Bubba's Smokehouse BBQ (inside Society) — Restaurant in San Diego

OMG. Let me say that again. OH MY GOD The only reason this place only gets 5 stars is because the rating won't go to 11 This is the best meal I have had in recent memory.

First of all the staff is so super nice. Unbelievablely friendly and helpful. The owner sounds like he is straight from Brooklyn, so you think at first that your meal will not be as authentic as you would hope. WRONG.

I don't know how he got such skills, but this is the BEST BBQ I have ever had in my life.

Lets start with the tea, shall we? This is real sweet tea. Straight from the south, made with real sugar and keep out at room temp so that it melts perfectly with the ice.

How about the sauce?? They serve it on the condiment bar WARMED. So awesome. The sauce is warm to match your food. The kickin sauce was the perfect blend of spices. I could drink it, it was so good. The original sauce was a slightly sweet Memphis style that was really good too.

How about some corn bread. OMG the corn bread. Awesome. Warm. Soft. Mildly sweet. Perfect texture that didn't fall apart as soon as u touch it. Just the most perfect little corn muffins ever.

My husband had the bubba sandwitch. Pulled pork....... Topped with chopped beef brisket....... Topped with a whole hot link sausage........ Obviously smoked. The sausage had the most beautiful grill marks. Every meet tasty and juicy. Topped with that awesome warmed sauce.

I had a burger. The best burger ever. The meat juicy and tender. The outside crust even had a smoke flavour. The toppings fresh and crisp. The fries were nice and crisp on the outside and warm and soft on the inside.

Hey? How about some pie? Sweet potatoe pie served in individual little pie form (but still big enough that I couldn't finish it) served warm with an additional option of ice cream that I can't wait to try. With the perfect spice. Mild and sweet, in a custard type of texture with a nice firm soft pie crust. Man I can't wait to try it with the ice cream.

Would you like to know about the atmosphere? How about CLEAN. I have a bit of a problem with dirty resturaunts and have been known to walk out before even sitting down because of dirty smells. Not here though. Every table clean. Every surface sparkling. The floors looked clean enought to eat off of. The whole place smelled fresh. Let me say that again. The entire smokehouse smelled fresh. Full props for this gentelman for understanding that cleanliness is the first stop to an awesome experience. The music wasn't blaring and also was GOOD. Not some hooky country. Not some stupid teenybopper crap. But just good stuff. Kinda southern but not country. Played at a good level for some nice background that you could still talk through. Yeah he had a game on the tvs, but with no sound so you could ignore it if you wanted too. And watch if so inclined.

The menu is pretty big. Not a one shot wonder here. Burgers. Sandwitchs. Salads. Platters. Pork, chicken (in a variety of styles including jerk), beef ( chopped or pulled), ribs, wings, a variety of starters and sides including build your own baked potatoes, fried okra, hush puppies, red skinned potatoe salad, baked yam with cinnamon butter, whole corn on the cob (not little halves but WHOLE corn on the cob) to name just a few.

They also do family packs. And cater.

This place is the best and I will be making the long drive from east county alot for the taste of true awesomeness. I have no idea why they don't have more locations. (but we have some room in Santee if they are...

TLDR: Fantastic food, but the new location is so-so and the restaurant needs more staff!

Visited Bubba’s (inside Society) last weekend for lunch with a party of 6. This was my first visit to Bubba’s since they switched locations from Downtown La Jolla, and Bubba’s is now serving as the kitchen/in-house restaurant for Society Pool Bar in Pacific Beach.

The Society bar is large and has plenty of tables and room to move around which is ideal for busy late night partiers at Pacific Beach. It is effective as a bar but has very little charm or character for a restaurant. I understand that it is a bar kitchen now so this might be a picky criticism but compared to the feel of the previous location it feels lacking in identity.

We entered the bar for lunch at about 2pm on a Saturday and while the bar had a medium sized crowd, we did not need to wait for a table which was nice. Biggest downside to our experience was the lack of staff. There was only one waitress on staff for a room with about 50 people and only one person working the kitchen from what I could see. As expected this meant a long wait until we could order and an even longer wait time until our food was delivered. There were probably about 50 people at the bar during our visit and our poor waitress was extremely busy taking orders, delivering food, delivering drinks, checking pool equipment out to people etc and it was clearly too much for one person. Based on the long wait time for the food and a forgotten order it seems like the kitchen was understaffed also. All that being said, our waitress was great and deserves a raise!

When the food arrived it was great as always. I’m very happy to see that the quality hasn’t changed! I ordered the signature sandwich The Bubba and it was out of this world. The sides of mac & cheese, beans and fries were also great. Would love if they brought back the self serve ketchup and bbq sauce stations because I felt bad asking the busy waitress for extra sauces.

All in all 5 stars for the food, 3 stars for service and ambience, but I will definitely be returning again and I will happily revise my rating if the bar gets more staff/improves the restaurant side of...

We stopped by for dinner knowing that BBQ joints run out of the best items (brisket, ribs) early. However, an hour before close they were out of a LOT (potatos, chili, pecan pie, pulled chicken, tri-tip, and the previously mentioned items)!

Back of the house service was slow. Not even sure why or how with so few things available AND most meats being slowly cooked way earlier in the day. Front of the house was doing a good job juggling everything...a line, telephone orders, and the back of the house lead coming off angry, frustrated and loud. To be fair, the whole crew consisted of 3 folks and the front/back leads were a married couple (plot twist! 😂)!

We got the very last of the pulled pork, a cheese burger, roasted corn on the cob, cornbread, fries, sweet potato pie and a (absolutely tiny) side of Mac and cheese. These items took 20mins to come out. When they did (staggered, as thing came up) ⅙ of my corn was solid burnt and the rest tasted bad enough that I just didn't eat it. Never have I had bad tasting cotc! Everything else was ok. The cornbread is in muffins, and slightly sweet + dense like a flour/cornmeal batter. The pie gets a nod for actually tasting of sweet potato vs bland or just sweet (like so many).

I think they had a hard day and we arrived at the end of it. The front lead apologized and even gave my kid extra fries. The back lead (her husband) came out and asked about the pie, mentioned his yelling earlier and seemed personable.

Recommendations to potential customers: 1: Go Early! Again, this is true if any good BBQ joint. They WILL run out of items. 2: If you are from Texas, the South or anywhere known for great BBQ, keep your expectations in check. This is San Diego... 3: Regardless of when you go, be proud of supporting a local business!

I am from Phoenix, where we have nationally acclaimed joints like Little Miss BBQ and Texas BBQ House. As such, we should have gone with the The Stand for fish tacos.

MISC NOTES: Staff does not wear masks. No mask restrictions on entering. Bathroom locked, ask for key. Self seating inside or outside. Street parking or easy (though inclined) walk...