried chicken breast was smothered with thyme country gravy, served with Yukon gold mashed potatoes & garlic spinach. I would say this is my favorite dish of all. The thyme gravy was good, but I quickly got tired of it. Then at the end, it was too heavy.
For dessert, we ordered their homemade banana pudding. It came served in a mason jar, which was honestly a bit hard to eat out of. The concept was cute, but that was about it. The pudding itself was just alright. It claimed to have real bananas inside, so I was really looking forward to it. Out of the entire jar, I was sad to only have one slice of banana. If you've ever had Marie Callender's banana cream pie, the ripe scent of bananas was there, but it was definitely not as smooth as Marie Callender's. Inside it had Nilla vanilla wafers, which was alright. I would have probably preferred them to skip the vanilla wafers.
Overall, the service was great. They were very fast and friendly. One thing I absolutely can't stand is slow service. Some say I don't appreciate the dining experience, but I'm really there for the food. I wish I had taken pictures of the inside of the restaurant, because I found it quite unique. I'm not a southerner, or had visited anywhere truly southern, so I would need pictures to describe what I saw.
Our conclusion was that it was good, we would go back maybe in a few months, but our favorite is still Lucille's. I know many people have said that there is way better bbq than Lucille's, but until I find another one I really like, I'll be happy to visit Lucille's as my default bbq location. If there's any bbq places anyone can recommend, I'd be more than happy to try!
