The Escondido Grill — Restaurant in Lubbock

We have eaten Barbecue all over the USA and part of the World, we smoke our own too and have for many years. If you get Barbecue with sauce on it, it is not true Texas Barbecue. All you taste is the sauce. Truly good Barbecue stands on its own without a sauce. This Barbecue is good enough that it needs no sauce.

We went late for a big lunch after hearing folks brag on this place. Truthfully we weren't expecting much because most people don't know what good food is. They were all raised on reheated junk from out of a box because their single parent household was too exhausted to cook real food for them. We have been to all the barbecue places in this area, and this one wins hands down!

We were greeted promptly and seated quickly. Our waitress was pleasant and helpful. To drink I ordered water and my wife ordered half sweet tea and half unsweetened tea. She was very pleased with their tea.

My wife ordered the sliced brisket and sausage with her sides being potato salad and a green chili cornbread muffin. I ordered the big rib plate with a salad and broccoli. (Yeah, I know, but the diabetes says low carbs, so I try to do what it says.) The plates came out quickly and the portions were large and looked great. My rib was as big as the one I got a couple of years ago In Taylor Texas, at a place there known for their huge ribs. The smoke ring on all the meat was perfect as was the "bark" on the outside of it. These folks know how to smoke barbecue. The flavor was great as was the lean/fat composition of the brisket. My wife was quite happy with the potato salad as it reminded her of that available at County Line, but just slightly different. The cornbread muffin was nothing special but she said the biscuit was absolutely perfect. So on a 1-10 scale, 1 is bad, 10 is perfect: Meat 9 Potato salad 8 Biscuits 10

I wish I could tell you about the 3 barbecue sauces they had available on the table, but we never so much as picked them up. We didn't need them.

Barbecue is never cheap. Ever! And this wasn't cheap, but it was what I would call very reasonable especially when you consider all the food we received.

Though it pains me to say it, this place does have one flaw. Amongst all the wonderful, glorious meat, there are also several options for vegetarians. The horror! They also have alcoholic beverages if you...

Last night was the 4th or 5th time coming to eat here and I’ve given it plenty of chances. Service is consistently slow, especially if they are busy. The food is not that great, good but not mind blowing and it’s really the atmosphere people go for, I think. Last night I ordered Bruschetta and having lived in Europe for most of my childhood I can tell you this place has no understanding of what bruschetta is. They brought me a plastic to-go container with what looked like salsa… no bread crackers, balsamic, or mozzarella. I tasted it and it was hot and tasted like spaghetti sauce…. Not bruschetta in the slightest. The chicken fried steak was good, but the corn tasted like it has been in a warming tray for most of the day… flavor was good, just didn’t seem fresh.

From the time we sat down to the time we left was an hour and a half. It was not busy and it took 15 min before we got our drinks which were waters, tea, and sodas. From the time we sat down to the time the first plate came to the table was an hour.

It’s worth trying, especially because of the atmosphere but I don’t know if I would make it a regular place to go, nor would I go if I had any place to be afterwards.

REPLY TO OWNER: Appreciate you reaching out. To answer your questions: if a manager stopped by I would not have known because everyone that came to our table seemed to be a server. But they could have been a manager and I wouldn’t have known. I don’t want to say they didn’t because I don’t know. There were several servers but I did not catch their names. I ordered a side of bruschetta and the only thing I received that was being called bruschetta was the (blurry) picture of what looks like a container of salsa. But my point to that was you asked if I ordered 3 different variations of the same thing. Bruschetta is one thing, a toasted Italian bread drizzled with olive oil topped with fresh tomatoes, and often mozzarella. It’s not generally hot, it’s not a pasta, and the main ingredient is bread (which I only got after I asked specifically for it). Whether it’s a side or an appetizer the only difference would be portion size. Naming three different menu items bruschetta and serving different things is misleading if that...

Made reservations for a party of 20 for my daughter's 18th birthday dinner upon reading reviews. I was really hoping it would be as good as some of the reviews said it was.

Disappointed.

I specifically asked to have the whole party together and was told it was possible. We get there and were going to be seated at two different tables away from each other. I had my nephew help move two tables and chairs with me and a staff member, so we could sit together. Also, I was told we couldn't book at 6, because there was a party of 30 at that time, so it had to be 5 or 7. We arrive at 7 and there's plenty of space and tables. Why couldn't we go at 6?

Literally everything we were served was cold. Queso, spinach dip, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, and even my filet mignon. We sent our queso back just for our waitress to bring out more cold queso. Fine with me, because we didnt care for the flavor if it anyway. My sister had to send her baked potato back and was given another cold one. I ate my mashed potatoes cold and ate my cold, expensive charred filet mignon with no flavor. My daughter's steak was way undercooked, so we had to send hers back and the birthday girl was the last to eat.

Our waitress couldn't hear over the music, had an attitude sometimes, but in the end was nice. She seemed overwhelmed and my friend had to get a pitcher of water off a nearby table by the kitchen and filled our empty glasses. Drinks from the bar took longer than we wanted and we just waited. She messed our tickets up after repeating ourselves several times. The rest of the party ate while complaining to each other, because it seemed to be too much of a hassle for her.

Food was overall cold and not great. Steaks are too pricy to not be cooked well or even taste good. I've had a much better SIRLOIN at other restaurants for half of the price.

First time dining here and we probably will never go again.

The atmosphere is nice and so we had a great time visiting. The singer even sang happy birthday to my daughter and it was...