TERRIBLE!!

by mstbenson

This was the 2nd time I have eaten here and the BBQ is HORRIBLE!!. We thought we would give them one more try. JUST HORRIBLE!!

I had the Baby Backs and y husband had the beef ribs and no flavor whats so ever. They were DRY and there was no BBQ sauce offered by our waitress until AFTER we had eaten our food. The mash potatos came out of a box. The worst BBQ we have ever had.

• Pros: Good location
• Cons: HORRIBLE FOOD!!

NEW OWNERSHIP AND NEW MENU AND NEW PRICES FOR 2008

by chadworth

HERE IS THE MENU WITH PRICES $

41 BEERS ON TAP. ALL $3.50 TILL7PM

AND NO FRIED PICKLES AS YOU CAN SEE, MUSIC TO COME BACK SOON.

CHEERS.

Fried Calamari 8.00

Hot Chix8.00

?Moules Frites?7.00

Jumpin? Hot Links (4) 8.00

Tiger Shrimp9.00

Garlic Bread 4.00

Jack?s Garden4.00

Greek Salad8.00

Garden salad9.00

BBQ Chicken Salad9.00

Caesar Salad 9.00

Grilled Vegetables Plate

Zucchinis, onions, carrots, bell peppers, and egg plants served with greens 12.00

Grilled Salmon

over mash potatoes in a horseradish sauce 15.00

Ahi Tuna

Served with roasted vegetables in ginger Thai basil 15.00

Baby Back Ribs(Pork)

Extra large baby back ribs smoked and grilled to perfection ? 14.00 full 22.00

St. Louis Style Spare Ribs(Beef)

Extra meaty large ribs smoked and grilled until tender & juicy ? 13.00 full 20.00

Fish And Chips

Served with a lemon caper tartar sauce and French fries 10.00

Oven Roasted Pork Loin Roasted with garlic and rosemary and served with mash potatoes 16.00

Grilled Rib-Eye Steak

A delicious steak in mushroom sauce and French fries 19.00

Grilled Chicken Breast

Chicken breast with an earthy tomato sauce, olives, mashed potatoes 13.00

Pasta

Spaghetti Pasta

Pomodoro sauce, basil, and shaved parmesan 7.00

Penne Bolognese

Mushrooms Bolognese sauce 9.00

Maccaroni And Cheese

Four cheese sauce consisting of Mozzarella, cheddar, gorgonzola, and parmesan 7.00

Linguini ?Ocean?

Sauteed, shrimp, and mussels in white wine spicy tomato 12.00

• Pros: 41 BEERS ON TAP, NO NEED TO DRIVE TO FATHER'S OFFICE
• Cons: WILL GET BUSY, WHEN THEY START ADVERTISING

Don't bother food is not very good!

by jkeyss

I will start with the 2 good things... fried pickles not too bad and the sauce selection not too bad either.The rest of my food was cold, tough, and flavorless, you could get a better BBQ taste by sniffing your neighbors Sunday BBQ on Monday. The chicken was overcooked and stringy. I will never go back. I too wonder when this "always dead place" will stop occupying the space on San Fernando so I will have another place to choose from. It is truly a shame, they spent 6 months setting this place up, it looks great and has a nice bar but with out good food why bother.

Looks like all but 1 reviewer was right, this place is now out of business!

by culinaryman

This place is a joke! Claiming slow smoked ribs and meat. The flavor was not there, the tenderness was not there, but the price sure was! The food at Smokin' Jacks is mediocre at best. If you love good BBQ, do not go here because it's not and you'll be disappointed. Ribs were under cooked, tough and mainly flavorless. This place had hardly any business around 7:30 on a Saturday night. For a place with a bar, nice atmosphere, and supposedly a band on the weekends (that wasn't there at least that night), this seemed odd when all the other restaurants on the blvd. had crowds of people waiting to get in. The prices are higher than they should be considering the food they serve and compared to the other eateries in the area. I also agree with one of the previous reviews, the waitstaff seemed young and lacking sufficient knowledge about the menu and the food on the menu. I feel that they are not long for the location unless they do sometime drastic and soon.

• Pros: Finally out of Business, now there's room for a good restaurant.
• Cons: This place replaced a BBQ restaurant that was better before.

not very impressed

by famousblueraincoat

bottom line: prices are WAY too high for the quality. i agree with the previous poster. the food wasn't bad, it just wasn't good. i should have guessed in that they took over the old tony roma's space. sigh. i've had much better food at other (much more authentic) bbq places in town. servers try very hard but they are pretty young (probably their first waitress job) and not all that well versed with the menu, at least in my experience.

• Pros: corkage reasonalbe
• Cons: poor value for quality

BBQ that fails to make the grade with sky high prices!

by alhjr55

This place is in the same space where Tony Roma's used to be. Not that Roma's is the very best there is but Smokin' Jack's doesn't even come close. I realize that there are different styles of BBQ, St. Louis, Kansas City, Texas etc. Kansas City style is normally a dry smoked meat where the sauce is added by the consumer at the table compared with let's say, Texas style that is basted while smoking and served wet with bbq sauce on the meat. If Jack's meat was what they claim, it would be great but, it isn't. This was the 3rd time my wife and I had eaten there. Funny, they no longer offered Fri. and Sat. nite live blues entertainment after 7pm (guess they were no longer making enough money to pay a band). We were there on a Sat. nite around 7:15 and I think we were 1 of only 3 or 4 tables that had customers. Where did all their business go? While eating, one of their managers stops at our table for a little P.R. obviously because they're hurting for business and probably thinks by kissing our rear ends we'll come back again. He goes into this dissertation about how they smoke their ribs and meat for 15 hours and they use no dry rubs, seasoning or sauce on their ribs or meat. They prefer to let their customers add the sauce at the table. The ribs on my plate were not smoked for no 15 hours! The seemed like they were not thoroughly cooked/smoked. Any ribs that were smoked 15 hours should be falling off the bone, these were far from it, tough and hard to bite through. I know that bbq restaurants can be somewhat pricey because of the cooking process and what it involves but their prices are downright too expensive! I can get better ribs at Chili's for 2/3 the cost with flavor to savor. All I can say is, if they don't do something drastic soon, there will be no more Smokin' Jack's because after anyone has eaten there once they won't go back. Sooner or later they will run out of new customers. WE WILL NOT GO BACK TO THIS PLACE, I'll drive to Glendale to Roma's first.

• Pros: Lots of seating, interior design
• Cons: Food not worth the high prices. No more live entertainment. Odd garnish tray

Editorial Review

by Contributor

Restaurant serves authentic slow cooked barbecue at reasonable prices in a friendly atmosphere.