Smoke Queen Barbecue — Restaurant in Garden Grove

This is an Asian-American fusion BBQ place. They have a small private parking lot. If that fills up, there is a sign on where to go for more parking. You order food at the counter and either take it to-go or bring it to the back/side of the restaurant. There are benches where you can sit down and enjoy the food.

They have 6 Meats, 6 Sides and 4 Meats, 4 Sides deals where you can save more money than just ordering everything individually. Overall, the meat had great texture. Taste-wise, some were more salty while others were more plain. It's not a big issue. However, the problem was that they only had 2 homemade BBQ sauces: House BBQ and Gochuchang. Neither was good. One was too sweet and the other was gritty. Having better sauce or store-bought would have been better. The sides, though, those were pretty good.

I did like the customer service. Also, we went here for a birthday, and they gave us banana pudding as a complimentary dessert. This tasted really yummy.

Brisket 4.5/5 - The brisket was very tender. The best meat out of everything we got. Though the flavor wasn't distributed evenly, so some pieces were great while others were more plain.

Siu Yuk 4/5 - This was crispy pork belly. These had a nice crunchy top and charred bottom. It tasted good, though a bit salty.

Pork Rib Racks 4/5 - These were tender, but not as much as the brisket. The flavor was plain.

Chicken Quarter 3.5/5 - The chicken was juicy and the skin has a nice chewy texture to it. The flavor was okay. However, my partner said this was the best tasting.

Mac & Cheese 5/5 - These were very decadent shell pasta in delicious cheesy sauce.

Dirty Rice 5/5 - The rice was tasty and flavorful with a light spicy kick. There were also spicy sausage and pork belly in the rice.

Mapo Chili 4/5 - Spicy ground meat in a liquid sauce. It was not bad, a bit oily/fatty.

Brioche Buns 3.5/5 - Good taste and buttery,...

I did not expect this to be an Asian fusion restaurant, but was pleasantly surprised. In addition to classic American bbq dishes such as brisket and ribs, Smoke Queen experiments with Asian meats such as char siu and siu yuk. Personally, I liked the Asian meats more than their brisket. Not because their brisket was bad - in fact the brisket was pretty good. Fatty, tender, and overall decent. But the char siu and siu yuk were just really really good. The char siu, especially when fresh and hot, is stellar. I loved how the fat blended with the sweet meat and melted in my mouth. I have a bit of a sweet tooth so I loved it. The crispy skin was the cherry on top. The siu yuk was also really good - it reminded me of the roast pork you get in those Asian bbq places (with the duck hanging and stuff).

I did not like the dirty rice. I was kinda excited to try it too cuz it has Chinese sausage in it, but it just didn’t hit for me. I thought it was bland. And grey. And not very exciting. The Mac and cheese was really good though. The corn bread too. The butter it comes with is very yummy and sweet.

The service was good. The owner(? I assume) helped us navigate the menu and made good suggestion. Very attentive too lol he keeps pacing back and forth between the register and the dining area. The dining area is very cute though. I loved the string lights and ambiance. I’d even take someone here on a date maybe. I would...

Finally had the opportunity to try smoke queen after returning from Beyond Wonderland I ordered the beef Dino ribs crispy pork belly sesame slaw and mapo chili which turns out wasn’t really spicy it has spice but that’s it. With respect to the craft of smoked bbq the ribs and crispy pork belly are fantastic I was gonna order the brisket but since they only sell beef ribs on Sundays I took advantage. I have never tasted such a unique spice blend on smoked meat before and I absolutely loved it. The sesame slaw is a perfect contrast to the fatty meat and the crunch on the pork belly was beyond satisfying. My only complaint was the mapo chili not being spicy enough and two it’s very oily to the point where it’s almost unbelievable to eat, unfortunately in my case it gave me the runs. For everything in my photo plus a Pilsner beer and a 15% tip I paid roughly $103. The quality is good but next time I’ll just order the sesame slaw some brisket and spicy cucumbers with two beers. The portions are reasonable, so you’ll never leave hungry. My last suggestion is if they can have more crisp refreshing beers to help with the consumption of the amounts of collagen one is consuming. That would really help us consumers. In all I liked Smoke Queen. I’ll be returning with some family members to have a nice Sunday lunch in the...