SmoQue Barbeque5374 E 2nd St
Long Beach
562-439-4189
I was surprised to learn that another BBQ restaurant opened less than a mile east of Lucille's, on 2nd St. in Long Beach. But SmoQue Barbeque has taken on Lucille's. For those of you who like yuppie, white, suburban BBQ, this place is for you. If you like REAL BBQ, this doesn't hold up.
SmoQue is billed as a Texas style BBQ, they smoke the meats with hickory but they do not do a good job of it. The restaurant is a combination of upscale location trying to be dive, with sawdust and peanut shells on the floor.
I got the half order of baby back ribs, $17, with bacon jalapeno mac and cheese. They do not have spare ribs. The ribs has a very gritty wet rub, that had tons of chili power. The ribs maybe better, if there wasn't as much rub. But the worst part of the ribs, was it was too mushy. They had either been in the warmer or smoker for way too long.
The bacon jalapeno mac and cheese was pretty damn good. There wasn't much jalapeno, which is good, because I'm not a big fan of jalapeno but the macaroni was nice and tender, the cheese well blended and tons of nice smokey bacon. So a savory, salty, smokey dish; who wouldn't love this?
The corn on the cob was ok, the corn didn't taste fresh but was well cooked and wasn't drowned in butter.
Service was good, though a misunderstanding, almost led to a bad start. When I arrived, the place was almost empty. SmoQue is filled with flat screen TV's and they have a patio area. I wanted to see Georgia beat Auburn, so I asked if I could take this table and I pointed to it. But the hostess, who turned out to be my server, actually asked "How long do I expect to be?" I was like what kind of question is that? But she thought I was asking to sit in the patio, I was talking about the table in the dining room. That and the fact they asked if I needed change; something they never should ask a customer, service was fine.
I would not go back to SmoQue again. I thought the BBQ was average at best, and a bit overpriced.
