Smokey’s & the Oyster Guy

Got Smokey’s catered for my bridal shower in Napa for 25 ladies. So much food and I think a great price for Napa standards! $ 500 for ribs, brisket, tri tip, shrimp, chicken, cole slaw, whole corn on the cobs, corn bread, biscuits… everything was great and their BBQ sauce was delicious too. All the ladies were impressed with the quality and quantity. They delivered on time and carried everything in and helped set it up. Food came hot too which was great! Very easy to work with. Good communication on phone and email.

We used Smokey’s for our wedding in Napa, and we had a terrible experience. More than anything, we feel cheated and ripped off. At this point, we’re not mad, just hugely disappointed and hope to help someone avoid the same mistake.
We had 130 people at the wedding, and we hired 2 food trucks — SAJJ and Smokey’s. First of all, Smokey’s cost almost $ 3,000 and SAJJ was far less (almost half) but we decided to move forward anyways. We had heard from friends in Napa that Smokey’s is great! During the planning process they were very unresponsive, and always confused. This concerned us quite a bit, but again we moved forward because we didn’t want to go look for another truck. Plus, again, we heard the food was great (never had a chance to try it before hand).
On the day of the wedding, Smokey’s had a burner go out (worker in the truck told my dad), and so they were extremely slow. We had people waiting for 15 – 20 minutes just to get their order. This caused delays in speeches etc etc. — not the end of the world. And for the most part, people thought the food was good.
After the wedding we asked for a small refund because the truck was SO slow (lots of complaints from guests). Our contact from Smokey’s proceeded to blame it on our wedding planner (not sure how that adds up when a burner goes out) and refused to consider a partial refund. We could probably pursue the partial refund, but we’ve decided that its just not worth it.
Food was decent (not great) and the «business» is not run by professionals. Disappointing.
Also, everybody at the wedding loved SAJJ and they were very professional throughout the whole process. Highly recommend.

Have seen their truck around various events and finally got to try them out at Porchfest Napa 2015. Thankfully the great event helped offset the disappointing food and service. Waited in line (behind 8 – 10 others) for 45 minutes for a pulled pork grilled cheese sandwich and garlic fries. As I was finally expecting my food to come out soon based on those who had been in line ahead of me, I noticed that 3 women who clearly knew someone on the truck (who were several places BEHIND me in line) began to get their orders before me. Now you might say they got different items than I so theirs came sooner, but no. I watched each of them walk away with similar, and one identical order to mine. Then my name was called! Oh joy, my sandwich has arrived… but wait, «Oh you wanted garlic fries too. They’re not ready yet.» I said OK and waited another 5 minutes for them at which time the woman who was expediting the food walked up with what looked like my fries and looked at me… then set whatever it was on the counter and walked off. About a minute later a man who had NOT been expediting food picked up the box, said something to her then got an awkward look on his face and called my name. No idea what that was about as I had been nothing but cordial and cooperative with her. Handed me the garlic fries and mumbled something I think was an apology. Sandwich was dry and uneventful and, big surprise, the garlic fries were cold. I hope the 3 women who you served like royalty are giving you tons of business to make up for all the business you’ll lose due to poor customer service. I’ll reserve comment on the food since it was dry and cold by the time I could actually eat it with my wife. I wish I could give a positive review to a local business who depends on them, but we were definitely unimpressed.

Tried these guys at Bottlerock Festival in Napa. BBQ oysters with the fire in hole sauce was awesome. Also loved the grilled cheese. It’s a must try. Went back to eat here everyday of the festival.

