Lucille's Smokehouse Bar-B-Que — Restaurant in Long Beach

I’m surprised smokehouse is in the name seeing how there’s zero smoke flavor in any of the “smoked” meat. I ordered the three meat combo, with brisket, 1/2 Alabama chicken, pulled pork, Mac and cheese, and bbq beans. The brisket was absolutely horrible. One of the toughest pieces of meat I’ve ever consumed. I obviously wasn’t expecting it to be as good as authentic smoked brisket, but I was honestly shocked how bad it was. Super chewy, no smoke flavor what so ever, and very little flavor otherwise. The brisket is definitely not fresh and extremely overcooked, brisket should be able to be pulled apart with ease, and have a nice amount of fat. It was extremely dry and hard to even chew, let alone pull apart. The pulled pork also had zero smoke flavor, but more overall flavor than the brisket. Still very dry, and a bland generic barbecue flavor. The chicken was the best out of the 3 meats ordered. The chicken itself was pretty good, essentially the thighs and drums if a little small. However the Alabama sauce on top and on the side of the chicken was pretty good. A nice vinegar and mustard flavor, a good baseline Alabama white sauce. The bbq beans were decent, but tasted like they just put there bbq sauce in a pot with some pinto beans and bits of sausage and onion. Way too sweat and too much artificial smoke flavor. The mac and cheese was sub par, overcook macaroni, somehow a lack of cheese flavor, and way too much stabilizer or something (like xanthan gum, the stuff that makes boxed Mac and cheese so smooth). This made the Mac and cheese feel more like a box of Velveeta than actual homestyle Mac and cheese. The biscuits and apple butter they served before the food were all decent. Biscuits had a nice sugar crust on top, but were a little dry. The apple butter is also not a true apple butter, and more like regular butter with cinnamon and apple extract added. Honestly, the best part of this meal was my drink. The strawberry lemonade was very good, but I’m a sucker for a sweet pink drink. Overall, extremely disappointed in the quality and flavor of the meats served here. I thought I would give this place a second chance after being disappointed by the ribs the first time coming here. Needless to say I will not be...

I’ve had Lucille’s for the greater portion of 20 years. The quality of meat has gone down noticeable. This last visit will likely be my last. I ordered an online pickup order that according to the website would be ready at 4:51 pm. I thought I would check in early so I could grab the order once it was ready. I checked in around 4:30 and my food was ready to go. I was 20 minutes early meaning my order would have been sitting for that time had I not checked in early. However, I was excited to eat freshly cooked and tender meats Lucille’s has come to be known for. But, similarly to recent visits, meats were tough. What’s worse, the food was cold. Again, imagine what would’ve happened if we picked the food up at the time stated on the website. After working in restaurants for several years, it would be my perception that the ribs were “sandbagged” meaning they were cooked during the lunch rush and saved for later then cooked again over high heat to get them warmed but not over dry the whole serving. Unfortunately, there was a quarter-inch crust on the chewy, non-tender ribs which couldn’t be separated from the bones without being cut off by a knife. Two of the orders had fries but what was given was a poor excuse for sides, more like garnishes. There were maybe 20 fries for each at max, and that’s a generous assumption as they didn’t even come close to filling the boats they were served in. He take-out staff were friendly and I’m sure we may have been able to resolve any issues if I had the time but I was feeding kids and celebrating a birthday before picking up a family member from the airport. My suggestion is to cook food fresh and have it ready at the scheduled time so consumers get hot and freshly made food. And while inflation and COVID have definitely created cost challenges, customers pay for expectations and those were not met on this visit. Potatoes are inexpensive options to pair with...

Lucille's use to be pretty good for years, but my last few visits have been more and more disappointing due to poor service and now the food. Today will be my last visit here. The service was good from the waitress but the deviled eggs with (BACON) are a joke. They were ok deviled eggs with a bacon BIT on them, yes I said 1 Bit of bacon. I expected a small piece from a strip of bacon and got a bacon bit and not even on each egg. My wife ordered a blackened shrimp salad and got a salad with a few small burnt pieces of shrimp on it. There was actually only 2 pieces that were even edible. The real final straw was my own food the Brisket Burnt Ends. SMH! More like Burnt Fat Trimmings from a Brisket. I had to pick through the whole plate just to find 3 edible bites of meat. When I expressed my concern to the waitress she instantly said "too much fat?" Before I got a word out, so they must have this complaint from more than just me. She took the plate back, expecting to hear from a manager next but 15 minute went by before a manager came over. Meanwhile my wife has sat there this entire time with her sad shrimp salad. By this time my niece is done eating, I'm done snacking on the fries I kept and the manager is now offering my wife another salad. We declined and they brought us a bowl of shrimp looking entirely different (the correct way they should have looked) from the shrimp on the salad. At the end of this the waitress was very sorry and so was the manager, she took my food off and the salad and gave us a free desert so the service from them was good I won't knock them but the food was terrible just terrible. They are also testing new (in n out style) fries and new biscuits too. I'm my opinion restaurants that start changing too many things at once start going down hill fast (Elephant Bar). Let's hope this doesn't happen and we don't see another Raising Canes pop up in this...