Alex Bar-B-Q

Everything was just ok. Pulled pork with steak fries was good. Fairly pricey. I won’t go out of my way to visit this establishment.

Amazing ribs! Love, love, love! It’s a local place, and it is pricey but you get what you pay for!

Alex bbq is your standard bbq joint. The customer service was good and the food was just A-​OK. Nothing really to be excited about. I ordered the half rack pork rib dinner and it came with two sides, a salad and garlic bread. The mac and cheese was good and the salad was cold and crisp. The ribs itself was ok. Not really fall off the bone but was decent. Would I come again, yeah probably but I would check out what other options were available first.

Heard Alex’s is going out of business. What took so long? I bet my father $ 20 they wouldn’t be here a year from my last visit, and damn it I should have held him to that bet. My other most loved Pizza joint (can you sense the sarcasm) Giant Manhattan Pizza caught on fire… jeez. I think I am bad luck. Every time I leave a 1 star review a restaurant either goes up in flames or goes out of business.

The sauce is unlike nothing else. Perfect!

Great service and fantastic steak! The salad has the most delicious roasted beats. There Mac n cheese was to die for! Highly recommend!

Here is where you went right tonight. .The food.
Here is where you went wrong.
No greeting
Waited 15 minutes before getting drinks
No acknowledgement at all during our dinner
Did not ask how our food was
Did not refill our water
Did not ask if we wanted another cocktail
No thank you for coming in
No have a great night
Lots of things to work on Brian…
We have been here numerous times since 2008. Every time we come up north we always have to stop at Alex for ribs. Service and the food has always been top. The first time we came was for New Years and the kitchen fans stopped working so they could not cook anymore food. We told them it was ok and had some drinks, about 15 minutes later they brought us a huge plate of ribs (on the house) we have always made sure to stop in every since. so were really surprised by the service or lack of. This is one of the only times that I have not left a tip (anywhere)… I could understand if you were slammed but there was only 3 tables when we walked in. By the time we left there were about 7 – 8 but 2 more servers had come on. Fortunately it won’t stop us from coming back as the food is really good. These are just things that happen and can be a big issue for others who may not give you another chance.
Hope things improve for our next visit…

Fabulous fish dinner!
Amazing NY eve Reggae Music
by RAS DANNY!!~

Came here after being ignored at another nearby restaurant. We were quickly greeted and informed there was about a 40min wait on the dining room, but that the bar had the full menu. We opted to try out the bar, we were greeted by a friendly guy and grabbed a seat.
We perused the menu. It is a lil more than the $$ we were anticipating, but they have a split the plate option for $ 8 you can get soup or salad and 2 sides for yourself. We decided to try the whole rack of pork ribs for $ 32.95. He got garlic mashed potatoes and ranch beans, I also got the garlic mash and steamed veggies. He had a bootle of bud light and I had a margarita. His beer was very cold and my margarita was good, but needed a better salt than fine table salt on the rim. Small thing. I know. Service was great!
Salads came out within a reasonable time. They weren’t just iceberg and tomato either! Lots of mixed spring greens, some cherry tomatoes, some cucumber and what looked like homemade croutons. Very good. The plates came out pretty quickly after that. There was lots of food! The ribs where slathered in BBQ sauce. I was a little dubious since I’m not a huge fan of sauce. I was very happily surprised. The ribs were very tasty and well cooked. The taters were real and the garlic was roasted, yum. The beans were ranch beans and appeared to have some meat in them, pretty darn good too. My veggies were a bit of a shock– there was cauliflower, carrots and Brussel sprouts. They were cooked well, but I’m not a fan of carrots and sprouts.
On the whole, we had a very good experience and will be back. We will happily bring out of town guests here as well. There is a pool table begging for some attention! :)

Yeah I know it’s Thanksgiving evening. I’m still a bit peckish…
And this was the finest Tri-​tp sandwich I’ve ever had. Perfectly done, tender, and juicy. A textbook job.

When we go to Pismo we make sure we pass by here. It’s easy to miss if you have never been there before. It doesn’t look like much from outside. But this place is the bomb diggity. I can’t give them 5 stars because I have had better bbq. But for the package, meaning service, taste, price, portions they rock out! I actually went here the very first time and I wasn’t hungry so I ordered what I thought was a small meal, which was the fried chicken plate. O M G that was not a small plate but it was under $ 10. Alex had us that day! We are hooked and definitely recommend this as a stop at one of the nicest places to be.

