Cancel

    Open app

    Search

    Always Cool BBQ

    4.6 (291 reviews)
    Closed 11:30 am - 2:00 AM (Next day)
    Updated 3 months ago

    Always Cool BBQ Photos

    ALWAYS COOL BBQ ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Hipster
    Casual
    Trendy
    Good for kids

    You might also consider

    More like Always Cool BBQ

    Recommended Reviews - Always Cool BBQ

    Your trust is our priority, so businesses can't pay to alter or remove their reviews. Learn more about reviews.
    Yelp app icon
    Browse more easily on the app
    Review Feed Illustration

    Reviews With Photos

    Spicy Beef Noodle Soup: 4/5
    Huiya Z.

    Food: 4/5 Service: 5/5 Ambiance 4/5 I wanted to visit this Chinese BBQ spot because they have cool neon light decor. Honestly, this space has a HUGEEE menu. I would love to come back to try more of their skewers. XLB: 5/5 - Juicy and Flavorful Enoki: 5/5 - Right up my alley! little on the spicer side but hits the spot Fish Roll Fried Fish Balls: 4.5/5 - Honestly, I've never had fish roe fishballs pre-pared with takoyaki toppings! prettyyy guddd A-Choy: 4/5 - Under-seasoned needs more salt. Oysters: 4/5 - Normal Chicken Skin Skewers: 4/5 - Normal Tendon Skewers: 4/5 - Normal Spicy Beef Noodle Soup: 4/5 - Normal

    Spicy pork soup fried dumplings
    Natasha K.

    I would just say bump up the music a tiny bit louder and turn on the air conditioner! It was hot as heck in there, and doesn't help when u have the skewer flames in front of you at the table, and spicy food. A brief description of the items on the menu would be helpful too. Otherwise fast service, large variety of food selection, and delicious items.

    Special noodle @Fremont We enjoy the food & will come back again.
    Grace Y.

    Special noodle @Fremont Our 1st time here, huge plate. We enjoy the food & will definitely come back again.

    Cindy L.

    Plenty of parking space outside. Arranged a weekend lunch here with a group of friends -from their interior decor to comfortable seating to delicious food, I can confidently say we will be back! You order through a QR code at your table, and honestly you just want to order everything on their menu. The variety of skewers all came out at once and placed on their skewer platter at the table. Everything was delivered in a timely manner, and the waitress was attentive with refilling our water pitcher. Be careful with the XLB because they're juicy! I bit into mine and all the soup splattered onto my plate and my top a bit. All of our tummies and tastes buds were satisfied! Oh- also thank u so much for providing us some dessert plates and forks for dessert we brought in to share with our group!

    Yummy all I can say about this me

    I highly recommend this establishment always cool barbecue they have all kinds of different barbecues from fish to clams you name it they got it this place is a fun place to be you could bring your families and friends they will enjoy themselves behind the atmosphere the coziness and the food not only you would have fun being here at this establishment you'll enjoy their food sitting around with your friends and family enjoying the scenery it's beautiful it's cozy plus their food is on point I got all kinds of food to pick out of to me if you have friends and family you want to impress this is the place it's a touch of class

    烤麵包
    Serena R.

    第一次來這家BBQ店,整體體驗非常不錯,讓人印象深刻!店裡的烤肉種類很豐富,味道也很地道,特別是肉質新鮮、醃料入味,每一口都很滿足。紅糖糍粑是我意外的驚喜!本來以為會踩雷,因為跟我平時吃的不太一樣,但沒想到口感外酥內糯,甜而不膩,真的很好吃,值得一試! 店員服務態度也非常好,熱情有禮,會主動幫忙換 讓人感覺很貼心。環境方面也令人滿意,座位寬敞不擁擠,通風做得不錯,吃完烤肉也不會全身油煙味,適合朋友聚會或情侶約會。 整體來說,是一次非常愉快的用餐經歷,性價比也不錯,真的推薦給喜歡吃燒烤的朋友來試試!

    Gue G.

    Very tasty.This is my first time here and the service is very good.special noodles and we will come back again next time.

