Silicon Valley BBQ Championships

I agree with many other reviewers. Very disappointing to show up for a BBQ festival when all the vendors are out of food and the lines are extremely long for the little they have left (mostly pulled pork). Also, there was very limited seating in the shade, lack of cutlery and napkins. The tokens were pointless as you couldn’t get anything for them anyway. Better to pay for the food from the few vendors that actually did sell things. Will probably not come back again.

Good food, good music, and an overall safe and fun event to go to.
I attended Day 2 of the Silicon Valley BBQ Championships on June 27^th, 2015. I arrived around 12:30pm, which allowed me to avoid most of the long lines that began to form as I left around 3pm. Also, I took advantage of the food token discount and purchased 7 tokens for $ 20 ($ 1 savings).
THE FOOD
Bad S BBQ: This was easily the best BBQ I tried. The brisket was tender and made my mouth water after it hit my tongue. This was one of the BBQ stands that sold out of food before closing time. ⁵⁄₅ stars.
Smoke In: The best pulled pork I tried that day, and they also gave the most food for one token. For one token, they gave me a plate of pulled pork, cornbread, and a piece of BBQ corn. I skipped the corn, but the cornbread was delicious and was clearly homemade, and the pulled pork was well seasoned. ⁴⁄₅ stars.
Get Some’s BBQ Assassins: This was the BBQ stand that offered small portions of meat on a tortilla with some shrubbery on top to take up space. The pulled pork taco probably seemed like a good idea at first, but the veggies and tortilla masked most of the meat flavor, and everyone was there to try the meat. ²⁄₅ stars.
Bowling Over Pigs: Their pulled pork was just okay… Okay… The man who was working at the front desk kept advertising that there was no line, and to try his barbecue. Well, there was a reason why he had no line. I had to use a lot of BBQ sauce to bring his food to life. ²⁄₅ stars.
Blazin’ by the Bay: While the women who were working at this BBQ stand were really nice, their pulled pork was actually in chunks, and it tasted more like chicken. They put BBQ sauce on the meat without asking, and after one bite, I could tell why. The chunks of pork tasted okay, but lacked any real flavor. If I had to guess, I’d say this BBQ team is the new kid on the block. ²⁄₅ stars.
Pirates of the Pig: This BBQ stand had the longest line out of them all. I tried their «oink balls,» which were pork meatballs wrapped in bacon and barbecue sauce. The creativity put into this meatball was nice, but the taste was just okay. Their other meat options were more popular, but I give their oink balls ³⁄₅ stars.
Lord of the Ribs: This BBQ stand also had a long line, but the pulled pork they were serving was just okay. It had decent flavor, but it wasn’t as good as some of its competitors. ³⁄₅ stars.
Overall, I had a great time and can’t wait to go back next year. I recommend wearing a hat and some sunscreen so you don’t turn red like I did… :)

I had not attend this affair before but had gone to the one in San Mateo which was terrible. Here they got some things right like giant tents in which to enjoy your food and drink and get out of the sun and their entertainment.
Very few if any competitors offered to sell their BBQ so there were only a handful of vendors offering food and the lines were exceedingly long. As we wanted to finally leave I though it would be good to stand in line and pick up some ribs to nibble at home. After waiting for 15 minutes we were told they had run out of cooked ribs and there would be a wait. What disappointment.
I erroniously thought we would be sampling world class BBQ but had to settle for the crappy stuff from Armadillo Willy’s. Even the french fries from the artichoke stand were undercooked and soggy.

Good music, fun vibe, good competition but the vendors do not seem to have line control in mind.
I came here on one of my mystery dates. We both agreed that the music was fun and lively. It doesn’t make the event but it helps.
The vibe of this event is really fun. It’s a nice start to the bbq season and everyone is in a relaxed mood.
Although all stalls have the same pulled pork, pork ribs, chicken wings and beef brisket they all have their own signature something on it which is what makes this competition really interesting. I really enjoyed sampling and voting for my favorites instead of having a dedicated meal from one place.
That being said, the only thing that makes a hungry person into a hangry person is when stalls run out of offerings and let you wait in line instead of marking off items on their menu. This happened at one of the stalls and we were livid, tired and hungry. It’s really not a good feeling and perhaps there should be a penalty for this in the future from the Rotary Club. We waited an hour!