The bread on my $ 8 tri tip sandwich was amazing. It was so dry and sturdy you could efficiently scrub barnacles off a boat with it. No scrubbing for me! Maybe it was because they were so, SO sparse with the sauce that was supposed to come with it. Hm, I don’t know now if the sauce was even applied on my bread on purpose or by accident because it looked more dripped on than spread on. And I’m sure it would have enhanced the «home-​style» wooden flavor of the meat. Also, the girl working the window may have been annoyed that she had to repeat herself after talking over me as I tried to finished my order. «Is that all» she kept asking as she looked down on my face where my lips indicated that I was trying to answer her last question of «will that be regular or spicy?» and then wanting to add our drinks and sides. Maybe she didn’t want us to have drinks and sides? I knew exactly what I wanted ahead of time and wasn’t taking long — and they were by no means, busy. I know, I’ve worked food service before. However, she was adorable to the young man who ordered after me, so there’s that I guess. Then when it was time to pick up my order there was a corn cob handed to me that I did’t order. Before I figured out «hey I don’t think this is mine» I hear «THAT CORN IS NOT YOURS!» shouted at me. Seriously? Not exaggerating. I restrained myself from shoving the delicious looking corn up her left nostril and politely handed it back instead. Thank goodness for the Taco truck behind us. They were awesome and the tacos were great.

Smokey’s owner Mark saved the day after a 6.0 earthquake hit Napa and my friends were to be wed later that day. Their caterer has to cancel due to the devastating earthquake but Mark and his team came out and provided a great meal! Thank you for coming through for the new Mr. & Mrs. Rasmussen!

I do not judge any food place by my first experience. The pork ribs were cold tho. Bummer. Today I ordered wings. I was thinking sauce and chose Cajun. Salt was all I tasted. No sauce or smoke… Five tiny ones for $ 7??? Not what I was thinking, but they were hot.

I find this truck to be kind of hit or miss.
Positive’s — Pull pork sandwich is really good, smells great, that have a good size menu with a lot of choices.
Negative’s — Price (too steep for what you get) some of the value are okay, I think the oysters are over-​priced for the quality and the shrimp skewers are not worth the money.
I’ve been here twice, tasted about 4 – 5 different items. Food trucks are a cool novelty, but I feel like you really have to be different to pull it off. Right now Crossroad Chicken and Marks the Spot are still the two best food truck choices in Napa.

Idk what the chef thinks he is making but this is not BBQ, the pulled pork was extremely sweet (where’s da smoke at?) and tasted like it had been in a refrigerator for a while, had to order the oysters raw because they were so small if they grilled them they would turn into nothing. Will not come back until they make real BBQ.

Ribs not smoked no flavor whatsoever. For a place called Smokey’s, you’d think their BBQ would be smoked. I ordered without sauce because I like tasting the rib and the rub. There wasn’t any rub…
The ribs may have even been boiled. It’s a Bay Area trend of producing bad meat and smothering it with sauce, but this was a new level of bad.
BBQ oysters were good though, and that’s why the second star is there.

Tried these guys at Off the Grid: Vintage Oaks Novato, and they made a pretty good grilled cheese with pulled pork sandwich! They had a long line going but it moved along pretty steadily– no big deal, and the wait for our food wasn’t long. I paid $ 10 for a sandwich and water bottle which seems pretty standard. I’d go back for the sandwich again next week but am looking forward to switching it up and trying the food at all the different trucks there!

So after Bottlerock we decided to just get BBQ at this food truck and took a chance… I’m so happy we did! It was a 30 min wait for my food but soooo worth it! We got ribs and pulled pork sandwiches and wished I had gotten more!!! Ask for sauce on the side!!! I missed out and didn’t san like everyone else! I’m so excited this place is close enough to home to be able to come back!!!

this truck had a huge line at off the grid in berkeley so i decided to give it a try. with this many people lining up it MUST be good right? meh.
Ribs — lukewarm and not exactly fall off the bone, but it was decent
Pulled Pork Sandwich — dry pork, dry cold bread. they really did not try to heat it up at all
Tri Tip Tacos — dry tri tip with potato salad on a tortilla, not exactly the best
food: 2 stars, nice cashier: + 1 star
I don’t know why the even keep the truck turned on, the food is served luke warm at best. i would actually not recommend this. i would probably come back only to try their cajun corn, which was sold out at the time i went.

food truck at @offthegridsf in concord
Wanted to try a variety. Had fries topped with cheese and pulled pork. Added 1 rib. Had to try the new cajun corn.
Corn — fantastic.
Rib — very good
fries — very first bite had something ice cold, so I was worried. But entire remaining serving was very hot; perhaps a cold fry fell in there. All the individual elements were excellent, but I don’t think I’d get this specific dish again. Way too much cheese, which is an odd criticism — most people probably always want more cheese.
If they are flexible, or not busy and have time, I’d try to custom order the fries with light cheese on one half, and the pulled pork on the other half. That would allow pork flavor to come through, can mix pork in with a little cheese as desired, and still enjoy crispy fries not totally soggy from the cheese. To repeat, pork, fries and cheese are all excellent, but suffer a bit from the mixed-​combo.

