Buckboard's BBQ & Brew — Restaurant in El Cajon

Tasty Baby Back Ribs and Smoked Sausage Link at Buckboard’s in El Cajon, California! I’ve been meaning to check this place out for sometime and I’m glad I finally made it in. The restaurant is spacious and clean yet somewhat rustic. Very nice patio seating just beyond the side door. The staff were all friendly and helpful. Particularly when calling ahead to make a reservation for our large group. I appreciate that. There is a nice selection of beers on draft that I enjoyed.

I started with an order of Mac & Cheese Balls that were decent although somewhat institutional tasting. The green dipping sauce that accompanies is described as a “Pasilla Pepper Dip” which was good, not really spicy. The ribs were very meaty although not tender. I loved the smoked sausage. Their meat thing platters come with “Big Butter Toast” which was a nice touch. I added a side of Tater Salad which was outstanding. Clearly a house-made recipe that was well balanced, moist, flavorful...

Beef ribs are so very difficult to judge because of so many determining factors and probably as a consequence not too many places have ever lasted serving them because of how difficult it is to get any great reviews on them, Buckboards serves up for $20 three ribs that seem mighty beefy by looking at them in their container, the way that they smoke them and prepare them does make the meat very tender and tasty genuinely, that's why I give it a three because past that they're very small and they're extremely well done like beyond well done just extremely well done and absolutely slaughtered with a molasses consistent of a barbecue sauce that is surprisingly tasty but so much on it, it's unnecessary it's just way too much, and really smoked down to where the meat is so small of an amount left, but that's their business, I probably will eat them again but probably not that often and that's my...

My expectations of what good BBQ are just different. The baby back ribs that they use have a substantial amount of meat on the bones. Unfortunately, they were served cold, and without any sauce, they have no real flavor. They offer you 3 house made sauces in 1-ounce souffle cups which is not enough for a half rack of ribs. Their French fries were served scalding hot. Unfortunately,unseasoned and disappointingly tasteless. The decor of the restaurant is all dark wood, which is nice, if that is your thing.

They appear to have an impressive array of beers for sale in either bottle or glass, as well as serve a lesser known brand of sodas. The root beer was tasty.

Overall, not the worst BBQ experience, but in my mind, a little too expensive for the food quality considering there are other, better BBQ restaurants within a 5 mile radius of...