We arrived at 3:30 on Saturday for a festival that was supposed to end at 8 pm. We purchased tokens ($ 3 each or 7 for $ 20). We bought 8 tokens — for every 7 you receive a golden ticket to give to the BBQ team you like most.
We stood in a long line for ribs after buying the tokens and noticed that the first place we picked was sold out of ribs. Hours before the festival was to end? We sadly realized that EVERY single place was out of ribs. We showed up mid-​day and everyone had sold out already. We each had two chicken samples and two pulled pork samples (one slider, one taco). Food was good, but we were really disappointed that we couldn’t try a rib sample from anyone. It was the reason we drove an hour to attend the event.
Most disappointing was that Juicy O’s pro BBQ team (and their pulled pork taco) was our favorite, but we couldn’t give them our ticket to vote for them for the People’s Choice Winner. Meat was tender, juicy, warm, not at all greasy, and the taco with it had yummy BBQ sauce and delicious coleslaw. But the ticket buckets had already been taken to be counted and they didn’t know how to get our vote to the counters.
The festival did have a good live band and lots of vendors selling clothing, snacks, jewelry, etc. The same kind of things you see at most festivals or fairs. We almost bought this crunchy corn snack… it came in a great, really spicy habanero flavor — but their credit card scanner wasn’t working because they didn’t have cell phone reception. I did buy two cute tee shirts for $ 20 with cats on them from another vendor.
Other BBQ that wasn’t competing was being sold, and also the usual food vendors with fried artichokes and similar items — Armadillo Willy’s was there (they have a restaurant across the street from Central Park where the festival was held), but they were a cash only booth too so we couldn’t even buy ribs (which they still had). We’d spent all our money on the tickets. Adult beverages were available as well. $ 10 for a commemorative glass with $ 7 refills of beer. (Wine for sale too.) There were so many teams competing that it was really surprising everyone was out of ribs so early. Perhaps it’s grown significantly in popularity, since it sounds like they ran out of ribs last year too and I’m sure they planned ahead to not let that happen again — just not well enough.

After years of living in Santa Clara I finally made my way here. Went on a Friday after work and it was a great way to start the weekend. Drinks were pricey, but that’s pretty standard for these types of events. Some of the sample lines were pretty long so we mastered a plan to each get in a line and grab samples for the group and meet back at a designated spot. These vendors are great at what they do. I didn’t have one bad sample. Then again, I was tipsy so everything going in my mouth was alright with me. I’m a big believer in supporting small local businesses so I was annoyed by the Giant Armadillo Willy’s presence. Get out of here.
If you have nothing planned and love some good meat then head over here.
P. S. I lost my white sweet potato pie i bought from a vendor. If you happen to find it in the paper bag… enjoy. It hasn’t been touched. I’m still very sad my drunk a$$ left it somewhere.

Checked out this event yesterday (Friday) around 6pm. Hardly any vendors were providing samples, and by samples, I don’t mean free samples like at Costco. You were paying $ 2/​sample, so I expected a bunch of tents selling samples. There were probably a handful of tents selling samples, and it was s… l…o…w. Some tents periodically ran out of food and/​or utensils and then people shifted to other tents making those lines even longer. Eventually, most people gave up and just lined up at the restaurant tents (Armadillo Willy’s, Smoking Pig, etc.). But the whole idea of eating BBQ at a competition is to get a taste of competition BBQ, not restaurant BBQ!
I realize this isn’t the fault of the event organizers but it resulted in a very disappointing experience. The whole point of this was to taste competition level BBQ, but when that’s not available, this place was just like any other festival or food truck event (with very few food trucks).

We arrived around 7 pm on the first night (4 – 9 PM) and they were selling out of food already. I feel like the prices were a little exorbitant. One place was doing ¼ rack of ribs for 11 dollars and the other side was doing a whole rack for 11 or 14 $… The brisket sandwich was 80% bread, 20% brisket. I would probably need to arrive earlier and visit the championship winning BBQ.

The festivities itself is held at a nice venue and parking was relatively easy to find. But the lack of vendors providing samples is extremely limited.
You get one 2-​ounces sample for a $ 2 token. There are only 5 – 6 vendors providing samples so the lines were horrendously long. And some of the samples were outrageously small. This one vendor was giving away 1 tiny little BBQ drumette/​wing for one $ 2 token! It’s a $ 2 chicken wing, and not the whole wing, you just get the drumette. No place I know charges $ 2 a wing. Not hooters, not wingstop, not smoke eaters. It’s a bit of a rip off experience.
P. S. Some vendors were sold out before 1pm.

