Little did I know when we walked into Beach Pit BBQ that I was walking into an establishment created by Tim DeCinces, a former baseball player whose father I cheered on for the California Angels in the 80’s. I didn’t catch wind of this information till today when I researching some information for my review.
Our visit to Beach Pit BBQ was on Monday, May 12, 2008. As we walked up it appeared pretty busy, we quickly found out there was some type of benefit going on for the daughter of a local man that passed away recently. We were told later by one of the wait staff that it wasn’t normally that loud. It didn’t really matter to us we just wanted good food! So we walked up to the counter and ordered our food; that’s right this isn’t a place where you are seated and have the wait staff take your order, you place your order and then take your seat. I did have one question about this type of set up, since you are ordering and paying for your meal before you sit (just like a fast food place) does that mean you are not expected to tip? The only reason I ask this is because all the staff did was bring my order, we did everything else ourselves, including get and replenish our drinks. Either way, that being the case we placed our order. I ordered the BBQ Baby Back Ribs dinner with beans and macaroni and cheese, while Mrs. DanGarion ordered the BBQ Chicken with beans and potato salad.
We took our seat in a secondary area near what would normally be called the front of the building. This section was walled off from the primary seating area. There were a lot of families with children, and many of the children walking and running around. Don’t get me wrong I like kids but when I was a child my parents had strict rules that I had to sit at the table with my family when we went out to dinner. But I’m getting off track; it’s not the businesses fault that parents aren’t respectful of the other patrons.
So we took our seat in the area that no one else was sitting and watched the traffic pass by in the quiet Old Town area of Tustin. After about 15 minutes our food came out. Everything looked good and piping hot! My wife said the chicken was really good, it was moist and had a lot of flavor, she was afraid that it was a little pink, but I explained to her that smoking will cause that with chicken. She wasn’t a big fan of the potato salad; it was bland and had big chunks of potatoes. My ribs were great; they fell off the bone with a little bit of work and were very flavorful. The ribs were lightly covered with their mild BBQ sauce which actually still had a bit of spicy kick to it. I loved the taste of the sauce so I covered them with even more as I worked on finishing off half of my full rack. The macaroni and cheese was good, it had a faint taste of sour cream in the background, I wasn’t sure if it’s a baked Mac’n’cheese, which is normally my favorite because I like to have some of the crusty part that was on top from the baking, but it was good nonetheless. We both agreed that the BBQ beans seemed sort of like a sweet version of chili, and although we thought they were good, they just weren’t something we would recommend to most people. I sort of wish they had done a more traditional BBQ bean with just their BBQ sauce and some pieces of meat. Overall the meal was good, and we do plan on going back and trying other items on the menu. I think our new visit will be for lunch so we can try some of their BBQ sandwich items, a Tri-Tip sandwich is always a good item to try, especially with the temperatures getting hotter nothing is better than having some BBQ in summer.
The pricing of items is about normal for BBQ, my rib dinner was $24, the chicken was $16, along with drinks our bill was approx. $45.
Overall we were pleased with our visit to Beach Pit BBQ. Our visit was fun, our food was good, and it proved itself a worthy leftover as I took the other half of my ribs with me to work the following day.
[xrr rating=3/5]
Beach Pit BBQ
560 El Camino Real
Tustin, CA 92780
(714) 929-7427
