Front Porch Cafe

YEAH YEAH YEAH…
People are entitled to their opinions && so am I! This place is a local BBQ joint that serves cheap & fairly good meals. I’ve been on several occasions and sure the wait staff is a little slow since they only have one or two working at a time– it’s because who knows how the flow will be! I wouldn’t pay 5 servers when the place doesn’t even get that packed most of the time! ANYWHO.
They don’t try to be the best BBQ place around town– that’s what Wood Ranch & Lucille’s is for! It’s a relaxed place w/​filling food that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg! Me and my husband can walk out of there and be 100% satisfied for less then 30 bucks including tip.
The food isn’t all that bad either! The chili’s good, the BBQ sandwiches are good, ribs & tri tip are good, the sides are yummy… and we can order a few rounds of drinks while we’re at it. Regardless of what we decide to order we both know that our bill won’t go past 30 bucks! Don’t go expecting the best service and the best d@mn BBQ you’ve ever tasted– this isn’t that kind of place.
Highlights & Low-​lights:
*Dine in or take out
*Not fancy but a comfy place for you to enjoy your meal
*You get a large, yummy, & filling meal for a fraction of the price you’d pay elsewhere
*The chips & baked beans are my favorite sides
*Service can be good if there aren’t many people– but it does tend to lag
*There’s a bar top
*A couple TV’s are set up in case you want to know what’s on CMT, FUEL, or whatever game is playing at the time
*Country music always on (gotta love it!)
I was actually craving this place today but realized it was Friday and I’m Catholic– so, no meat for me during lent! I settled for fish tacos but boy did front porch sound good and fit the budget. I recommend it if your in the neighborhood & want some affordable BBQ.

This restaurant is owned by the Bonadonnas, a family that owns many restaurants in the area. All of their restaurants are run the same.
The food is not made with very much care or consistency. For example, if canned corn is on sale that week at Restaurant Depot, there will be corn in the salad. If not, whatever on sale canned item there is will be in the salad. Most of their items taste like they are out of a can.
The first time I ate here, the mac & cheese was superb with real, sharp cheddar cheese. The next several times, it tasted like Velveeta. They say you can request it with cheddar, but that just means it is already made with processed cheese & they melt cheddar on the top.
The burgers are good & all their sandwiches are served on delicious ciabatta rolls. Their muffins are good too and so is their slaw. Everything else tastes like it is out of a can and the peanuts are stale about 50% of the time.
There is a young child (owner’s daughter?) who roams the restaurant, unsupervised. She is cute but I am not there to entertain her. Her parents should keep her at home or give her something to do away from the customers.

HUGE @$$ portions are at this nice Café our server was Yasmin and she was just as nice and cheerful as could be :)
I had the Buttermilk Pancakes and Thomas Jefferson ordered a Chorizo & Avocado Croissant but Yasmin came back and apologized they had run out of Croissants so apparently they had been a LOT busier earlier so TJ had to settle for it as a Burrito which was still pretty good. I also ordered a side order of Bacon HOLY MOLELY! they gave me like 6 – 8 slices WOW! this is GREAT! seeing as I am used to spending like $ 4.00 bucks for 2 slices of bacon so + for them on that note and my pancakes (short stack) were HUGE I could only eat 1 but they were adequate and they served Champagne TOO! we scooted out of there with a bill under $ 20.00 for breakfast! TJ said we will be back.
You can’t beat that with a STICK! =}
Respectfully Reviewed