I stopped by to do a takeout for a full slab of ribs on Sunday night. When we got home it looked like we got the weekends left overs. We had different chunks of ribs heavily coated in sauce in our takeout container versus a whole slab.
The ribs tasted tired and flabby with little or no essence of smoke. Very disappointing.

Let me first say I realized early into the dinner that we, my wife and I, are not the demographics for this restaurant. We had expected more, after hearing some good words from a respected friend, but it finally boiled down to this being a fairly typical, uninspired steakhouse in these here parts.
We both had the clam chowder, mine instead of the steak fries that would have come with my burger. It looked like it had plenty of clams (bits of pink) yet it lacked any worthwhile clam flavor. It wasn’t as wallpaper-​pasty as are so many chowders around here, though, and it did have more herbs than most places, albeit odd-​tasting old dried herbs.
I ordered their signature Alex’ Hamburger. It was on Alex Bread. I wasn’t sure what that was, even after an ambiguous description, but it was spread with a «seasoned garlic butter» before toasting. I asked if it was real garlic or garlic salt (coincidentally, I had just read someone else’s review about garlic salt — instead of real garlic — in another restaurant’s garlic bread and the phony aftertaste therein). The waitress said it was made with granulated garlic and salt but also offered that it could be spread with just plain butter. I accepted the plain butter. She returned very quickly to tell me that the bread is already buttered earlier in the day. So I went for the menu option of ciabbata bread, which she said they could spread with plain butter. I asked for medium to medium-​well on the burger itself.
The burger arrived in a softish French-​roll-​like thing. I told the waitress — who was very friendly by the way — that it was not ciabbata bread. She insisted it was. I said no, it wasn’t. She said «that’s what we call ciabbata bread». The French roll was not a very good French roll; it was a common, cheap, barely-​any-​crust-​or-​flavor affair. The burger was beyond well done; there was a dark, somewhat bitter crust on one side. I wanted to return the sandwich but my wife said that at this point it wasn’t worth it. It came with a side of thousand island dressing, which I used liberally to make up for the dryness of the burger. I ate half.
My wife had the New York Strip steak, a «new» item on the menu. It was cooked perfectly — medium rare, but it was chewy, grisly and fatty. My wife, who was very hungry, could only get through a third of it. The rest came home in a real «doggy» bag; my dogs love that fatty stuff.
The waitress, again friendly upon another return, noticed that I did not like my burger. My wife was still working on her steak at this point so the waitress made no notice of that. She apologized and said «Alex’ food is usually better than this». I could only say «okay». She said she would take it off the bill and the manager would come out to talk with me.
The manager came and started out very concerned and interested in what I had to say. I told him my story and he apologized and again mentioned that they would take it off my bill. But, what bothered me most, was that he said they were out of ciabbata bread so I got the French roll. Certainly the waitress knew this, too. I mentioned to him that the waitress insisted it was ciabbata bread. He bowed his head, apologized and walked away.
This was my first dining trip to Alex. I remember my first visit there some years ago. The bar was the prominent feature and the décor was old and in need of a lot of work. The new owners — or is it second or third set of new owners? — have put in the necessary renovations. All new banquettes. We unfortunately sat in the ones that are ultra gooshey-​cushy and subsequently sank into an uncomfortable low position. The music was too loud.
The bar has been moved to the other side of the building, where an expansion of the actual restaurant used to be.
Yep, this is a steakhouse-​bar. The food might be acceptable to some, especially if you go in expecting this level. But I would really like to see this taken to the next level of taste and consistency. The menu has potential. We need a good steakhouse, one with finesse, here.

I came here with my wife after a trip to the park. The had an open booth and we were seated almost immediately.
They are a BBQ joint, but they advertise seafood on the sign. I thought being this close to the ocean they would have some variety of seafood. On the menu, they offered a sea bass. That’s it. That is the extent of their seafood offerings.
The food was good. I had the tri tip wrap and a beef rib, a la cart. The price is what really got me. $ 17 for those two items seemed a bit steep. I think I will steer clear of this place next time.