    炒A菜

    深夜肚子餓時的良伴。 我和我先生最近從國外旅遊回來,調時差的第一天晚上,我上網尋找營業時間晚的餐廳,就看見Always Cool BBQ。在過去兩年中,我們已經來過數次。他們的食物以及服務品質一向很穩定,所以我們就決定來了。 今晚我們最喜歡的幾道菜包括:烤茄子、烤羊肉串、烤豆子與炒A菜,此外肥腸紅燒麵中的肥腸調味也非常好。 我相信他們有兩個Yelp的帳號,一個是Always Cool BBQ,另外一個是四姐Special Noodles。

    Steam pork dumplings
    Candice Y.

    Having a get together with some friends when in town. A friend picked this place and it was delicious. They have lots of variety of skewers and side dishes to share. So glad there were 5 of us so we can taste most of the menu. We thought we over ordered but it was good portion size. Their dumplings and beef rolls were delicious. All the food came in a good timely matter and you don't feel like you have been waiting. Love the decor and super trendy. It reminded me when I was in Hong Kong. Toward the end of the night they have open mic karaoke. Seem super fun. Definitely a place for a group of friends. Will definitely come back when in town again.

    Clam stone pot noodle soup (ig: mamachoos.eats.travels)
    Corinna C.

    First time here and it was GOOD. Great location with big parking lot. The sign js huge so you can't miss it. Very cute decoration here with lots of colorful lights. Extensive food menu. Order food with QR code. We got a lot of stuff and everything taste good. Server Jeff cooked the stone pot noodle right in front of us. Excellent service from Jeff. I highly recommend.

    Green beans and egg plant
    Kimberly N.

    Always Cool BBQ is a very fun place, especially if you come in a large group. I've been here a couple of times and both experiences were very different. The first time, I came with a large group and we ordered multiple dishes (family style). It was interesting trying the various options which is a lot!! Then we walked next door to do Karaoke and it was a lot of fun. The second time, I came only with my husband since we had been dreaming about the food since the last time we went but it was a bit different this time. It was too much for two and we didn't get to order too many dishes like the first time. I suggest coming with a group of 4 at least. Also, I believe the menu has changed a bit. Before you could order by the skewers but now you have to purchase 3 minimum which I wasn't a big fan of. To be honest the skewers are the least favorite dish from here. They were very chewy. We had the beef ones. The rest of the other dishes were delicious! My husband's favorite is the Spicy Fried Clams. They have the best ones I've tried. I'm not a huge fan of clams but the ones here are delicious! We also have the Onion Pancakes (they were better the first time we ordered vs the second time). The second time they were very thin band didn't taste like onion pancakes. The combo fried rice was good and my favorite was the String Beans and Eggplant. This dish was delicious! The Red Oil Pork Won Tons are a bit for me. They have the Sichuan sauce that is tingly and it was a it for me. Overall I would totally come back just with more people. It is funner with a large group.

    Chinese Pancake
    Jay G.

    Wow, what a score in Fremont! Was looking for something random with my daughter and came across this review on Yelp and thought why not? This place has a very cool vibe inside with vibrant signage and fish tanks next to tables that are super relaxing. You order on your phone using the QR code and pay the final bill with your server. They have so many choices of great Chinese "street food" and everything else Chinese wise you would find at Chinese restaurants but more of it. Let me say the Chinese pancakes were TO DIE FOR! Light, flakey, not greasy and multiple layers. The sesame balls were the best I ever had. Light crispy outside, toasted to perfection with a true toasted flavor and the chewy tender inside that makes me want to take a nap after eating them. Like comfort food on steroids. The most interesting item was the street food squid on skewers which were amazing. Don't think soft tender calamari, thing a snappy piece of tentacle you have to chew but it's not rubbery like old squid, it's a refreshing snappy bite with an incredible sauce that has a nice kick but doesn't kick you back from your chair with tears running down your face. Been there and done that plenty in my travels. This place has Chinese BBQ only in the evening but with a menu of this size, you really need to come with 4-8 people (there were only two of us) as they give you portions that easily would allow each person 1-2 pieces of everything and that's where the fun really would explode. This is 5 stars for me but we only tried 4 items and took 1/2 home for left overs. Next time I am bringing my army and hitting the bbq. Definitely check this place out!

    skewers
    Hubert L.

