Hickory Joe's BBQ120 Hidden Valley Pkwy
Norco
951-273-7427
Why do I even bother? I am always on the lookout for good BBQ ribs. I search the web, read papers, get tips from other people. One place I use is Yelp. Not some much because the reviews are good, most Yelpers are too stupid to know what real BBQ is, but they do find restaurants.
So I found Hickory Joe's BBQ in Norco, on Yelp. Hickory Joe's says they smoke their ribs 3-4 hours. But they don't do a good job. I got the rib lunch, $8.49 with double mac and cheese. Their lunch specials are in affect Mon-Sat until 3pm. The ribs lunch gets you 1/3 rack of St. Louis spare ribs. The ribs are finished on the grill, no real BBQ would do this. The ribs were not meaty, didn't have much smoke flavor, and not impressive at all. This is a less expensive version of Lucille's.
The mac and cheese tasted exactly like the mac and cheese from KFC. I'm serious. A bit salty and more cheese than KFC, but in a blind taste test, you can not tell the difference.
Service is good. The girl was nice and my order came out quickly.
I would not go to Hickory Joe's again. The ribs are below average.
