Dickey’s BBQ Pit, a Texas-based BBQ chain, recently opened in the Genessee Plaza, next to the also fairly new Blaze Pizza. If you’ve been paying attention, there’s been a slew of new restaurant openings in the Genessee Plaza and the Balboa Mesa Plaza across the street.
I had my doubts about eating at a BBQ chain, but my favorite BBQ in San Diego, Coop’s, is a little far of a drive, so I’m always on the lookout to try to find something closer. Since they had just opened and were running different grand opening specials every day, there was a little bit of a line, but it moved pretty fairly fast.
You order at the counter and your order makes its way down the assembly line. Once you reach the register to pay, your food is there waiting for you, and then you can grab any open seating. One of the perks of dining in is that they have a complimentary soft serve vanilla ice cream machine.
3 Meat Plate
To get a better sense of the different offerings, we chose a 3 meat plate. For our three meats we chose ribs, brisket and jalapeno cheddar sausage.
The pork ribs were a beautiful shade of red and had a smoky flavor. They were a little plain though and could have used a little more salt and even more smoky flavor.
Of the trio of meats, the jalapeno cheese sausage was the most pleasing. Each slice packed quite the creamy cheesy goodness with a little heat too.
I found the brisket the most disappointing. I liked the thick slices but found it to be lacking any BBQ flavor. A lot of BBQ sauce was needed.
The plate also comes with two sides and a bread roll. There is quite a long list of sides to choose from and we had a hard time deciding. We finally settled on baked potato casserole and fried okra.
We really enjoyed both sides. The creamy mashed potatoes was just loaded with addictive ingredients. The fried okra pieces were rolled in seasoned bread crumbs giving them an extra flavor boost.
Pulled Pork Sandwich
They were doing a special $2 Pulled Pork Sandwich the day we went, so of course we had to order two.
I was a little surprised to find that it was just pork piled on bread. No sauce and no toppings except for the small ration of onions and pickles to the side of the sandwiches. The pork itself was pleasantly pink and moist. However, with the pulled pork I had in Nashville late last year still pretty fresh in my mind, it didn’t quite compare.
As mentioned above, they also have a complimentary vanilla soft serve ice cream machine.
Overall, we had mixed feelings about this place. We found the BBQ to be so-so and would still rather go to Coop’s for Texas-style BBQ. We did like the sides here and it’s some of the better fried okra we’ve tasted in San Diego. The free ice cream is also a nice touch.
Menu:
Dickey’s BBQ Pit
5604 Balboa Avenue, San Diego, CA 92111
https://www.dickeys.com/
Always have to be a little wary of BBQ chains. Too bad! The potato side you got looks quite yummy though. Coop’s is not too far from Jake’s and yet we don’t go that often. Need to change that!
I keep talking about Coop’s, but it’s been awhile since I’ve been. I need to go soon!
I haven’t been to Coop’s, but only because Lemon Grove is a long way out of our way, since we live in North County. After a few disappointments, I bought a smoker, and make my own barbeque and smoked meats. Now I’m looking to upgrade to a larger model.
that sounds like a good idea! I have a few friends who do the same thing. I’ve been tempted by the idea, but I know we wouldnt use it nearly enough.
Bummer about this place. I guess the extra drive to Coop’s is more worth it in terms of quality and taste.
yup, I still would rather go to Coop’s!
We went to the one in Escondido a whle back, and were unimpressed. I should have known better than to bother with chain barbeque, but I relented. We, too, got the fried okra. It’s frozen, out of a bag (every grocery store in the South sells it, and nobody buys it), the same as chains like Golden Corral and the like serve. The pulled pork was pretty mediocre. It was all just really meh. We’re Southerners, grew up on barbeque, and this place would be out of business were there more competition.
Hmm, I guess I just liked the okra a lot because we recently had some in NOLA that was really bland. But I am not surprised that it’s frozen. Their fries looked especially pale and definitely frozen. Do you like Coop’s?
I live right up the street from this place, so it has been on my radar, but I’ve had the same reservations as you. Looks like you’ve pretty much confirmed my suspicions. The jalapeno cheese sausage does sound quite tasty, though. LW’s BBQ a little up into Clairemont more closed down recently, so this place might become the middle ground between Phil’s!
The non-bbq items were good, but since this is a BBQ place, most of the meats were pretty disappointing.
Hey Kirbie – I’ve had stuff from Dickey’s twice before in other cities and I have to honestly say it was pretty terrible.
I didnt have high hopes going in, but I thought I’d give it a shot since they have managed to be popular enough to have so many locations. But yeah, I was disappointed overall.