Everett and Jones BBQ

CLOSED.
Was terrible, is no more.

I’d like to share 3 things:
(1) Alameda used to have 2 places to get E&J’s delicious ribs. There was one place near the ferry and one on Park Street. They closed both and opened up this location on Webster. Its bigger and tries to emulate the Jack London Square location (less than 10 minutes away). I wish they didn’t open up this location and just kept the 2 Alameda spots.
(2) My brother and I went to grab some ribs & potato salad. We dined in. First of all, it was EMPTY! Literally NO CUSTOMERS dining in. Still we sat in there. There were 2 employees who we recognized from the previous Alameda E&J locations. We order our meal and also order 2 sodas: Coke & Rootbeer. 2 plastic cups come out with ice, accompanied by 2 cans of Safeway Select «Cola» and «Rootbeer». HMMM. Not favorable, esp. because the cola has a metal tinge to it.
I ask my brother if I can have some of his rootbeer. I pick up the glass, swivel the straw. Something is in his cup. I scoop it out. IT WAS A SMALL PLASTIC BAG WITH HERBAL GREEN REMNANTS IN IT!!! Yes, green goodness in the cup of rootbeer!!! Hmmmmmmmm. I mean really?!? I could not stop laughing! I of course thought it was hilarious, while my brother was nothing more than displeased.
(3) If you really need a rib fix and you don’t have time to make it yourself, go to the Jack London location. Plus JL location serves beer. Hello Sauce Sister beer!
Food takes:
*Order «hot» — you’ll get a good zesty kick that will put a tingle to your lips for a good 4 – 5 seconds after you bite in.
*Not a fan of the beans.
*Sides that I would order if I’m there: potato salad. Mac and cheese is decent too.

After walking by this place many a morning, I finally stopped by to get some takeout…
The pork ribs were great… the meat slid cleanly off the bone and were drenched in a spicy, zesty sauce.
The spiced pork was also delicious — the meat was strongly flavored but tender.
The mac n cheese was deeelicious – loved the baked cheese taste of it. The candied yams were also great.
All in all… I’ll be back.

Sundry meats are cooked in-​house over hickory wood: pulled pork (hand-​pulled daily), baby back ribs, barbecued chicken, smoked beef brisket and various combination platters.
I ordered the Wood smoked pork ribs ($ 10) which was ok, sauce was a bit sweet for my taste however meat was nice and tender, side of mac n’ cheese and cornbread were decent.
Ambiance — meh
Portions — decent
Staff — nice and friendly however a bit slow
Price — slightly overpriced
Overall — A-​OK

I love the food at the Oakland location but not so much this one.
I went here because I was attending an art show at the very fun Pacific Pinball Museum next door which I will also be reviewing.
Like others the BBQ grill lamps hanging from the ceiling add a certain charm. I love their sauce. Safeway carries only the mild and medium so I was able to get a jar of the hot sauce on this visit. When I get BBQ I usually go for the meat 3 ways — chicken, pork ribs and brisket. The ribs and chicken were acceptable but the brisket was not as tender as I am accustomed to. The sides were mostly unremarkable. The mac n cheese was below par for my taste.
The restaurant was empty at 7pm on a Friday night. The service was uneven. Meats came out quickly while sides and drinks languished.
The sound of a cleaver hacking away at meat doesn’t provide the best ambiance. Maybe dining in wasn’t the best idea as I saw most people doing «to go» orders.

