Bobby Ray's Bar-B-Que 1657 W Base Line St
San Bernardino
909-885-9177
I was all prepared to do a review of Bobby Ray's BBQ, last year. But, I called and asked when they would be close, that night. It was about 4pm and he told me they were going to close at 7pm. I was in downtown LA, and figured I would make the drive out to San Bernardino. I arrived at 6pm, even on a Saturday the traffic was bad, and they had already closed, but there were 4-5 people, all black, eating inside. I asked, nicely if he could make one more order to go, but he said no. I was pissed. I thought the owner, who is black, was racist and lied to me. I swore, that I would never go there again.
But I was going to be in the area and decided, what the hell. Try it, if I don't like it, I can write a review about the bad BBQ and terrible service.
I got the half pound of pork spare ribs, $9. The ribs are smoked with fruit woods, I got tastes of apples and cherry wood. The ribs were very dry and chewy, and some ribs were very fatty. There was a lot of meat on the ribs, the smoke flavor was nice and subtle, and there a lot of ribs in the order. He wasn't measure the ribs on a scale, he was just putting ribs into the container. But, overall I wasn't really impressed with these ribs at all. These ribs tastes as though they were in the warmer for too long.
The BBQ sauce tasted like Chris & Pitts BBQ sauce, which I don't like, because of it's too sweet flavor.
Now, I don't hold grudges and kept an open mind. The man, who I believe is the owner helped me today. I walked in and he was outside, talking on his cell phone. He came in, talked a little longer, then got off the phone and helped me. This was about two minutes at most. Not a long wait. To my surprise, he was very nice. He addressed me as sir, nice touch, even though I am younger than him. He could teach others about costumer service.
I'm glad I got good service, but I wasn't happy that I was lied to the first time. When a restaurant says they are going to open until a certain time, they better stay open. And really, it would have been very easy to serve me, but for whatever reason, he decided not to.
Anyways, the BBQ is below average and there is no need for me to return.
