Joey's Smokin BBQ3564 Sepulveda
Manhattan Beach
310-563-9072
Readers of The New Diner know how much I love BBQ ribs. So I was shocked to find out that a new BBQ place opened in April and I only heard about it today. Joey's Smokin BBQ is owned by Luke Walton of the LA Lackers. No, that is spelled correctly. The LACKERS, lack heart, character, and talent. The are "led" by a scumbag, selfish, bastard who should be in jail for rape. For those who do not know, Luke Walton is the son of former UCLA All American Bill Walton. Walton would go onto the NBA and help Portland to the title and won another title with the Celtics. Walton, along with every other UCLA player who played under John Wooden was very friendly with Sam Gilbert. The real man behind the UCLA basketball dynasty.
I guess Luke got together with a few friends and started a BBQ restaurant. The have locations in San Diego, where the Walton family is from. Now understand that Manhattan Beach is lily white and what white suburban people think is BBQ is really nasty tasting junk. Baby back ribs is the ultimate white, suburban idea of BBQ. Now baby backs are OK but give me spare ribs. They are so damn good when they are done right. So of course Joey's serves baby back ribs only.
I ordered the mixed rib plate which is 1/2 slab of sweet ribs, dry rubbed ribs, and wet ribs for $13.99. Again they were all baby backs and they lacked any smoked flavor. They were tender but then again baby backs are tender. Since I almost always ask for sauce on the side, the ribs came as dry rubbed. I tried the dry rub and I wasn't a fan. No smoke flavor, not much flavor in general and just overall bad. I next moved to the sweet BBQ sauce. Well it was like eating sugar straight. Just way too sweet. The regular BBQ sauce was some tomato based sauce that needed more spices. It was very bland.
They give you cole slaw and beans as side. Nothing special about them. The cornbread was decent.
One good thing was their buffalo wings. They were pretty damn good. A nice cripsy skin and a lot of spicy hot sauce. They say they smoke then fry the wings. Maybe that combo makes the wings tastes better. The wings were big, not the small sized wings of many wings restaurants.
Service was below average. You order at the counter but the guy never smiled and was like a robot. He wasn't friendly and just a matter factly took orders.
I would not go back to Joey's again. The ribs aren't any good and the service is bad. So of course in a city like Manhattan Beach, there was a long line waiting for this food that tries to pass for BBQ.
