Swingbellys Beachside BBQ — Restaurant in City of Long Beach

Leaving 2 stars as I have been here in the past and the food was decent but our experience today was 1 star at best primarily because of the service. The food was ok (has been better in the past) but our waitress really ruined the whole experience for us.

When we walked in she was entering a take out order into the computer and did not acknowledge us standing there for at least 5 minutes and when she finally glanced our direction we were told to sit wherever. Not a big deal but after we sat down nobody came to our table at all and finally after about 15 minutes we went inside to ask for menus (after watching 2 other groups be seated, given menus and brought drinks). This was the only time we were brought drinks as she never once came back to check if we wanted another during the rest of the meal.

One member of our party is a vegetarian so when he was ordering he requested the mac n pete (mac n cheese with brisket) with the meat on the side which he has done at the recommendation of another waitress in the past. He was told “there’s no way the chef is doing that tonight, we’re slammed” which did not make sense as it seems to be the kind of dish that is only combined at the end. Also the restaurant was not even half full and while I do understand that they may have had a lot of takeout orders I still don’t understand why the separate meat was too big of a request to accommodate.

Each time the waitress came out she seemed to have no idea what table was getting the food or drinks in her hand. Our food was put down on the table next to us and brought back inside before we finally got it. I watched her put drinks down on the table next to us that belonged to the table behind us. Our apps came out at the same time as our main course and she never once came back to ask if anyone wanted another drink.

Finally when we were done with our meals we were waiting for her to come by so we could ask for a to go box. Again, she never came back to our table. Finally a member of our party stood up to go inside and request the to go boxes and the check. She came out only with the boxes and it took another while for the check. Every ask we had seemed to be a huge hassle to her.

Alas, we were the lucky table compared to the couple next to us! We watched them walk out after they had been there for about an hour when she came by and asked “did you guys want to put in any other food?” They had placed an order that she apparently never wrote down or put into the kitchen! They had had their drinks and apps but when they realized they had been waiting over an hour for an order that was still not even started they got up and left.

I do not often leave such extensive negative reviews but tonight’s experience was just one problem after another from start to finish and really made us regret our choice of restaurants for dinner. The food was ok as I mentioned before but had been much better in the past. Hopefully improvements can be made going forward but unfortunately we will not be back...

We've been eating here numerous times for years, dine in / take out whatever it would be we always had a great experience with amazing food. We always speak highly of this restaurant and recommend it to everyone until today's horrendous experience. Today was the first time since before covid that we decided to order dinner and we are pretty disappointed with our experience. To start off we were over charged nearly 20-25 dollars since they decided to raise their prices and not update any of their menus available online. Now don't get me wrong, I understand if you need to raise prices due to operating expenses, food, rent whatever this might be but if you had the time to raise your prices and calculate all of this you clearly had the time to update your pricing unless you could careless about your customer base. I don't mind paying for good food and supporting a local business but this seems disgusting in my opinion. While arriving at the restaurant to pick up our food we also had the pleasure of waiting 10 minutes outside so they can conduct a staff meeting while a line of 10 people were standing outside.... This was really great because we were then able to enjoy our cold food that was sitting God knows for how long... This isn't the right way to conduct business and honestly the quality of the food clearly went down. Dry cornbread, stale nachos, fatty brisket....What a...

Swingbellys is the ONLY place in town that knows how to make a proper club sandwich. I have had the beach club sandwich 10+ times, And I don't say this lightly, but it has been perfect each time. To the point that I cannot grasp how none of these other restaurants in town can get it right. Now I may be more serious about a club sandwich than the next man, but I assure you to take my word when I say Swingbellys is the local authority when it comes to a club sandwich. A proper club sandwich. And maybe if I say it a few more times, you yourself might be convinced to try the club sandwich. Absolutely tasty, and I mean this, consistent. Which alone is a key factor when it comes to deciding upon a fantastic club sandwich. As a matter of fact, I would likely eat this club sandwich just about every day, however that is a rich man's privilege therefore it is a treat in my book, albeit a semi-regular treat. If you haven't already, you should. Try the club...