Charlie K's BBQ — Restaurant in Ocean View

We stopped at the farmers market next door and we're lured over to Charlie K's because of the wonderful smell of barbecue. We were very disappointed. I don't see what everybody raves about in these reviews. Maybe because they've never had real BBQ like I have, from North Carolina, Memphis, Kansas City, and Austin.

We ordered a full rack of ribs and a half pound of brisket with four sides to share for the two of us. We had wanted to try their chicken but it wasn't ready yet, not until the dinner hour.

Our first disappointment was the ribs. They don't even trim the silver skin before cooking. That shows their inexperience-- or MAYBE just their laziness. Regardless, I hate chewing on that tough leathery silver skin, especially when it gets hard or dry from barbecuing. The sauce was pretty good, on the picant side and not too sweet. But I wouldn't go back for their ribs.

The brisket did have a nice Smoky flavor, not overpowering. You could tell they really did smoke it. But we were also disappointed in how it was served: we asked the girl at the window if it was sliced and she said yes. When we got home and opened the container that was only half full, it was clearly shredded, lots of little bits and not a slice there. I assumed they weighed it but maybe not because it filled only half the container. I would eat this again.

As for the sides, the three potato salad had a nice flavor. The macaroni salad used very large pasta spirals, and was a different preparation than I had ever had. Not really mayonnaise-y, but not really a vinaigrette style either. It was nothing more than the pasta and some very finely diced celery, nothing more. The coleslaw was very very finely shredded cabbage with a VERY vinegary dressing. Too tart, not even a hint of sweetness that I believe coleslaw should have. And all it was -- was cabbage, not even a single shredded piece of carrot or anything else. The fourth side that we tried was the baked beans, again nothing special. It did have a lot of chopped green pepper added to it, which was a bit tart, red bell pepper would have been better. I guess overall our biggest complaint with the sides was the portion, really only about four or five bites per serving, barely a couple ounces.

Lastly, I have to comment on the cornbread. It was so dry, almost chalky. It just crumbled to bits when you try to bite or break off a piece. I've had a lot of cornbread in my 60 years, and this takes the award for the worst I've ever eaten. No thank you!

If not for the flavor of the brisket, I'd have given only 1 star. I'd be curious to try their chicken, and maybe taste their Amish pie. But sadly I won't make a special effort to return to Charlie K's. There are better places to eat...

We were excited to eat here because we didn’t see a lot of other BBQ options in the area. I’m from Alabama, grew up on good BBQ, and have enjoyed (and appreciate) various BBQ styles from many other regions across the country. To keep the review short, here’s the breakdown:

• All their meats come with sauce already added. Why can’t you order meat without the sauce? • I could barely taste their BBQ sauce due to the amount of vinegar in it. Just way too much. • They advertise ribs but were out of ribs. They didn’t sell out today. They just don’t have ribs. • They don’t sell sweet tea! What legit BBQ restaurant doesn’t sell sweet tea?! • Macaroni and cheese - texture good but really lacked flavor. • Baked beans - it’s like they opened up a can of baked beans and added half a can of sweet relish to it, so it was hard to taste any baked bean flavor. • Cole slaw - wife said it tasted ok, but there’s nothing in it except cabbage…nothing else. -Corn bread - not horrible but it was a bit sticky.

To top it off, my Pepsi from their soda dispenser tasted strange. Like it had too much syrup or was sort of flat. Again, I really wish I could’ve liked this place but unfortunately it just didn’t measure up. If I had to eat here again because I was starving, I would. But I certainly wouldn’t choose to. 2 stars...

Tried Charlie K's BBQ for the first time tonight and absolutely loved it. My daughter and I had the Charlie K's brisket sandwich platter and pulled pork sandwich platter. With the sandwich you get a square of cornbread which I normally don't like. However, I dipped it in the delicious brisket sauce which made it so good. Both sandwiches were monsters. Unlike many other bbq joints I've been to, you don't get more bread than meat here. The sandwiches were loaded with so much meat - you will not feel disappointed at all. The bread is very good - soft and not so thick you end up filling up on bread. The added components on Charlie K's brisket sandwich - the pickles, onion, etc. - worked really well to add different flavors and texture. I highly recommend and can't imagine anyone being disappointed by the flavors and especially the serving sizes. I'm definitely...