So today was kind of a bummer.
We arrived around 1:00 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. The festival runs Friday and Saturday, and the Saturday hours are 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
As others mentioned, the lines for the few vendors offering food were extremely long. As I sat drinking my beer, I tracked one guy while he waited in line for a nearby booth that offered a small sample of pulled pork on a roll – 40 minutes! (By «sample» they mean a small portion you buy with a token that costs $ 2.) Man, after standing in line for 40 minutes, that better be a life-​changing 2 ounces of pork.
All in all, I was disappointed that many vendors were already sold out by 1:00 p.m. which contributed to such long lines at the booths that were offering food. Others were clearly rushing meat that hadn’t been in the smoker long enough and was still tough. We tried pulled pork that was good, brisket that was great, and ribs that needed at least another hour in the smoker.
Since the appeal of this festival is being able to try many different types of barbecue offerings, waiting in line for 40 minutes per booth really defeats the purpose of going.
Parking– $ 10
Beer– $ 10 for the first glass (incl. 12 oz. festival glass)/$ 7 refill
Food – $ 2 per sample (2 ounces each)

Meat lovers dream come true! With beautiful weather comes even better BBQ! The BBQ championships was a fun event. A great place to relax with the family or friends under the sun and enjoy some great BBQ!
The smell of BBQ hits you right in the face the closer you get to the event. To see all the competitors BBQ smokers all fired up is a beautiful site to this carnivore! The prices are descent. A tried a plate of St. Louis style ribs and baked beans for $ 9 and it was delicious! Ribs were very tender and fell right off the bone. The baked beans were great too!
My favorite is brisket. OMG! I had a brisket sandwich from Big Ed Buzzards BBQ. Talk about tender and juicy! The meat pulls apart so easily and a little squeeze and you can just see the juice flow from the brisket. Had a nice smoke flavor to it and the fat was omg heavenly! So mouth watering! The fat was rendered down perfectly and made for the best tasting brisket!
It’s great to get to sample some of the competitors BBQ! For a token which was a $ 2 purchase you get to try the completions stuff. Bacon wrapped sausage stuffed with cream cheese was delicious. It was lots of fun. Kiddie rides and jumpers made it a very good family event.

I checked it out Friday evening, since it’s not far from work and I was getting hungry.
Arrive early, or forget about free Central Park parking, and plan on using one of the $ 10 lots. It was fairly crowded. Many teams like Lord of the Ribs were already sold out before 7 PM, and the BBQ vendors that had food left created long lines.
I skipped the skimpy samples ($ 2.00), and went were the longest line was, since I believed the majority knew better. This was at Big Ed’s Buzzard BBQ, where my wait in line exceeded thirty minutes. I chose the Texas Style Smoked Brisket sandwich ($ 8.50).
The brisket turned out to be good, but nothing special. If I based the total review experience on the sandwich, it would be a three. A watermelon stand was next door, and I bought a large slice ($ 4.00), which was super sweet and juicy.
There were several different classic rock /​oldies bands playing. The last one (The Megatones) got some to start dancing.
If I attend next year I’ll go on Saturday and follow the competition aspect more closely.

Came here on opening night, Friday 6÷27÷14.
Pluses: was able to find free parking fairly easily, wasn’t overly crowded, felt safe, good people watching.
Minuses: the food samples were two dollars each and largely a disappointment. $ 2.00 for one chicken drumette, which was just okay. Definitely a disappointment for competition level BBQ. Another place was selling pulled pork… But ran out of forks and it wasn’t even 7:00 yet. Had to eat saucy, mediocre pulled pork with my hands like a savage.
They do have regular food vendors and honestly, I think that’s your best bet. Worth checking out but I wouldn’t come back.

