Lucille’s Smokehouse Bar-B-Que

Had a great local smokehouse BBQ experience. I had out of town guests in for a visit. We came straight over from the airport hungry and ready to have a great meal. We started with Burnt ends of brisket and house biscuits. Always served with a sweet, honey butter. Dangerously good. Our server Nikki was great, very attentive, courteous and friendly. It was a Saturday so the place was packed, but they got us in and sat us on an outside covers patio. Even though we were sat outside Nikki was always there keeping our drink orders filled, refilled and the food kept coming. St Louis ribs, Amazing Smoked Tri Tip, even the chicken was BBQ’d and juicy. More Burnt Ends. Loaded baked potatoe. bacon, cheese and did I say bacon? My guests commented on how great the service was. Lucille’s is always a very consistent smokehouse restaurant and that’s why I come here. But, our service is why you earned 5 stars! Keep up the great work and thank you Nikki for showing my out of town guests a great restaurant experience.

No need to cook for Thanksgiving this is our spot. We like the food. Prices can be expensive but its great BBQ.

The food at Lucille’s is great. The service is also amazing.

The BBQ is not really up to par when it comes to comparison with other places — Lucille’s works on the premise that they have unique sauces and passable smokehouse taste, but their meat is often dry (brisket and tri-​tip) and missing the smokey bark that is present in a truly authentic barbeque joint. On the plus side, the ribs and rib tips were fairly good.
Their sides however are a different story. Lucille’s might have the best sides I have ever seen in a BBQ restaurant in terms of taste and variety. The biscuits are notably amazing and the strawberry lemonade is addicting (the jars are a nice touch).
Overall it’s a good dining experience that can stand in for a real barbeque dinner considering that there are so few alternatives in south Orange county. Lucille’s does so many things well (service, sides, drinks, ambience) that it’s easy to overlook the fact that it’s not the end all be all in terms of authentic barbeque.

Ordered a fried chicken sandwhich to go. Ended up with a burnt chicken sandwich. Thanks.

We had our 50^th Wedding Anniversary party here. 50 people friends and family. Everyone enjoyed the variety of food. The manager made sure we had great service and a nice private room for the party! Highly recommend if you love Bar-​B-​que.

My boyfriend and I had gotten gift cards to Lucille’s for Christmas, so we were obligated to go some time or another. We came in pretty excited, but things went downhill about 10 minutes after we sat down.
We got there around 5:40 and were sat immediately, which was a nice surprise because it seemed pretty busy. Then we sat. And sat… It took about 15 minutes before anyone acknowledged us at all. Finally, our server Eiguni came over. After learning I hadn’t been there before, we were given a short introduction about the restaurant. There are three barbecue sauces on the table (yes, I can see that), we smoke all our meats in house (if the word «smokehouse» is in your title, wouldn’t that make sense?), and anyone with a nametag or apron can help you if I’m not around (ironic that no one with a nametag or apron even looked our way as we waited). We put in our order for drinks and then waited another 10 minutes before they showed up. In that time, another server passed by and asked if we had been helped at all, which by that point, my answer was «sort of.» We were ready to order by the time our drinks got there (at this point we had been there for about half an hour), so we put our order in and were promised biscuits. They came out 10 minutes later. Our food actually arrived shortly after, and we had it for about 10 minutes before we were completely done.
In regards to food, California isn’t known for having good barbecue anyway, so it wasn’t so much that I was disappointed with the barbecue, it was that I was disappointed with the food in general. The biscuits and apple butter had no flavor. The salad my boyfriend got with his meal tasted like onion and nothing else. My potato salad tasted like nothing – I’ve had grocery store potato salad that tasted better than this. My pulled pork sandwich tasted like dry nothing until I added barbecue sauce, then it just tasted super sweet (their original sauce has four different kinds of sugar in it). The biggest thing for us was that my boyfriend’s fried chicken tasted burnt. Not smoky, but burnt. The oil hit its smoking point and resulted in the entire thing tasting burnt. The flour in the gravy was also burnt, and the gravy was thicker than the mashed potatoes!
The extra star is for the manager Lauren who talked to us after we mentioned the overall burnt flavor of my boyfriend’s food. Having worked in customer service for years myself, I can say she did a great job of handling the situation. Rather than saying anything like «it’s supposed to taste smoky» or making any sort excuses, she acknowledged that a mistake was made and said she would make sure the same thing didn’t happen to anyone else’s food. She took the dish off our bill and offered us another to take home if we’d like – we declined – and overall, she was very friendly and helpful.
We won’t be coming back simply for the flavor issues and the amount of time we spent waiting, but I appreciate that at least one person in the restaurant knows how to take care of customers.

Have been here several times, always me and the wife. We always order the same thing (yes we’re boring), a full rack of baby back ribs, which we split. Usually beans and peanut slaw as sides, plus a couple of margaritas.
The ribs vary from good to excellent, and the service is always excellent. The three BBQ sauces they provide on the table are a real plus. Yes, it’s a bit «corporate,» but that’s the life we lead in America now. The more rustic Texas BBQ across El Toro is an option, but by no means as reliable.
I’ll give it four stars — we keep going back.