    I will preface this review, that I think this place could be 5* but is just short of it for me, so it lands at 4.25 stars. I came with my girlfriend to try out these skewers as Fremont has a lack of a good chinese skewers. The style of this restaraunt is pre-cooked skewers, which is generally also my preference. They recently merged with the adjacent restaraunt but it doesn't affect my review. I ordered quite a bit of skewers- at least ~60$ of skewers. For this price, the amount we got was reasonable, it's consistent with other skewer places I've been to. We also ordered 1 appetizer (century egg with pepper) and duck blood spicy soup. The appetizer was a letdown. The chinese translation mentions that it has eggplant, and in fact, the dish is mostly eggplant, but the english menu doesn't say that. We were not a fan of eggplant, so this came as a huge dissapointment to us. I expected the dish to be mostly spicy sauce and century egg, and this was not the case. The owner needs to update this and perform a quality check on the rest of the menu's english translation. I only found this out, because my girlfriend read the chinese menu after we discovered this. The duckblood soup was amazing. I have had many, but this duckblood was very juicy; I can tell the quality is higher, because the iron-y taste isn't present in it. Huge props to them for this! The skewers themselves, quality-wise, were excellent! Their intestine and chicken heart were some of the best that I've had. All their meat was juicy. The chicken bone was crunchy and delicious. However, they didn't have a beef tripe skewer (they only had beef tripe street-food style); this was surprising to me, because every chinese skewer place I've been to has some type of beef tripe skewer. It is a standard and I'm a bit sad to see they left that off the menu. The service is very good. The waiters were all fast, very nice, and packaged our soup for us to go. We didn't have to wait for water/utensils as they were provided. Better service than most skewers places! I think, with an improvement to the selection of meat skewers as well as the fixing of the menu, I could revise this to be 5*. As of right now though, it is still one of the best if not the best skewer place I've had in Fremont.

    See all

    2 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    11 months ago

    Helpful 2
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    25 days ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    1 year ago

    Helpful 3
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 1

    10 months ago

    Helpful 5
    Thanks 1
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    9 months ago

    Helpful 2
    Thanks 1
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0
    Photo of Louisa M.
    287
    10
    1

    2 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    1 year ago

    Helpful 2
    Thanks 1
    Love this 2
    Oh no 0
    Photo of Elma L.
    0
    78
    458

    3 months ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 1
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    10 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    9 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0
    Photo of C B.
    0
    12
    4

    11 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    2 years ago

    Business owner information

    Photo of Eric L.

    Eric L.

    Helpful 2
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 1

    2 years ago

    Helpful 6
    Thanks 2
    Love this 4
    Oh no 1

    2 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    2 years ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0
    Photo of Jay G.
    174
    497
    3057

    3 years ago

    Helpful 4
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    3 years ago

    Helpful 3
    Thanks 0
    Love this 2
    Oh no 1

    5 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    7 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    3 years ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    5 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    1 year ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0
    Photo of Gary Y.
    305
    954
    3501

    3 years ago

    Business owner information

    Photo of Eric L.

    Eric L.

    Helpful 2
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    3 years ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 1
    Love this 2
    Oh no 0

    2 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    1 year ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0
    Photo of Sisi L.
    32
    47
    85

    2 years ago

    Business owner information

    Photo of Eric L.

    Eric L.

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 1
    Photo of Davo L.
    0
    49
    12

    6 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    3 years ago

    Helpful 3
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 3

    1 year ago

    Business owner information

    Photo of Eric L.

    Eric L.

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    3 years ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    3 years ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    2 years ago

    Business owner information

    Photo of Eric L.

    Eric L.

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 0

    10 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    2 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    3 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    2 years ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 1

    2 years ago

    Helpful 1
    Thanks 0
    Love this 1
    Oh no 1

    10 months ago

    Helpful 0
    Thanks 0
    Love this 0
    Oh no 0

    Page 1 of 8

    Always Cool BBQ Reviews in Other Languages

    Ask the Community - Always Cool BBQ

    Did you guys change chefs?? The pineapple fried rice and fried egg plant does not taste the same.