These guys recently catered a lunch for my employer, so I had the opportunity to try a huge swath of their menu offerings. Cornbread muffins were dry and unexciting. Everyone was jazzed to see fried pickles, which were WAY too salty – even knowing we’ve all signed up to eat a salty food, they were inedible. The BBQ ribs were tender and the best part of the meal.
Potato salad was lacking salt (chop up some fried pickles to add in???), and mac n’cheese was lackluster and disappointing. Rolls dry, beans meh, etc. Several commented on how all of the try tip was the same color – nothing rare, no seared outside, just a slice of brown; not visually appealing.

The BBQ oysters were GREAT! $ 2 each or 15 for $ 25. My favorites were the ones with BBQ sauce and garlic butter.
Our friend got the tri-​tip sandwich It was very sad looking and was not very tasty. They may want to consider changing that sandwich up a bit. Very thin slices of tri-​tip and not much flavor. The meat to bread ratio was off… too stingy on the meat.

I rarely give one-​star reviews (this is my third out of 176 total reviews), but this truck deserves it. It wasn’t that I had to wait almost twenty minutes for a grilled cheese sandwich. It wasn’t that customers behind me were getting their orders before mine. It wasn’t that they saw me standing out there and didn’t ask my name to check on my order. It wasn’t even that they «misplaced my order» and hadn’t actually made my grilled cheese sandwich to begin with. What irked me the most is that there was no apology or acknowledgement of their error. All I got was: «Oh, there is no order for you, and we are out of grilled cheese sandwiches now». That’s it. That’s all I got.
I want to thank you, Smokey’s & the Oyster Guy, for being great at holding my money while I froze my arse off outside your truck. I wish I could thank you, Smokey’s & the Oyster Guy, for a good food truck experience (actually, I would have been just fine with normal food truck experience). But that didn’t happen, and all that is left is one unhappy customer.

Found these guys at Off the Grid: El Cerrito. Amazing BBQ oysters! Pure melt-​in-​your-​mouth goodness on a half shell. I looooved them with the garlic sauce and parmesan cheese. I want to try all of the sauces! My boyfriend loved the tri tip sandwich. He thought the meat was tender and flavorful and really liked the spicy BBQ sauce. Can’t wait to eat here again!

Never saw this truck until today so on the way back from running Xmas errands stopped for a couple of sammies. Tri tip for me, pulled pork for my husband. Only one guy there waiting for food (this was a 12:30 — should have rung some bells). Took an inordinately long time to get food seeing I was only 1 of 2 people there. Got home to eat and — tri tip was dry, sliced thinly (thin Arby’s) and coleslaw was mushy and tasteless. Husband said his pulled pork was also dry and poured on mor BBQ sauce we had at home. We both threw half of the meal away. GAH!!! If you want BBQ in Napa, go to Barber Qis.

Smokey’s offers bbq (of sorts), sides, and oysters (raw & bbq)
–prices higher here than posted online (i.e oyster 2@online, 3@ here)
local: OTG: concord. (¹⁰⁄₂₆)
eats: tri tip sammie (8)
–lots of thinly sliced meat, some smoke flavor, with lettuce, tomato, red onions, spicy sauce.
–great value, better than most sammie places (IKE!/Mayo, u hear me?)
–not a lot of flavor but the spiciness at the end did the trick.
crumbs:
–sides @3 reasonable price, think oysters @3 overpriced, passed.
–service reasonable. got sammie in 5 minutes, it seems.