Good, but not great.
Likes:
1. BBQ-​grill lamps hanging from ceiling — funny
2. Medium sauce — sweet, then hot (yum!)
3. Meat — nice smoke on ribs, pretty good brisket
4. Sides — beans, greens, potato salad and cornbread — in that order
5. Portions — decent, but not huge — yes, that’s a plus
Dislikes:
1. Empty on a Sunday afternoon — really? Uh oh. That’s not good.
2. Sides — Mac ‘N Cheese — not so much — dry and meh, cornbread
3. Meat — was expecting falling off the bone, succulent — this was more on the really chewy, crunchy, well-​done piece — don’t mind that, but more tender would have been nice
4. Service was fine — quick, even… the hacking noise from the kitchen was a little jarring, but other than that…

I found this particular E&J while on a quest for BBQ.
I attempted to first go to Hayward… they we’re selling some bullshyt, talkin bout they only had 3slabs left, and it would’ve been another hour before I could get a slab. Now what frickin sense did that make. I’m trying to buy a slab and because you only had 3left at the time I have to wait!!! How bout who ever comes in after me will have to wait til it’s ready?! Anyway I’m glad I called to see what they had, cause I would’ve been pissed to find they didnt’ have nothing.
TRUST it’s happened before…
So Scratch Hayward off the list. I was then gonna go to my friends spot BJ’s… he was closed on Sunday’s. I didn’t know this, so he gets a pass this time.
So over to fruitvale we go… as you know they shut down the original one and opened up something bigger across the street… well they’re not serving BBQ just yet.Boooooo.
so I’m getting pissed traveling all over Oakland for some damn BBQ, when it’s not that serious. So we decided to try Alameda, and if that was a wrap Round Table was next on the list.
We get to Alameda (oh OF COURSE I called to make sure they had ribs and links) there was one other person there, getting to-​go. Got my ribs links all was well in the house.

Awww… I feel bad this place has such bad reviews. I actually really enjoyed it!
I was drunk, so that might have affected My decision, but I don’t think I was drunk enough to not know good bbq.
My bf and I ordered the 3 combo thing? We got beef sausage, brisket, and pulled pork. As our sides we ordered mac and cheese and candied yams and they gave us a choice of bread, we chose cornbread.
We didn’t see any beer so my bf and asked and they said it was BYOB. Luckily we had a flask of crown so we ordered 2 cokes. I was cut-​off though, I was getting to that stage of drunkness when I talk way too loud.
Our food probably took about 10 minutes to come out and it was hot and smelled delish! We got the medium bbq sauce and a side of the hot bbq sauce because my bf likes to sear his mouth when he eats. I thought the bbq sauce was really REALLY good, I could only handle medium though and even that was hot. They let us try the hot when we ordered to make sure it wasn’t too hot so if you’re in doubt, ask for a sample.
The sausage was my favorite, went really well with the sauce, and the brisket was good too. But the pulled pork was really strange. I expected a pulled pork sandwich type of thing but it was more like sliced pork loin, and it was far too fatty. I wouldn’t order it again.
Now for the sides; the mac and cheese was really good, definitely homemade and they used 3 or 4 types of cheeses. And best of all, when we ran out my boyfriend asked for some more and they didn’t charge us, very nice. The candied yams were also good, but I expect marshmallows on mine and it was sans mallows. Cornbread was not what I was expecting… bit too hard for my taste but it was good dipped in the bbq sauce.
We live within walking distance so we will definitely be back!

Yuck! This is the 2^nd time coming to this location and the last!
The customer service on my first visit is what gives it 1 star. My friend and I came here on a Wednesday night, sat ourselves and a gentleman came to our table and were told «we don’t have ribs, turkey, or chicken.»…Um, aren’t you a barbecue place??? Since my friend and i were set on barbecue we decided to stay and ordered the sliced beef and links… they tasted ‘ok’ and on the dry side smothered in sauce (not in a good way). What was missing was the 2 slices of bread… we were told «we don’t have any bread but if you can wait, i can run to the store to get you some»…OH, and THAT he did… he got money from the register, went out the door and 8 minute later he bought a loaf of bread. OH MY! In fact, he gave us 3 slices…
On our 2^nd visit, we sat ourselves and a lady from the register yells «i can take your order up here!» um ok… that’s fine… she takes our order and we get our food in about 10 mins… we GOT our pork ribs and the chicken which wasn’t available the 1^st time… the pork ribs didn’t seem to have any meat and the chicken was cremated. Ugh… not good at all!
We’ve been to the Everett Jones at Jack London Square and in Hayward which were both delicious and nothing like the one on Webster in Alameda… the 2^nd star was earned because later in the evening, the lady did ask nicely if everything was ok. I wish i had enough guts to say «yeah, sadly that’s all it was, ‘OK». Blah!