We stopped in on Sunday afternoon to grab a menu. The place was dead (more to do with the time of day, I assume). No real BBQ smell at all — just smelled like a resturant. A BBQ joint should smell like BBQ!!!
A few nights later we decided to give it a try. My husband and I ordered a slab of ribs to share and a wedge salad. The meal came with 2 sides and corn muffins AND they deliver (which is a huge +)! The meal was less than $ 30 (this includes tax AND tip). The portions were huge so sharing an entrée was perfect and we even had leftovers for my husband’s lunch.
With that being said, let me move on to why I was less than impressed with the QUALITY of the food…
The Ribs: Bland, Bland, Bland… and barely tender. I like my baby backs to fall of the bone. Not the case here. There very little sauce. I ended putting a little seasoning from home on them to make them somewhat tolerable!
The Coleslaw: Really, really good!
The Hush Puppies with country gravy: I woulndn’t say these are healthy at all, but they sure were tasty. I MIGHT go back there just for these.
The Wedge salad: Also very good and HUGE!!!
The corn muffins: Not quite sure because they were delivered FROZEN ROCK SOLID!!! No joke! They went in the trash.
So…overall, the sides were good, but a BBQ joint should have great BBQ and I honestly wasn’t impressed with the meat. I agree with a previous review — invest in a smoker and maybe then I will return and spend $$. Until then I think I may go back for the hush puppies and salad.
Spend a few extra $$ and go to Lucille’s if you want flavor in your food!

The Good:
I’m no expert, but the BBQ tastes wonderful to me. I had brisket. Friends had ribs and pulled pork. Everyone loved their meat.
$ 8 for a tasty brisket sandwich with two sides and a little wedge of watermelon? Wow. Exceptional value.
Lots of TV screens and plenty of space.
The So-​So:
The service today (Sunday afternoon) was not great. There were five occupied tables and one server. She was friendly, but got a couple of things wrong. It was about half an hour before our food came out. On a previous visit (Friday night), the food came out much faster.
The Bad:
Many of the side dishes aren’t very good. Mac and cheese tastes like fake nacho cheese. Corn bread has an unappetizing, dense texture. Sweet potato fries were cold and not very crisp. Potato salad (but this is probably just my personal preference speaking) had too much mayonnaise.
Suggestions for the restaurant:
Be more attentive to the performance of your servers. Perhaps offer some kind of «Employee of the Month» incentive.
Offer fewer side dishes in order to focus on improving their quality.

This is not BBQ. Driving by the restaurant you can’t see or smell any smoke. How can you have BBQ without fire?
Pulled pork, ribs and brisket all tasted of too much salt and molasses and not enough love. Everything tasted the same. Ribs seems like it was boiled then put in the oven. When you bite into the hush puppies you can feel the grease being squeezed out of them. Cornbread was super dry.

I took my family to Front Porch several months ago, and we were excited because it’s about a mile and a half from our house. It wasn’t good. My wife vowed never to eat there again.
Tonight, it was just my 4 year old son and I, and I love BBQ, so I thought I’d give it another chance.
First of all, there is no kids menu, but they have chicken tenders, so I ordered that and fries for my son. I decided to go with the 2 meat plate, consisting of ribs and tri tip. For sides, I got hush puppies and fries, along with a corn muffin.
The service was OK, but given that the place was near deserted, it could have been better. Our waitress seemed more interested in the Dodger game than in serving us, but like I said, service was okay.
The food comes. My son’s chicken strips and fries were to his satisfaction. My food was not to mine. None of it. I read in an earlier review that the ribs tasted like they had soaked in brine for several days. I concur. That, along with the fact that they were way overdone resulted in my eating just one rib in the rack.
Something about the tri tip was very unappetizing. It seemed almost. .. soggy. I’m not sure if it was old or just a bad cut of meat, but I ate very little of it.
The sides were equally bad. The hush puppies are served like little muffins. Like last time, the tops were OK, but the bottom was like a grease soaked sponge. The corn muffin was dry. My fries were OK but greasy.
Once again borrowing from an earlier reviewer, this place needs Gordon Ramsey. It is truly a kitchen nightmare. I can’t imagine they’re going to be in business much longer, and it’s too bad. There aren’t too many restaurants in the neighborhood, and with any kind of quality control, this place would be packed every night.

Sorry to the chef for the one star, the food was terrific!!! I had a sandwich, one of their specialties, it was trully delish. But the service was absolutely horrific!!! The waitress and waiter were feeling each other up, kissing (french) in front of patrons and my 8 year old son, service lacked pesonality and professionalism. And her daughter was running around the restaurant and hanging out with other customers, sitting down with them etc. When I expressed my concerns at the register to the «loving» party, I was at first offered free meal, which I refused, because I was not complaining to get something for free, they completely missed my point! Then the waitress got all upset and defensive which only shown her insecurities and therefore any chance unfortunately of change. I have not been back in about a year maybe longer, maybe I should drive by to see if they have new staff. Seriously why do people open restaurants and not train their staff to be polite and to actually wait on customers!!! If they come back you’ll make more money! Kevin, you are absolutely correct, the peanuts are disscusting. FYI: OC swap meet has delish peanuts, get some!