I attended on Friday early evening. Of the 37 teams, only about 5 – 6 offer samples: you could get a small portion of something (a rib, or chicken, or pulled pork, or brisket, etc), for a $ 2 token.
By far the best I sampled was from the Bad S. BBQ team (It’s intended to be read as «bad ass BBQ»):
3.5÷5: They have a «Bacon explosion», which is sausage wrapped in bacon, with a cream cheese filling.
4.5÷5: I also tried their «competition rib», which is the standard rib:
The sausage was good, but not mind-​blowing. When I see «bacon wrapped sausage,» I think mind-​blowing. This was not that. But the rib was excellent: better than any other pork ribs I’ve had in the South bay. I also tried the «rib tips,» which are the fatty, very tender, very flavorful part of the ribs (not competition-​grade). They were also 4.5÷5:
⁴⁄₅: Grill Stars had a bacon-​wrapped chicken leg:
If the bacon had deeper smokey flavor, it would be better. But still good.
3.5÷5: The competition ribs from Loosen Your Belt BBQ were respectable. They were more fatty all-​around, and as a result more tender, with good BBQ sauce flavor, but didn’t have the «wow» factor I was looking for.
²⁄₅: I don’t recommend the ribs from Lord of the Ribs:
Dry, not so flavorful. Armadillo Willy’s does better ribs.
Some of the competitors were still in cooking/​preparation phase, giving how-​to tips, like the proper way to pre-​inject brisket:
For those planning on attending Saturday, here’s the cheat sheet. It’s a list of the teams competing this year that also scored high in 2013. The 2013 cumulative score is listed. A star * means they scored in the top 3 on one of the categories:
— THE SMOKE RING. COM — 667.4286 (8^th on brisket)
— SON OF SMOKE — 666.8570 (10^th on chicken, 9^th on brisket)
— BIG B’S DOWN-​N-​DIRTY BBQ — 661.7142 (11^th on ribs, 14^th on chicken)
* TOO ASHAMED TO NAME BBQ — 661.1430 (1^st on ribs, 7^th on chicken, 14^th on brisket)
* MEAT FIRE BREW BBQ — 650.8570 (3^rd on chicken, 13^th on brisket)
— RIDGE ROUTE BOYS BBQ — 650.2860 (6^th on ribs, 19^th on chicken, 19^th on brisket)
— CECIL’S SMOKE BBQ — 649.7146 (15^th chicken, 20^th ribs, 14^th brisket)
* WOODHOUSE BARBECUE — 647.4284 (2^nd on ribs)
— SMOKEY LUV BBQ — 645.7146 (7^th brisket, 15^th ribs)
— THE PIT CREW BBQ — 644.5712
— SMITTY’S SMOKE PATROL — 643.9998 (18^th on ribs)
* PIG PIMP’N BBQ — 3^rd on ribs
I you attend, wear a wide-​brimmed hat, and use sunscreen: there are almost no places to sit in the shade.

I had always wanted to attend a local BBQ Championship and after attending the Kansas City Royal and Memphis in May the local competitions seem quite tame.
The California BBQ Association holds KCBS sanctioned events in California, but most are in southern California. When I was at the Kansas City Royal I met Gene Goycochea and found out he was from California! He was on the board of directors for KCBS and he told me about the California BBQ Assn. We kept in touch and he told me about this BBQ competition right in my back yard.
Other than the heat was unbearable it was a real nice day. Parking on the local streets was a challenge but within easy walking distance.
Everywhere I went people were handing out newspapers about the event. Almost every organization in the valley had booths along the walkways. Thanks to the map on the newspaper I made my way to the BBQ competition. There were quite a few outfits that were just selling commercially to the public and after a few rounds around the baseball field I found the BBQ competitors almost hiding. I wanted to meet Donna Fong (the Butcher’s Daughter BBQ) and Harry Soo from Slap Yo Daddy BBQ. I had read Donna’s articles on the California BBQ Association website about her BBQ vacation to Texas and had see Harry Soo on TLC BBQ Pitmasters on TV! Both seemed sequestered and very difficult to find, but I found them! They were just too busy to talk with me.
I met some friends there and they were more interested in sampling the commercial for sale BBQ outfits as I was more interested in watching the teams prepare for turn ins. They had a nice tent for sponsors that had some great cold beer served in last years mugs.
Maybe Frank Walsh can get the teams more organized next year as the dividing line between the professional teams and amateurs was hard to define. The police and fire teams acted like they did not want to be bothered at all!
Looking forward to next year!

