Phil's BBQ — Restaurant in Santee

The food, ledgendary. Waitstaff, doing the best they can on a busy weekend nite. Not happy at all about the part between ordering take out and actually taking it out. Seriously, management, get a plan. I was, wistfully, generically, pointed towards the space on the floor in front of a long line of kaos and order people; taking orders handing out orders , hard to tell where I interface -really hard. Ive been on my feet all day and Im tired-- hence ordering take out. Hmmmmm? There's no real direction, " wait over there and you'll hear your name over a loud speaker.--operatve word being loud. I sit down at a really long table where people are at each end but not in the middle.10 minutes go by. Come to find out it really is a big party. So upon realizing I move of course. Embarassed. So I stand in front of the kaotic line of food order takers. Some guy asks, " have you been helped?"- to his credit. I say yea, I just dont know where to be , I dont want/can't stand. Oh you can sit over there and you"ll hear your name over the loud speaker. So I sit. Another 10 minutes go by and now I start writing this little diatribe. Finally a kid comes and says you've been waiting a while Ill go check on your order. Good kid. Promote him. Today. He returns with my food. I learn its been sitting there a while; probably, in hinsight, about 20 minutes. I leave . Yup food is cold. I did try to call in but the recording says they dont do phones anymore so your foid will be hot. Think again. Might test that process before going live. Also gone is the big bench we use to wait on and the buzzers that went off when the food is ready. They worked really well. You can print that. I tested them. Your "loud" speaker isn't. I've now tested it too. Onion rings are great sizzeling hot. Not so much cold. I drive through Santee every Saturday night after working 8 hours on my old feet and knees. I look for places to pick up food. I grew up in the up country of North Carolina where bbq rules. I would eat takeout from Phils regularly if it wasn't such a logistical nightmare to do so. Still once a year I'll break down and half to have that bbq but as it stands that's about once a year. If you are older or have mobility issues this is not the best place even for take out. Clearly the business model is not designed around us. See...

Man I’ve been coming to this place for years now and even still it never ceases to amaze me.

Let’s just get it out the way, the food is great high quality for such a reasonable price. That’s something you just can’t find these days in San Diego. Sure there’s other BBQ places that some may say have better BBQ, but Phil’s is a staple to San Diego just like Hodads (who also some could argue there are better burgers here, but they will never be Hodads).

Once my daughter Turned one years old, I took her here on a little father and daughter date. She absolutely loves the french fries and most days likes the rib meat from the ribless tickler ( beef rib meat without the bone, easier to feed daughter). With a decent tip we both leave happy and full for around $20 depending on tip and it “da-da” gets a beer or not… which also they have insanely good drink prices ($5 rotating beers monthly, and not bud light but good ass beers).

Today was an especially good when it comes to the service. Our food buzzer was broken or was the wrong one or something like that so we waited a little bit longer for food than normal. Samuel (god I hope I remembered this name right) noticed my daughter and I waiting and figured something was wrong. Totally helped us out. He then, super intuitively asked if I wanted a separate plate for my daughter, and a kids cup full of water. He also brought back plastic utensils for her to play with which she loved.

After all of that, I find out that Samuel is 19 and doesn’t have kids of his own. That dude is on fire and is super intuitive and on his mark. I don’t know when he gets paid, but I can tell you right now if I Own the company I would hire him in a heartbeat and pay him as much as I could physically afford. He is one of those assets to companies that’s so many bosses oversee.

I recently lost my job, And with the new job having hard times to catch up on bills. these are rare times I can take my daughter out now. I would tip this guy $100 bill if I could. And one day when I get back on my feet I will. Keep going strong, sir. You are a beast and you will succeed at everything you do in this life with the attitude and work ethic...

Me and my family of like 20 came to eat at Phil’s bbq at this specific location on 1-22-23 around 7:00 - 7:30pm to celebrate a 1st birthday.

Me and my family of 5 were the last to eat since everyone ordered ahead of us. i noticed my cousin after eating her meal felt nauseous as if something wasn’t settling right.

She didn’t think anything of it until she texted me saying hey, I think we’re sick just to let you know, I told her we felt fine till Monday morning I started throwing up and having constant diarrhea.

Then my 1year old started throwing up and he only ate the fries. Then we started getting calls and messages from family that ate at Phil’s bbq saying they are vomiting and having constant diarrhea also & mentioned that the food tasted off like sour and what not.

Phil’s bbq will be getting a complaint because this is ridiculous of how many of us got sick from just eating their food. And we are very loyal customers of Phil’s bbq we have been going for so many year’s and I believe we deserve some type of refund for this horrible experience. Who knows how many other customers got sick…

Well I’m sure from everyone’s separate payments everyone probably spent over a $100 just to get food poisoning 😭 plus prices went up just because of “Covid” like the prices were already expensive before 🥺😭

FYI you left a pregnant woman in emotional distress for giving her food poisoning. Not cool we already go through a lot pregnant and y’all gave her some bs...