Went for breakfast for the first time because the sign caught my eye: Fabulous Breakfast! Well, let me start out by saying the service on a Monday morning was super (there were only 3 tables that were occupied), and the staff is very friendly and prompt with the coffee. The food on the other hand…
One order was their chicken-​fried steak. The gravy was decent, as was the biscuits and gravy. The other order was their ‘spuds’, which was a mound of home style potatoes, cheese, avocado and a heap of sour cream — no meat in this dish. It was tasty, but lacked that ‘something special’ — like bacon! Once I added the Tapatio, it was very tasty and filling.
I’d give it a second chance, but probably for lunch or dinner, not for breakfast.

Gross. My family and I went there last weekend and the food was horrible. We were also not happy with the service. Took way too long for the food to come out and it was cold. I was embarrased because it looked really good from the outside. I had to apologize to my family.

Ok, I went here when it first opened and the service was horrific… but I am persistent, so the other day when I had an appointment with an old friend/​business associate, I told her… how about Front Porch?
She didn’t know it, so I explained that it was a new BBQ joint on the corner of Warner and Bolsa Chica. It’s buried in a very old, tired looking strip mall that features a number of rundown places…
I have to say, the service here is always a bit uneven. The people are friendly enough, but sometimes it takes awhile to get your food. I have eaten here twice, and both times the wait has been much longer than usual for a restaurant.
Once the food arrived, however, things changed. I had the pulled pork sandwich, with beans and fries as my sides. This meal had to be about 2,000 calories, but it was worth it. The sandwich was excellent, and the beans were really good as well.
This was last Friday at lunch, and the place was jammed. Apparently people agree with me that the food here is tasty… and I concur with the Unilocaler who said eating here beats waiting in an interminable line at Lucille’s for overrated BBQ.
The Porch can get 5 stars out of me fairly easy… just step up the staffing during busy times, like a Friday lunch.
Oh, one minor complaint: they give you peanuts in a bowl, but they were old, or something, b/​c I started coughing after eating them… and then heard another guy struggling as well. They were powdery and dry, if that makes any sense. Half a star deduction, FP… get fresh peanuts, stat…
Overall, a very nice place to have in the hood… me likey.

REAL REVIEW: alright man, I used to work here and to be honest, the food is superb for its price. Real shit, it beats every BBQ or steakhouse, except for claim jumpers. The prices are reasonable. It’s great for lunch and dinner. You really can’t go wrong picking any of the sandwiches. The most ordered sandwich is the pulled pork but I personally recommend the catfish bites. I always ate the pork chops and seafood bisque on break because it’s my favorite and I love every bite of it.
The service is dope. The cooks are tight too. The people who work there are great and only have the best intentions. Great for the over 21 crowd because there are HDTV’s everywhere which plays all the sports games. During happy hour they also have schooners for 2.00 and glasses of wine for 3.00. They keep the drinks going all night.
Anyways, if you’re a fan of sandwich or BBQ places then give it your best shot.
BTW, full bar is coming soon! so it’s not just going to be beer and wine only.

