Lucille’s Smokehouse Bar-B-Que

After having enjoyed the Lucille’s in Torrance for years — although I haven’t been back there in a while, as nothing on the menu comes cheap! — I unfortunately have to say I was very disappointed with our visit to the Culver City (Fox Hills, Westfield Mall) location. It was on Father’s Day and we had a reservation, so we were seated right away. Also, the staff was friendly. My compliments stop there. The food was more expensive than ever (my bowl of mediocre gumbo was $ 17 and I don’t think any of the non-​alcoholic drinks are under $ 5 but I could be wrong) and the service was pretty poor. There are several things that p***ed me off about the service, but this was the main one:
There were six people in our party. One waitress took our order, and a short time later a server comes out with two of our orders. So far so good. About one minute later a third person comes out with two more dishes. Now four of us have our food. No problem, I’m sure those last two dishes will be out in another minute, right? Nopes. It took close to ten minutes for the last two dishes to reach us. So in an effort to be polite, the first four of us were waiting much too long for the last two of us to receive their food — and the last two were not complicated dishes: a sandwich and a burger. Meanwhile, not one of those three waitresses/​servers came by to tell us about the delay. I listened to my too-​nice co-​diners and refrained from going to look for a manager. When the last two dishes finally came, the waitress who brought them said something to the effect of, «Sorry for the delay, they accidentally cooked the burger well-​done but you ordered medium-​rare so I had them make a new one.» Now, if this was true, why didn’t she tell us sooner? And why was the other sandwich delayed just as long? Bottom line, I don’t think the explanation was true, and professional dishonesty is inexcusable. By the time we all had our food and began eating, my gumbo was barely warm, not steaming hot as gumbo should be.
I am not needy for attention in a restaurant. Sometimes a wait staff will come by so often they almost seem like mosquitoes buzzing on a Georgia evening in August. But this was one of those occasions in which the wait staff did not come around nearly enough. Add to that the mediocrity of the food (only one person in our party liked his meal a lot), plus the fairly high prices (for six I think it was $ 155 for food and tax, before tip, and we had no alcohol, appetizers, or desserts, and no ribs which are just plain expensive everywhere), and I know I won’t be going back to this location. Maybe I’ll try the Torrance location again someday, maybe I won’t. I just wish the restaurant with some of the best ‘cue in the state — Bludsoe’s — would open a location further west than their current Compton joint.

Thank God I made dinner reservations on the last day of school where everyone was thinking of the same thing. Graduation dinner at Lucille’s. My son, whom I’ve taken here every time I wrote this review was graduating high school and this was the place he wanted to go. Being a Friday and 7:30, it was packed everywhere near the food restaurants surrounding Lucille’s. We got seated right away, while my hubby was finding a parking spot. Service is amazing!!! Ashely ROCKED and she was on it, every time. I am sooooo amazed how well the servers are friendly and everyone is working together as they drop off the food, pick up the heavy plates and refill your drinks. I prefer this place to any other BBQ joint so far, and that’s not only because the food is delicious, especially the bread with that addicting butter, but service can’t be any better than it has every time I come here.

The BBQ is good. My only real complaint is they seem to be constantly under staffed (during the week any way). The last time I went there was a 20 minute wait even though there were plenty of open tables, so I assume it was a staffing issue. This was a little annoying since I already say in traffic an hour in order to get there.

Love the food here… and Always Enjoy the Bar menu. Late happy hour is great and the Bartender Stuart is wonderful, makes great Drinks and service is fast…
We will Definitely be coming back…

Gabriel was Amazing ! He was friendly, informative and a pleasure to have as a server! I love this place because I always have a good experience and the food is always great CHEERS till next time !

The place was mega busy so a couple of our dishes took some time to get to us.
Our waitress Alexis was incredible — dealing with all our complex requests and she even had the two late dishes comped without us even asking!
She was extremely kind and attentive. She made our dining experience. And made our buddy (who’s birthday we were celebrating) feel special.
5-​stars!

I’m a fan because I got a spot for 2 at the bar on a Sunday afternoon when the wait was 30mins+. The bartender was funny and boisterous and the patrons seemed super loud for some reason. It seemed like a lot of people at the bar were yelling about something like maybe a sports game. The food was huge for the price. The gumbo is 16 dollars and comes in an enormous bowl. The meat dishes too are enormous. Dont come here if youre looking for portion control. Do come here if you want as much food as you can get for the value of your money. Just like down south
Oh and the biscuits are amazing

Was not happy with service of being seated. We waited for 30 minutes to sit on three tables that were empty since waiting. Why couldn’t be seated right away for empty tables. I love this place but not happy with hostess who made us wait too long. The server was great in serving drinks and food. then waited another 30 minutes to only serve my friend first. .still waiting for my food… :(still waiting ten minutes. .need to work on seating people and serving food at same time.