Silicon Valley needs to represent! We don’t have enough BBQ events in the Bay Area if you ask me. The Morgan Hill No Bull BBQ Cook-​off unfortunately got cancelled this year too. So I was thrilled to see that the SV BBQ Championships was going strong for the 2^nd year. This is the largest BBQ meetup in the area. I thought KCBS picked a great location for the event. It’s a nice park. There were other activities besides food. Many veteran teams and competent amateurs participated this year. It was pure excitement for my palate throughout the day. I was glad some of my Unilocal friends made it out there despite the heat wave. Kudos to the teams for putting out good food!

Awesome that you can sample everyone’s different bbq for cheap

Aside from the scorching weather, it was a great event this year – lots of BBQ samples for $ 2 & $ 3, plenty of rides and things to entertain the kids and beverages for purchase for adults. Great venue, too. Green grass, pond with ducks, little amphitheater – I thought it was really lovely.

The SV BBQ Championships was really fun for fans of BBQ, although I could see the joys of this type of ‘festival’ being lost on people who aren’t into BBQ.
There were some great teams here competing, like ‘Slap Yo Daddy’ & ‘Simply Marvelous’, then a bunch of local teams as well. There were quite a few teams who were selling samples of their BBQ, which was nice (although very expensive at $ 3/​rib.
Because of the samples being sold, I enjoyed trying out some ‘competition BBQ’ with my friend, and then discussing it whilst pretending to be a BBQ judge (I noticed a bunch of other people were doing the same thing. It is a BBQ competition after all!)
Besides the BBQ, there were also kids rides/​activities, some souvenir type vendors, some normal food & drink vendors, a stage with bands playing & a small vintage car show.
Between paying for parking and the samples, I ended up spending a lot of money, but as a BBQ enthusiast, it was really fun watching some of the more well known teams doing their thing (I’m not trying to steal their methods! Honestly!), and seeing some of the fancy schmancy smokers that I’ll never be able to afford or build.

Let me preface this review by saying that I’m normally not a fan of festivals; in fact the last festival I went to was the Mushroom Mardi Gras almost 11-​years ago. Earlier this week my good Unilocal friend, Allen C., knowing my prelation for smoked meats and the like sent me an invite to the 2013 SV BBQ Championships. So, I figured I’d make an exception in my long held eschewal of all things festive. I have to say I’m pretty glad I did. Here are the high and meh-​lights in order of least to most favorite:
1) Normal gathering of event booths selling your typical detritus and tchotchkes.
2) Classic Car show that had a very nice selection of vintage cars on display. I actually ran into a co-​worker who was there showing his sweet ‘60s (I forgot to ask him the year – my bad!) Pontiac Firebird; I’m not typically into Classic Cars, but it was fun to check out for a minute.
3) Lots of food booths that actually looked like a step up from what I remember of festival food. I think the Food Truck Revolution has caused everyone to step-​up their game, but I digress. They had your typical festival food (i.e., smoked turkey drumsticks, burgers, hot dogs, lemonade, etc.) but they also had a lot of atypical stuff, too. Lots of different kinds of BBQ (which would make sense seeing as this is a BBQ festival); some interesting desserts that I can’t recall and a Wicked Chicken (aka Cluck U, aka University Chicken, aka Smoke Eaters) booth that all looked very good. Unfortunately, I didn’t try any of the food because I was already stuffed from the tasting (see below).
4) Lots of fun activities for the kiddies. They have some free activity stations for the kids and quite a few carnival type rides. I didn’t really get a chance to check out the activity stations (my son was not interested) but I did spend quite a bit of time on the rides (apparently the stuff that costs money is what my son prefers). They were a lot of fun and the kids operating them were very friendly and patient.
5) Now let’s get to my favorite part of the evening: the competition BBQ! I was only able to attend Fri (the non-​competition day) so I don’t know if things will change for Sat, or not. All the teams were setup in a semi-​circle around the competition area and you could walk from booth-​to-​booth grabbing samples of each teams BBQ (prices ranged from $ 1 – 3 a sample). Well, I gotta say I was in Hog Heaven (literally!!). I sampled to my heart’s delight, but then halfway thru I started to fill up. Unfortunately, I just can’t eat like I used to. Sensing the potential disaster building I decided to change up my game plan: I stuck with just ribs. I figured that would be the best way to compare the teams. That way I could compare apples-​to-​apples. Suffice it to say, I made it through to the end (just barely) and I enjoyed myself the whole time.
I must say, I ate a *LOT* of BBQ, and I would gladly go back for more, but I already had plans for Saturday. I guess I’ll just have to wait until next year.