Food came out at room temperature. Mac and cheese came out tasting like it was from el pollo loco or kfc. The garlic mashed potatoes had so much rosemary in them … they were basically not edible. The gumbo tasted like it was out of a can. The ribs were tender, but tasted like they sat in salt water for a few days.
Décor was nice. Server/​family was really nice.
My b/​f got the pulled pork, and he said, «The pulled pork tasted like shredded, extra salty, smithfield ham.» Which apparently means there’s a lotta salt in there. He is still going on and on about how much salt they had in their meat. Weird.
And, probably worst of all, when we arrived the door seemed locked. Then a young girl comes and opens it… and greets us… and seats us. This girl looks to me like she’s 6. Kinda weird. Then the waitress comes out and jokes about the kid being her «helper». OK, fine. But after she asked us what we wanted to drink the little girl proceeds to come over with a windex bottle and spray off the table, and my shirt, and my b/f’s shirt with it. I told her, «OK, I think that’s great.» and she keeps wiping down. At this point I was getting irritated. Not to mention we were like the only people in there so this little girl has no one else to serve but us. We proceed to talk about how she’s in kindergarten.
We place our order when the server comes back out, and got the $ 4.5 schooners of blue moon. Then a man, who appears to be the servers husband and the young girls father, comes over with a small child in his arms. It’s obvious they are the owners. But this little baby is drooling and I’m not interested in it. I just want to eat. So the food comes. And while we are eating the cold, salt overloaded, mediocre food, the man continues to come around with the drooling, babbling baby. We were the only people in there.
Overall, this was the weirdest experience i’ve had at a restaurant in a while. I wanted to like this place, i’m not too impressed. I can’t help but feel bad for the owners though. They need gordon ramsay.

I give it 4-​stars for the food, I ordered pulled pork, mac n cheese, and a huge homemade bread pudding, and service was great too! But –1 for the weird gift card. I bought a 50 dollar gift card only to see it handed to me on a receipt with a whole bunch of pen marks on it. They didn’t have an envelope or anything nice to put it in, just a receipt. He was the manager also, and I was extremely upset with the look of how ghetto it was. I really wanted to take it back and I really wanted to give my father-​in-​law this gift, but a receipt as a gift card??? It just killed the whole look. I had to apologize again to my father-​in-​law and I felt pretty crappy/!

This place is «fair» for a quick lunch at best. It screams «fabricated corporate presence» from the moment you walk in the front door and observe the incredibly hokie and artificial fly rods screwed to the ceiling up above. My buddy and I stopped in for lunch one day to sample the fare. I ordered a baby back ribs and brisket combo (with baked beans and cole slaw) and my buddy ordered a pulled pork sandwich lunch plate. His complaint was that there wasn’t enough meat on his very bready sandwich, and my complaint was that the ribs were mushy and tasted like they had been brined in some sort of smoke solution and then oven baked.
The slaw was actually very good though! Front Porch was able to kick it up by tossing some freshly minced dill into it. That really freshened it up and helped clean the artificial bbq flavor out of my mouth. The beef brisket I was served tasted like it was given the same treatment as the ribs. Sure, it was tender, but not to my taste. It tasted like it was injected with a commercial manufacturing process, and even worse, there was no pink smoke ring around the edge of the slices.
This place is definitely «fabricated» bbq. It is very unlikely that I will return.
So, now that you have my opinion on the food, what about the service? Let’s just say that the wait staff presented themselves as if it was just a place for them to «clock in». Our waitress couldn’t tell me if the sauce was made from scratch in house, and a second waitress, when stopped as passing by, couldn’t tell us how long the meat was smoked for. All in all, I am extremely disappointed in this place. If you’re looking for something authentic and truly fantastic, try Johnny Rebs (Long Beach, Bellfower, Orange).

Well, contrary to the other review of this place, I liked it. Oh, and to the other reviewer, most restaurants do open their doors to the public to make money. Sorry to disillusion you. Back to the restaurant, it looks just like I’d expect a Bar B Que restaurant to look. My wife and I tried their chili and the french dip sandwich. The chili was great. It was definitely homemade and not out of a can with smoked brisket and spices, it wasn’t greasy at all. The french dip was also great. It came on a toasted bun with a healthy portion of smoked beef and two sides. The fries and the beans were also good. My sister in law owns a smoke pit restaurant in Texas so I’ve had plenty of authentic Bar B Que and honestly the Front Porch was really good. All and all, I was pleasantly surprised, especially since the place just opened and it should get even better with time. Check this place out, its worth a try.
Also, I went back there the other night and they’ve added happy hour deals to their menu, $ 2 Tri-​tip or brisket sandwiches and $ 2 schooners of beer. Super great deal. Check it out!