Lucille's BBQ in Lake Forest, California is Just Okay at This Corral

Lucille's BBQ in Lake Forest, California is part of a chain in several counties. We were going to celebrate our son's 23rd birthday. We were having a family party for both he and our daughter later in the week. He's part of a fraternity and wanted to celebrate with his friends so he decided it was a pay-your-own-way evening. There wound up being 18 people.

The restaurant doesn't take reservations, so my son and his girlfriend decided to go down and put in his name at 5:45 and told everyone to be there at 6:30. It was a Tuesday, so we didn't honestly think the wait would be even that long. Were we ever wrong!

We were finally seated at 8:30. By then we had all decided exactly what we were having-most of our clan had either work or classes to attend early the next morning. It took the wait staff another 10 minutes to take our orders.

My husband and I were paying for the birthday boy, his girlfriend, our daughter and son-in-law and ourselves. The four younger people all ordered some kind of BBQ meat sandwich. My husband and I were going to split a rack of beef ribs, but were told that the rack had 7 ribs-about half of what is served at another BBQ chain (Claim Jumpers) and for about a third more in price. So my husband chose a different platter for us to share. It was $2 more, but he figured they'd be generous with the chicken (it also had tritip and 2 beef ribs). We ordered it with their slaw and shoestring potatoes.
The food was tasty, I'll give it that. The chicken was juicy, the ribs were a bit too sweet for either of our liking, but were meaty and the tritip was okay. Really nothing special. The slaw was (for a complete change from most restaurants!) almost completely bereft of dressing. The shoestring fries were tasty as well, but we thought they might have been sitting around a while-as they were rather limp.

We were starving! Especially since we hadn't eaten since about noon. Quite honestly in comparison with the taste and quality of Claim Jumpers, we were disappointed. My husband and I always share a meal there and still come home with "a little extra".

Most of my son's friends enjoyed themselves-most were ordering beer or other alcoholic beverages and were just having fun being with each other-which is the point to having a party!

For a party of this size, the wait staff did a pretty decent job. They keep the refillable drink glasses full, only messed up 2 orders and were friendly. They brought our son a birthday sundae at the end and led us in the usual song.

When our bill came it was $95, that did include tax and tip. Now before you think that doesn't sound too bad remember a couple of things: We had 5 meals (don't forget, hubby and I split) and we all had nothing but water to drink.

I think one of my son's friends said it best during our rather lengthy time before we sat down, "Hey Adam, there's a Fuddrucker's across the street, I called and they'll set up a table now and it will cost us half the amount!"

Enough said-we should've listened!