Bathroom had no paper towels, no hot water for handwashing. And a sign that said employees must wash hands. What, in there? ew!
Our cans of soda were served with glasses and ice, when I poured my warm soda in and took my first sip, it tasted like soap. My friend remarked that hers tasted the same.
I had the pork ribs small plate, which was just under 10 bucks, it only came with one side and cornbread. It was enough food but not enough variety.
I think the best way to eat here would be to buy some ribs to go and take them home to your own sides. I won’t be eating here again. I hear the Jack London location is good, maybe would try them again.

After eating at Memphis Minnies and Blues, this place doesn’t even hold a birthday candle next to them. I ordered the World’s driest BBQ pulled pork sandwich. If there is anyone of you out there that has ever tried to make BBQ pulled sammies on the grill, it is damn hard to make. You have to be really attentive and make sure that heat is low and indirect! It says in that one book. ummm what’s it called? BBQing for Dummies. I am sure with some good QA to the pits, this place could have really good potential. In the heart of the best walkable neighborhoods (top 2K!).
Service: um can’t say when we were hardly waited on. also, if they had in stock all the drinks, I’ll tell you about that too. Think my choices were, water or lemonade. AND! not in mason jars.
You find me here, unless they get new pit folks.

Unfortunately, not many good things to say about this place.
Ambiance: Awkwardly quiet (not even elevator music???)
Service: Verrry slow (but the server was NICE!) — food takes a minimum 15 mins… MINIMUM
Cost: Grossly overpriced for the small-​ass portions
The food was not bad… we had pulled pork and beef brisket. The flavor was good, but I found the meat somewhat dry. Blegh.
They’d only recently moved to this location from their last one on the corner of Ralph Apezatto and Main (a few miles away).
Apparently, there were no major management changes… still the same under-​staffed, cruddy service.

Do not go here! Not worth it! If you’re going to pay $ 10-​$ 20 for a meal, you definitely want to feel like you’re getting your moneys worth. However this is not the case here.
First off, I walked in to order to go. There was only 1 table with people already eating and the lone waitress working took her sweet ass time to take my order. I waited at the counter for about 20 minutes before she came and took my order. Not sure if it was because she was really slow or maybe it was because I wasn’t black. Not sure why, but I get this strange feeling of racial tension when I walk in there… the kind of situation in movies where you hear the record stop and everyone turns around to stare at you.
So after waiting what seemed like forever… I finally get my order of beef brisket happy to get out of there and to head home for a feast. I get home and open up the box and find a generous portion of meat with bbq sauce drizzled all over it. Upon first bite, alarms go off in my head knowing that something is off. This is NOT beef brisket. I’m not sure what I was given, but the meat was freakin tough and rough as leather. Beef brisket it supposed to be tender, juicy, and falling apart.
All I can say is I will NEVER go back here and you should not go here either unless you want to waste $ 20. Save your money and go to the E&J at Jack London Square instead.