Food is alright, but the service and management suck! They are so unprofessional and we caught them in a lie.
We waited for 45 min to be seated while there were open tables available the whole time (outside patio). We asked the manager why was that so, apparently the table was reserved for people’s purses.
Meanwhile we starved and the kids became restless. The manager was rude, so we left and BJ’s took us right in!
Sometimes, it’s ok for management to go the extra mile and accommodate everyone, instead of letting children starve so a party that was there for 3 hours, could put their purses on the table! Smh
So embarrassed that I even suggested this place. I have eaten here several times, but this one experience ended that!
I would give NO STARS, based on how we were treated yesterday!
Management needs to get it together, be more professional and learn to accommodate everyone! Missed out on $ 200.
This occurred ⁴⁄₂ at 5:30pm.

First time at this location and loved both the food and the service. Server was great.
I ordered a half order of onion straws (comes with BBQ ranch sauce) and a full rack of baby rack ribs, which comes with two sides (I picked garlic mashed potatoes and corn on the cob). You can also add soup for an extra charge — I got the corn chowder which was great. Everything tasted great, even the biscuits which comes with apple butter.
They have bottles of BBQ sauce on your table (original, Memphis, and spicy). You can also get little sauce packs to go on your way out.
There was no wait on a Saturday afternoon for two. Food was prepared quick and was very filling. BBQ craving = satisfied!
There is happy hour on weekdays and late happy hour daily too. Happy hour menu looks good. Will probably check that out next time.

I love beef ribs. They are notoriously difficult to find in many restaurants. Lucile’s has been our go to place for great beef ribs. Not any longer.
Working backwards here, our bill came to over $ 100.00 for four people. That’s with Two of us sharing an entrée, and only ordering meals and soft drinks.
Soft drinks are $ 5.00 each. Yes, you read that correctly.
The waitress was very nice, but her service was incredibly slow. I can’t imagine what it would have been like if the place had been busy. We saw her three times during the course of our stay. Once to take our order, once when the food arrived, and finally when she brought us our bill. Had she taken the time to check on us, or even looked at our food, she would have seen the ribs were burnt, the corn on the cob was cold (butter wasn’t even offered with it) the coleslaw was shredded cabbage… dry, and the Mac and cheese was hard and cold.
The overall experience was incredibly disappointing, and I can’t fathom how this location stays open for business.

I came here on a Friday night with my husband. We sat at the bar and had HH + dinner entrees. The service we received was very good. I think they guys’ name was Jeffrey + 1 female and another male. Whenever we asked for something, they were right on it and the bartop was filled with other people. We received good drinks and great food. I would definitely come back again and sit at the bartop.

I placed a very large pick-​up order for a work lunch party. Even though the restaurant opens at 11am, they had my order ready (as promised) by 11:15am. The service is awesome. When I told them it was for a work party, they helped me cut the ribs into individual bones and cut the hot links into smaller pieces. The food tasted great; everyone in the office was very happy. Someone even helped me carry the food to my car.
There are parking spots right outside the restaurant for pick-​up orders so park there if you can find a spot. For take-​out they also provide serving utensils, nicely packaged utensils + wet napkin combo, and plates.
Only downfall is that I wish they also provided barbeque sauce. You have to buy it separately for $ 5 per jar.
Don’t forget to get 20% off gift cards at Costco first!

SERVICE: ³⁄₅
Friendly staff, but our waitress didn’t really come around asking us when we needed a refill or anything until the very end of our meal.
FOOD: 3.5÷5
The biscuit and apple butter are delicious complimentary starters for your meal. Hot link sausage was alright, but I wouldn’t recommend getting it here. The pulled pork and tri tip are above average. The baby back ribs are also decent/​above average, but Lucilles is definitely not the best place to get these at. I would get the pulled pork over the baby back ribs here.
Also, parking here kind of sucks especially if you go in the evening (both weekday and weekends) since it’s connected to a mall. Parking can be hard to find, but there is a parking lot there, although it may be a short walk to Lucilles.

Happy hour review:
Food: 3 stars, Service: 2 stars
Happy hour is pretty cheap and the food is decent. Highlights include the fried green tomatoes and the sausage. I didn’t really enjoy the service from the guy tending the bar, since we asked several times for water and he basically ignored our order. Their beer selection was limited with half of the beers out of stock at 4pm. Get yourself together Lucille’s.