    We did hire new chefs and we are sorry for any inconvenience. May I ask which eggplant dish you ordered? We have green bean eggplant, bbq eggplant and eggplant with sweet garlic sauce. Please, let us know which dish you had so we can retrain our new… Read more

    View All 3 Questions

    You might also consider

    Freewheel Brewing Company - Chimera Triple IPA

    Freewheel Brewing Company

    4.6(44 reviews)
    2.2 mi
    $$

    The Vibe Low-key neighborhood brewery with a genuine local…read morefollowing - the kind of place that just feels right any day of the week. Mostly outdoor seating with plenty of space heaters and fire pits to keep things cozy. Gets chilly on cooler days, but tables are usually available. - The Drinks Decent beer selection, hard cider, and non-alcoholic options. Something for everyone without overthinking it. - The Food Situation BYOF (bring your own food) or DoorDash straight to your table - totally encouraged. Pro tip: Pack your own utensils because they don't provide any. Taco truck shows up some days, though service there can be hit or miss. - The Staff Friendly crew that makes the whole experience easy and welcoming.

    Freewheel Brewing is somewhat of local craft brew chain. Their original is on an edge of Redwood…read moreCity and that one is a brewpub, meaning there is a restaurant attached to a microbrewery. Now they have 2 other tap rooms, so no restaurant at those, just beer taps and maybe some cold snacks to munch on. This one in Fremont and another in San Rafael are both just taprooms. The Fremont one is in an industrial/business park so it looks like a storage unit with roll up doors. It took over another brewery Das Brew within the last couple of years. They did rearrange the space and decorated it to their specs. I do like the new look, it's clean and cohesive. I've seen about 8-10 taps being poured, all their own. Not sure how they are trying to be known now, but when I first visited their original location almost a decade ago, their beer model was to come close to English ales. These are more malty and not as heavily hopped/bitter as American craft brews. And this was in a time when Americans were going crazy for IPA types. So a bold move I thought imo. Traditional English ales also aren't as carbonated as American beers and usually served not as cold. I've actually come to respect those traits as I can taste more of the flavors when it isn't so icy cold. I've only tried 3 brews so far and in what I've experienced they are still a lot closer to that English mode of brews than American styles. Amber ($9/4*) Malty and soft, very English in taste and sensabilities. Surprisingly balanced, the more sips I took, the more I noticed it. Noticeable roasty malt notes blurring it with a brown ale. Kolsch (3.5*) This is a light German Ale. Meant for refreshment on warm days, much like a light lager. This was just a standard light beer to me, similar to golden and/or blonde ales. Nothing was wowing me, nor makes me crave it. But it is clean and drinkable. Goes good with the Mexican food from the food stand outside or bring in your own pizza. Guns of Brixton IPA (3.5*) This is a west coast style IPA so supposed to be pretty hoppy and dank. It is indeed hoppy and bitter but much lighter than most other west coast IPAs out there. Again it took about half a glass for me to appreciate this more. Even though not in-your-face boldness, after a glass or 2, you'll know you're drinking an IPA. And love their Clash references to some of their brew names, again very English and makes me feel like I'm in on a joke/secret. Lol Rounding up.

    Photos
    Freewheel Brewing Company
    Freewheel Brewing Company
    Freewheel Brewing Company

    See all

    California Billiards

    California Billiards

    4.1(178 reviews)
    0.1 mi
    $$

    I really hope this place doesn't close. One of the few places around here that you can play pool…read moreand play darts. Parking lot can get busy depending on when you're there. They have blacked out windows which could freak out some people, but there's nothing to freak out about. Staff is nice and customers tend to keep to themselves. I love seeing how there seem to be a good number of regulars because people seem to know each other there. Front desk is at the very back next to the bar and restrooms. They have a bar so you can eat and drink while playing pool. Each time we've gone lately, we haven't had to wait too long for a table. We've gone on off peak times and it was great. Service is great. Nachos are gigantic for just us two, but we made a good dent in it. They definitely hit the spot. We'll definitely be back.

    It should have a higher rating but this is just for my visit…read more The tables are well kept but the temperature is too hot. But my main complaint was I asked for a tip scuffer and the guy behind the counter said no because I wanted to use it on there cue. I own several cues and have been playing over 50 years I'm also 620 Fargo rated player. I know how to use a scuffer. I just didn't have my cue with me that night. He could have offered to do it for me if he didn't trust me but that's just bullshit. The customer care and service sucks

    Photos
    California Billiards
    California Billiards
    California Billiards - Crowded on a friday night...1.5 hour wait for a table...

    See all

    Crowded on a friday night...1.5 hour wait for a table...

    Always Cool BBQ - bars - Updated May 2026

    Loading...
    Loading...
    Loading...