NO STARS!!! they wont let me post unless i put a star, this place definitely FAIL!!!
Not sure if they had just opened but that should not be a factor when serving or even placing an order. to get seated 10 min, keep in mind there were only 5 folks in the resturant already seated and waiting for food, after getting seated it took 25 min to place an order for water, or soda, another 10 minutes to place an order for food, a whole nother hour before we got our food and on top of that when they came back to give us our sides which was another 10 min, mac & cheese and cornbread they stated they were out and wanted to know if we wanted something else we asked what else they had took another 5 min we sed forget it, we will eat what we have.
never been to a bbq spot that has been so unorganized. not very friendly and I havent even started on the food yet.
i went with a group of 3 folks I ordered combo ribs and hot links, another ordered chicken and ribs, last person only ordered ribs, side we ordered, mac n cheese, coloard greens, red beans and rice, and cornbread. only thing that made the meal any kind of decent was the sauce. for the price paid portion was close to nothing it looked like a kiddie meal for munchkins very small munchkins like maybe 2ft tall, ribs plain not tender, chicken bland and dry, hot links 6 slices off one hot link. I could of went to safeway and got a pack of hotlinks for what they charged. only thing good at this place is the sauce, if they can bottle it and sell it they should cuz this place was horrible, service wise, food wise, sad to say it was garbage.
how do you run out of mac n cheese and cornbread??? wut da hell.
this review is for this particular location dont know about the others but just because i tried this one dont think i will ever visit any other everett and jones bbq. horrible
customer service — seriously negative 10 stars i know the limit is 5 but come on.
food — with sauce 1 star bearable, without sauce negative 10 stars
ambiance — due to the food and customer service run literally run!

updated review on 7÷16÷2009:
I was surprised from the reviews this place has gotten since the last time I went. I came back here last Saturday and Thursday to settle my BBQ appetite. I can see where the bad reviews came in as far as side dishes, dry meat and customer service goes. The coleslaw, cornbread and mac&cheese just went down the hill. They now serve those little corn bread muffins opposed to the sliced homemade style (booo). However, there meats are still good depending what time you go. IE: Saturday night’s brisket was very tender, juicy and flavorful whereas just this past Thursday, the brisket was dry and stale. There’s only one waitress that takes dine-​in customers and take out which makes it a long wait. I was given an eta of 5−6min and ended up getting my take out in 20min. I had 2 orders ahead of me at the time. I need to find another BBQ joint…

Dude, there are serious haters on this EJ.
Went with a group of friends, 9 guys. Big eaters. Birthday. Place was empty. Usually not a great sign. Service was prompt (it better have been!), and we got a good recommendation on what would feed us. The waitress said no problem, this will feed a bunch of hungry guys, you’ll be alright.
We took her at her word and waited it out. The sides were creamy (as they should be), and then the meat started coming out. The ribs were just the same old EJ ribs I was expecting, and there was a whole plate of links that had me smiling from ear to ear. The waitress was hanging around, and asked us if we had enough food. Frankly, we were running out and it wasn’t enough food. Did i want to fork over more money and order more though?
Not really. But it was a birthday, so why not. We asked for some more sides (refills on the mashed potatoes, and the macaroni and cheese, which is crazy delicious), and then some more links and beef. Dude: she brought it out and when I checked the final bill at the end, there was no charge.
On top of that, a nice guy by the name of Gary comes out from the kitchen and chats it up with us young guys, then gives us 3 free packed lunches: 1 for the birthday boy, 1 for the oldest guy in the group (me!), and 1 for the youngest guy («because he’s the one who always gets beat on»).
The bill at the end of the night, even after we paid for birthday boy, came out to $ 12/​person. Given the next opportunity, I’m SO THERE.

I promise to tell the truth and nothing but the truth.
First time at Everett and Jones and I’m not sure if I’ll go to any of their other locations because the this one was just real bad. The reviews are totally inconsistent and I’m not sure if people are just blinded by the E&J franchise name.
Service is one thing but seriously, a severely disinterested waitstaff is an understatement.
The Wait — I know EJ’s is probably working out their kinks but the atmosphere of hungry people who have been waiting wayyy to long is morgue-​like. I’m not sure what time they opened but we arrived at about 7:30 on a Friday night and noticed no one was eating in this semi-​packed house. It took about an hour for us to finally get our food. We even contemplated leaving! In addition, the food came out in phases. Our table along with others received their sides before the Q and vice versa.
I know good things come to those who wait, but…
The food — The hot bbq sauce was delicious, but the sauce can’t hide tough, chewy, lukewarm, lacking in quantity pork ribs. I even ordered the large @ $ 13. You should of seen the look of my friend Clarence’s face as he received his 2 way combo ($ 18). It consisted of about 3 pork ribs and half a link’s worth of sausage. Disgust, mourning, sadness, — are words that quickly come to mind.
The sides, well first of all they ran out of mac and cheese, wtf? We had to reorder our sides after receiving our orders. The greens were meh and cold. Walgreen’s has a better potato salad.
Plus, someone please tell me how are you going to run out of cornbread?!? I can understand if this place was packed but they were at about 60−70% capacity.
No thanks!
Run!