Great food! I went with a group of 9 and we all loved what we got! We made a reservation and we seated immediately. The staff was very friendly and helpful. They have an extensive cocktail menu as well. Wonderful food and a great experience.

This place used to be a local hotspot with exceptional food; yet, since the ownership has changed over so many times the quality of food and service has declined. The tri-​tip sandwich I had two weeks ago was decent, but overpriced. The staff had always been stand-​offish towards me though I had been regularly attending the Sunday night karaōke.
The nail-​in-​the-​coffin for my patronage was last night recommended to me by the resident DJ/​KJ. We had placed an order for the kitchen via telephone for pickup in the bar since the restaurant was about closed. Once we arrived, the bouncer/​bar manager was not very friendly to my party and refused entry to our disabled war veteran friend accompanied by his trained service animal, eventually physically pushing him and his dog out the door. We were not able to complete our order though it had been made thus the kitchen manager ran outside to us in a fury. When we tried to explain the situation this guy verbally threatened us and gave us the finger, storming back inside. The staff’s behavior we experienced this night was completely unacceptable and cost them a large order and four customers, on top of creating a potential legal battle.
Unfortunately I will no longer be able to support this business.

The décor that other reviewers complained about has been cleaned up. The booths have been beautifully reupholstered. The food was only okay.
I started with the red pepper tomato bisque because of the beautiful photo that someone had posted. It was a real disappointment. The two ingredients seemed to be tomatoes and bell peppers. There was no base flavor in the soup stock. It really was the taste and consistency of baby food. I mean, throw in a chicken bouillon cube or something if you don’t have time to cook up some flavor!
The mixed green dinner salad w/​bleu on the side was good. I had one beef rib a la carte and it was pretty good but as so often happens w/​ribs, there wasn’t a lot of meat and so $ 5 for one rib suddenly seemed kinda steep.
My friends enjoyed their pork ribs and steak although one of them got side veggies that were undercooked (raw) summer squash. When you’re going to make no effort at all with your side dishes, you can at least cook them thru. The chicken wrap looked good (if you like chicken wraps).
I’m w/​the other reviewer: $ 19 for a bbq’d chicken breast is too high. We didn’t get it but that better be one damn good chicken breast!
The mac ‘n cheese had a good flavor but was REALLY sticky. Like a lot of velveeta w/​some smokey flavor (bacon drippings?).
The place was okay but there are too many better bbq joints in the area.

Tricky, they have two sides to this place one is the restaurant side and the other is the bar side, my mom and I had dinner already so we decided to grab a beer or two. The bar was pretty loud and looked a little… shabby? I don’t know this area too well so I’m just comparing it to my area… hahaha I mean it was different.
We ordered two bottles of Hef :) which was $ 4 per bottle and we were drinking and talking while watching the olympics. Coming from an asian dominant area it was a little different for me to be at a place where asians were minority hahaha !!! It was fun though, there were about 4 separated groups sitting at the bar but the bar tender lady managed to talk to every one! She was friendly :)
I wouldn’t say I’d come here again. it really wasn’t my thing haha but when I am in the area DESPERATE for some alcohol… I’d walk right in here!

The service was terrific, but the food… I mean, this is supposed to be a BBQ joint, right? It should have some terrific ribs. The BBQ flavor was tasty, but the problem here is that the ribs were mostly bone and very little meat. I wanted to sink my teeth into meat, and I ended up nibbling around the bones!
I tried some of my friends’ food. The tri-​tip was forgettable, but the top sirloin was the highlight. That’s the thing to get if you go to Alex BBQ.

Old school rib joint that looks like a roadside diner… oh yeah it is off the side of Hwy 101! Great friendly service with an extensive menu of BBQ choices.
We came here ready to eat after a long day of moving my daughter into her new pad at Cal Poly. The food was good. I thought the sauce on my Saint Louis Ribs was exceptional. The soups were homemade, I had the clam chowder and was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t usual premade overly thick stuff that is usually served at many of the restaurants. The prime rib was tender and very flavorful.
The meat on both the beef and pork ribs could have been more tender. As my cousin described it — the meat just didn’t fall off the bone.
8 people -$ 200.
Easy to get to from SLO, a great place for a casual diner.
Next time? I’m gonna try the Rib eye and see how they fare as a steakhouse.