Phil's BBQ

Everyone gather round as Jenna and Elvis start this new Food Adventures. I know many of you are way stoked for them to start this! Every Saturday Jenna and Elvis go to lunch and they don’t really like going to food chain places, more of the places that are Mom and Pop shops. This Saturday, November 13, 2010 Jenna and Elvis adventured to Phil’s BBQ in San Marcos. The line was out the door, but it is very typical for a new place. Although Elvis arrived about 20 minutes before Jenna(she was sleeping from working graveyard, thank you very much!), he got his food and when Jenna arrived, they’re host, Justin, was more than willing to hook Elvis and Jenna up by letting Jenna go to the front of the line and get her food. Of course then Elvis felt like it was his obligation to inform everyone that any employee is willing to do anything for Elvis. For instance, the night before Elvis got a store to open up after closing.

Jenna and Elvis felt that in the sense for a BBQ place they would rate it 4 out of 5 stars, but in an overall sense about 3 ½ stars out of 5. It was fairly decent priced for the amount of food you got, which in Jenna’s opinion was A LOT!!! The food that Elvis and Jenna ordered was the BBQ Broham, El Toro, Baby Back Ribs, and their Famous Hand Breaded Onion Rings. The BBQ Broham, which is a pulled pork sandwich that is seasoned, char-grilled, and topped with BBQ sauce, was dry and didn’t have a lot of BBQ sauce to make it a true pulled pork sandwich. The El Toro, which is a Char-grilled deli sliced tri-tip topped with BBQ sauce, was delightfully smokey, thinly sliced and very well portioned. The meat alone was very well cooked and can stand alone without the BBQ sauce. Although one of the draw backs is that it was DRENCHED in their BBQ sauce. The sauce is very good, but too much of it can be overwhelming.  The baby back ribs were done well, typical fall off the bone taste, and the portions were perfect, but the BBQ sauce was the same and having way too much. Jenna herself said she HATES getting messy when she eats and if the baby back ribs had less BBQ sauce she would have been perfectly fine, eating them with her hands. Lastly, their Famous Hand Breaded Onion Rings are the perfect appetizer item, especially to share with friends.

Overall Phil’s BBQ has some really good food, but can tone down the BBQ sauce and add some to certain items, only a few minor tweaks. It is a great place to go with a big group of friends where you can share a basket of onion rings and have a great time watching a ball game.

After each meal Jenna and Elvis always have to indulge at their FAVORITE bakery shop, Little Cakes in Vista, where Elvis is known by first name and has a table waiting for him all the time. They also let us sample their experimental little cakes. Little Cakes gave Jenna and Elvis a Vegan Chocolate cupcake with a ganache topping and strawberries. Jenna loved everything about it, while Elvis thought the topping was a little too much for him. Elvis says, “Little Cakes, you’re my only friend!”