My husband and I decided to go to Lucille’s because I have an intense love for fried pickles!
Ramone greeted us right away when we sat down in a booth for dinner. He was very outgoing with a warm personality!
My husband ordered a Long Island to start and I stuck with water through out our dinner. Ramone gave us time to decompress and get comfortable after our drink order! He was never gone too long and always knew when to come back.
For appetizers my husband had deep fried shrimp. He says the batter and spices made it hard for him to really enjoy the shrimp. I on the other hand wolfed my half order of fried pickles down. They were amazing.
Ramone was quick to grab those empty plates and even gave us fresh silverware, we didn’t even have to ask.
For dinner I had the tri-​tip sandwich and my husband had the fried chicken sandwich. My tri-​tip was delicious. Like always I finished eating before my husband. He was pretty full from the apps and we boxed up his to take home. The only thing he said that was negative about his sandwich was that the bacon was so thick that he couldn’t bite through it. I also noticed that his fried chicken was a little burnt underneath but my husband will eat anything that’s burnt. Didn’t bother him but it would have bothered me.
Ramone, thank you for giving us outstanding service and even boxing up some rolls and butter for us to go. You were a joy & truly made our experience at Lucille’s. We are a young couple and usually servers don’t give us the time of day.
Your friends,
Mariah & Mason

Although this is one of my «go to» places for ribs, I have to admit, they are not anything super special. There food is consistently good, so I give them the extra star for that. The ribs are pretty flavorful and the peanut slaw and Mac n cheese I really like. There are places where the ribs are definitely more of a smoked flavor which I do prefer. Their ribs here are for sure tender, but not as much of a smoke flavor. All in all they have really good food. For the smoked meat enthusiast, you won’t be wowed, but hopefully you won’t be disappointed either. Definitely good food.

Update: 11÷12÷15 After posting a 1-​star review, I was contacted by management apologizing for the negative experience I had and I told them I would go back and update my review.
We had Rachel as our server, who was AMAZING, she anticipated our needs as she saw we had a toddler and infant and the food came out in record time. We will be back!
Customer Service FAIL! I placed an order online 1 hour and 25 min prior to pick up and even followed up with a call to make sure my instructions were clear and the person on the phone said she was looking at my order. But when I went to pick up, the order wasn’t even put in.

Food was delicious! I really like the bar area, because it’s open seating. We sat right down and started to watch the Chargers game, it’s a great spot to watch your favorite teams play! I usually get their BBQ which is always delicious, but got their Lucille’s Turkey Sandwich with mashed potatos and gravy!

My friends and I came here on Sunday evening around 6pm and we were seated right away. Unfortunately, there was a fussy baby next to us but that happens.
I ordered a Caesar salad and the Mardi Gras chicken entrée. I had the strangest experience with my salad. It came out and it was already tossed in the dressing but it just looked wet. When I ate it, you could taste a slight hint of dressing. I asked for more dressing on the side and it was thick, creamy and very pungent. Definitely not what had been tossed with my salad. This dressing was equally as bad. I couldn’t eat the salad at all and it was just wasted.
My entrée was good but I don’t feel that it was worth almost $ 21.00. The chicken was moist and tasty. The mashed potatoes were good but nothing special, same with the vegetables. My friends enjoyed their food but again it wasn’t anything off the charts.
What does deserve praise is their Watermelon Iced tea. Delicious and refreshing. Service was good and I would come here again but I would order a different entrée and stay away from their salads.

How can you ever go wrong with Lucille’s BBQ?! You can’t…
I attended a rehearsal dinner here last Friday. We had made reservations for a party of about 25 – 30 people and pre-​ordered roughly 20 minutes before arriving so the food would be close to ready when we arrived =) No hangry people here! Perfect timing because our sides just started coming out once we were seated. Servers were attentive!
We were split into two large rectangular tables which made sharing the two «family sized meals» a little difficult since we mainly had one bowl of each sides, but it still worked out. Large platter of tri tip, bbq chicken and ribs. Sides consisted of salad, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese (x2), peanut slaw, fresh vegetables, and bbq beans. Of course, the complimentary bread and apple butter comes with the meal too! Ended up having plenty of leftovers!
Parking was a little difficult by the time it was 6:30pm on a Friday night in this plaza. If you park a little further down by Ralphs, there are more open spots!

Very busy on Friday night. I recommend reservations. Large portions. Those at our table felt the beef ribs were superior to the brisket. The complimentary biscuits are delicious and dessert — like. Slim pickens for vegans, like me, but I found a plain baked potato, steamed vegetables and a side salad were more than enough.
Service was exceptional. Our waiter, Matt, explained Lucille’s team service concept and encouraged us to flag down any staff member for assistance and there was sufficient staff available to assist.
Desserts looked great, but as we were too full from our abundant meals, we had to pass.
Noticed that they allow dogs on the outside patio, which is really nice for those who want to bring their pups.
Very clean restaurant, restroom, and exterior. We will definitely go here again.
Oh, and for vegetarian diets, they have a garden burger or a portabello sandwich, with many vegetarian sides available.