We came here yesterday to have appetizers, drinks and maybe a dessert for my birthday. I was going to eat later on, so I didn’t want to be super full, but we figured that getting a bunch of appetizers would be satisfying, especially since we didn’t have lunch.
When we arrived, it was a Tuesday at 4pm. They had just took some people in to seat them and there was one lady ahead of us with a party of 4. Thats it! No one else was there. They took them in after maybe 3 – 5 minutes. They told us a 15 – 20 minute wait. We had no problem with that. We sat to the side and just people-​watched.
But then we waited, and waited as more people arrived and a few of them the hostess took in right away. One of my party (It was just 3 of us, geez!!) stepped up to make sure our name was actually on the list, because we were growing concerned that our name wasn’t entered. She said, «Oh, we are cleaning off a bunch of tables. Just 5 more minutes.» Again, more people were coming in and being seated and we still sat there. The hostess started texting on her phone, in an ever so sneaky way… phone flat on the desk under the screen, doing her thing. Maybe if she could have gotten off that thing, she would have realized that we had been waiting for half an hour… maybe longer when we decided to just leave. She never looked up or acknowledged us as we walked out.
Thanks for the birthday memories, Lucille’s! You totally ruined my afternoon with my friends! We just ended up doing a little shopping and going our separate ways.

This is a good place for midweek lunch… you know, the kind of lunch people usually like to take on Fridays after a hard week at the office.
The lunch specials are not too big and not too small — so in other words, just the right size
I ordered the bake potatoes with brisket which included a side of salad with my choice of salad dressing (vinaigrette).
Service was quick and friendly. Refills to our drinks were freely given. Fresh baked biscuits with honey cinnamon butter were brought to the table shortly after we sat.

My first visit to Lucile’s reminded me of all the reasons why I try to avoid chain restaurants. The service wasn’t terrible, but it was far from great. The food wasn’t bad, but I did not leaving satisfied. The ambiance was also just blah.
I would’ve given this place three stars, had it not been for the error on our check. Our bill was $ 10 lower than the amount that was charged to our credit card. I don’t understand how this mistake could happen, since the amount on the bill was correct. If we hadn’t noticed this, we would’ve paid more than what we owed. Not cool at all.

2 ½ stars.
I should know better than to go to a chain restaurant for BBQ. As soon as I got seated, I got an overwhelmingly immense smell of a wet rag. The smelled grossed me out and it curbed my appetite a bit.
On a brighter note, the food was very flavorful! Of course the biscuits are the business especially with the honey apple butter spread (OMG to dieeeeee fooorrrr). My friend told me 1 biscuit is about 500 calories which I can believe but I don’t care, it’s just too delicious! I ordered the Chicken Lunch Combo for $ 14.99 and the chicken and tri tip were yummy. I ended up going with the Mac & Cheese side and it was just alright, they need to throw some salt on that thing for sure. The BBQ sauces tasted great on the meat, I recommend the spicy BBQ sauce.
Our service was just okay. Our server messed up on my friend’s order and the really weird and unsanitary thing she did was bring an empty plate and scooted the meat off instead of bringing a completely new dish. My friend works at another restaurant and she said the servers are always supposed to take the whole dish to the back and not do what our server did.
All in all, I wouldn’t come back. Although the food was flavorful, it was a small portion. I’d rather support other small businesses that have more authentic tasting BBQ.

For being a franchise, this BBQ is definitely in my top picks! I used to go to the one located in Long Beach during college but this one is located conveniently at the mall. I was more than happy to suggest it for a team dinner.
I ordered the BBQ chicken with mac & cheese and fries. The chicken was cooked perfectly. Cooking chicken breast can be such a hit or miss so luckily mine was a definite hit. It was tender, juicy and flavorful! I love how they give you the sauces on the table and their OG BBQ sauce just hits the spot with the right amount of tang. My fries were cooked the way I like em and the mac was just amazing! Nothing like some delicious mac & cheese to end a long day. The biscuits before the meal, of course, were just heavenly! Fresh out of the oven with their house made butter. I had to stop myself from eating too much and ruining my dinner.
Service was on point! Stacy, our server, was attentive and didn’t even blink an eye when we made last minute changes and waited for the rest of our party. She was very accommodating and patient. She even recommended I get the fresh watermelon margarita and I’m glad I did. It was refreshing and the perfect summertime drink!
The only thing about this place is that it’s PRICEY AF!!! Get ready to spend a pretty penny. You definitely get what you pay for as the food, drinks, and service were top notch.