BARELY makes one star. This place is Everett and Jones in name only, as everything here is inferior to its other locations. The sauce at E&J’s are all the same, so here’s what it comes down to:
–Pricier than other locations
–Smaller portions (and I even ordered a large!)
–Slower service
–Apathetic service
–Drier meats
–Smaller sides
–HORRIBLE cornbread*
+Cool lights! (they converted webber grills! nifty).
A combination of small portions, high prices, and unapologetically slow service gives this place a severely low rating, its only redeeming quality is that it uses the E&J sauce, which makes everything delicious. Too bad they gave a smaller amount of sauce than wine at a Catholic Mass.
*– Okay, here’s where I draw the line. This is hands down, the WORST CORNBREAD I’VE EVER TASTED. First and foremost, it’s smaller than a White Castle Slider, smaller than a Burger King Burger shot. It’s SMALL. To make things worse, it was COLD. It felt like they pulled it out of the refrigerator, and it only warmed up ever so slightly by being near the meat. It tasted like eating 3 day old cupcakes. And geez, it was dry. I felt like i had just chewed on a cotton ball dipped in gravel.
I would NEVER go back to this place again. If I ever want barbecue for lunch, I’ll just go to the Great American BBQ and buy a bottle of E&J sauce. But not from this place, I refuse to patronize this place ever again. I’ve rated it as moderate, because it really will run you about $ 11 to $ 30 a person, but the value for the money is really, really, really bad. You’d be better off going to a supermarket, buying their refrigerated ribs, and throwing a $ 10 bill in the garbage disposal than this place.

Finally a real E&J in Alameda. This place looks real nice, it seems like they actually took some time out to decorate this place. I really like the tables and BBQ stuff they put on the wall. Makes you feel like your at a indoor picnic place. I like how they use real Weber grills as lamps, very original. Unlike the other e&j locations they tried to pass as a real BBQ spot in Alameda this one looks like its here to stay.
Now for the BBQ, the sauce is still top notch. I don’t think i will ever find a sauce this good. From the mild to the medium and even the hot taste great. I tasted almost everything here. Lets start with the ribs, they were great. Very moist and very smokey and the sauce just adds to it. The links are the best i have had, because they are homemade and very tasty. The brisket is also pretty good, but only sometimes. Sometimes its a little dry but usually its pretty moist. Nice and smokey tasting. As for the chicken it can sometimes be dry but if you get lucky and have it very fresh out the Pitt it will be very juicy. I ask for the dark meat so its much more juicy then the breast and wing.
I got the potato salad and corn bread and those were both great. The potato salad was very tasty but a tad bit over cooked, almost tasted like mashed potato. The corn bread was excellent, very moist and crispy on the outside.
Overall the new E&J in Alameda is great, very spacious and clean. I hope this place is here to stay. Everything taste delicious with their BBQ sauce, they have the best BBQ sauce in the WORLD!
4 Stars for Everett and Jones BBQ in Alameda

Finally… new to Unilocal.First review and I hate to start off with a 1-​star rating but… So my co-​workers and I was nicely surprised to hear that there was a new Everett and Jones near work. Tried it, hate it… Problems: 1. not enough food in one order (ordered a 3-​way combo to share between two people, and completely disappointed); 2. no bang for the buck ($ 13+ for a decent size basket of BBQ???); 3. sides are awful (cornbread is drier than sand, «bread» is packaged slice bread… how dare you! 4. slow service/​cooks.
The only plus was the fact that there was a Nation’s two blocks away and I had to grab a whole meal there just to feel satisfied.