Went at around 4pm. Not a lot of dinners.
We asked to be transferred to the patio, the waitress looked annoyed and told us to tell our server or go to the hostess, which we did and waitress told us to bring our menu. The waitress led us to a sticky table and wet floor, we were still speaking to her but she just stopped us and said to wait for our server.
When our food was served by same waitress who led us to the patio, we asked for utensils but she told us again rudely, to wait for our server.
We frequent this restaurant and bring our out of town guests here. I’ve never had this experience before. Food is good but then it tramples the experience where there are rotten employees like that. She may be having a bad day, but the costumers are paying for both food and service that is due to them.

BBQ isn’t on my list of things I dream about eating but the Smoked Brisket Burger I had here the other day is seriously calling my name. I eat my burgers medium rare and this place did it perfectly. The brisket was tender and had a nice smoke to it. Their bbq sauce is delicious and I now understand why they have it bottled to sell in their little shop.
Ramon was our server and he didn’t miss a beat. He was funny and attentive and managed to keep an eye on us without seeming to do so. Great service! The atmosphere was fun and comfortable… if that makes sense.
I’m considering taking my brother here for Father’s Day in a couple of weeks.

My fiancé, one of my best friends, and I visited Lucille’s BBQ in Lake Forest (Orange County, CA) recently. I had previously visited the location in Tustin and was familiar with how amazing their BBQ is.
I made reservations for 3, not expecting to need one, but it was absolutely necessary on a Friday night around 6:30pm.
Between the three of us we ate:
–Beer for my fiancé
–Strawberry blended margarita for me (very generous portion and delicious!)
–Cornbread (complimentary) — very fresh and tasty!
–Onion straw fries — Humongous portion and the three of us couldn’t finish this! Very delicious though, and we loved the sauce that came on the side.
–Beef brisket (10 oz) smothered in their mop sauce for me. This was ambrosial! I got two sides with it — cole slaw and garlic mashed potatoes. So delicious!
–BBQ pulled pork sandwich with a side of collard greens for my fiancé.
–Brisket Sandwich for my friend — with a side of garlic mashed potatoes.
The food was absolutely delicious and the portions were very generous! We were certainly stuffed after all that food! :) we even had leftovers and plenty of them.
Service was decent — our waitress was polite and efficient. The only thing was that she seemed to want to either rush us out the door or get us to order more if we were going to stay there longer, even though it wasn’t as crowded anymore around 8pm (when we finished our meal).
Ambiance was nice — Super packed, but we were seated in the indoor patio area, which wasn’t as packed.
Note — this place gets CROWDED, and so does the parking right outside the restaurant. We couldn’t find any parking near the restaurant, but thankfully the outdoor shopping center had plenty of parking elsewhere and we parked near the Ralphs about a 5 minutes’ walk away.

Was craving some BBQ and found this place with some friends.
It didn’t really have a BBQ ambiance to it– just another restaurant. When we were being seated, many employees were sort of standing/​leaning against the wall talking amongst themselves– one looked like a manager or lead. None of them welcomed us since they were busy carrying on their conversation (well they were more complaining as it wasn’t very discreet). There was also a male and female employee at the station (in the back section where there are windows and only tables) where the female was combing the male employees hair. Yuck, you’re at work– keep it professional and flirt outside of your shift. Way to damper the customer experience.
Anyways, I ordered the famous tri tip. It was good, not great. I really wish the temperature on it was hot as it was lukewarm. It also didn’t come with anything — just tri tip and bun. Really 14 bucks for that? The macaroni and cheese I got as a side was delicious though! Very creamy and the right temperature.
Our server was attentive and informative so I appreciate that part of my experience.
You get to pay (with card) your bill on the tablet they have at each table. You can also play games and such but that comes with a charge (in small print– sneaky)
Would I come back? Probably not, workers don’t look very happy here. And I def like to receive my food with a smile.

Ramon is your man! Very enthusiastic even after 9pm.
The boyfriend and I had a bad experience down the street at a different restaurant so we just paid the bill (with a big tip because we felt so bad for the server) and left the food.
Lucille’s was close by and open so we popped in.
How did we not know about the happy hour?
Anyway, it was pretty busy for a Wednesday night but enough seats open to be able to sit at a booth. Right as we sat, our server, Ramon, came to greet us.
Looked at the full menu but decided we wanted something lighter for this late of a dinner so we went to the happy hour menu at the back of the drink menu.
They had some pretty good deals.
We got the Irish nachos with the pulled pork (for a little extra) and the bbq rib tips. We also got the strawberry lemonade and the each lemonade.
We got their complimentary biscuits with their famous apple butter spread as soon as we finished ordering and the drinks soon after.
The food was great, the drinks were great, and the service was excellent!
Their hot and spicy bbq!!! Was soooo good we got bbq to go. You can get 3 bbq sauces and Lucille’s rub in a cute little tote for JUST $ 20. Buy them separately and you pay around 40some but buy as a bundle and it’s $ 20 tax free!
We asked for a to go cup but instead for two huge plastic take out cups filled with both lemonades. Such a steal!