BBQ, Bar-B-Q, Barbecue.. no matter how you spell it, it is something of legend. And when you find "Good" bbq, its it definitely something you tell people about.
Saturday afternoon, and the girl and I are tooling around Cerritos, looking for some food. We find ourselves Chillin at a major coffee chain, sippin a drink. Suddenly, I strike a light bulb. "hey, what was that BBQ joint we saw on youtube, the other day?" girl says "earl-something...I think." Tippitty-tap on my Yelp app, and boom, Robert Earls it is. We keep a sharp eye, cause I remember on the youtube video that it was a small place. Sure enough, it's in an unassuming building, right near the corner of Artesia and Atlantic, Where the LBC meets the CPT.
This is a small place. Not as small as Bludso's(there's 2 small tables inside), but dinky all the same. We order up the Mini Tex Platter, so we could get a taste of a few things. It says it feeds 3.. but, 3 what? 3 underwear models? 3 gymnasts? 3 bears? we select our sides, greens and potato salad. And opt to buy a side of mac-n-cheese as well (only avail on sat-sun).
We sit down and begin to wait for our food. Siting there, we couldn't help but notice how warm it is inside. We quickly decided our food would be to-go. I figured we'd find a nice park somewhere, and have us a picnic. It took a little more than 15 min for our food to hit the exit window. All wrapped up in heavy, brown paper bags. Before we split, I had to try the Banana Pudding I had heard so much about. $8 got us a large(16oz). we took our bounty, and headed off to find a park. A quick left on Atlantic, drove past Jordan high, and there we were. Houghton Park.
The girl and I spread out our food, and began to pick and fill our plates. First taste, was the Greens. These were super tender, and just on the cusp of being too salty. Very good, in my opinion. Then I dug a fork into a chunk of Mac-n-cheese. Whoa. That's some cheesy stuff right there. An excellent cheddar flavor, and soft mac. So far, all very good. The potato salad was.. well, It was nothing special. It was finally time for some meat! Opening the foam container, I was bombarded with a smoky wave of aroma. I zeroed in on a slice of Brisket, and went for it. It was a little chewy, and actually kind of dry. I must apologize here. My brisket standards are extremely high, due to the efforts of one Kevin Bludso. But it did taste very good. There was an excellent presence of smoke in each bite.
The Pork Spare Ribs get their own paragraph. Is it possible? Could it be? Is this the best pork rib I have ever had the pleasure of eating? I just.. its.. I mean.. ugh... the only phrase I can think of to describe this pork rib, is "Near Perfection". The meat did NOT fall right off the bone(which is good), But it was tender. The sauce was an amazing balance of sweet, spicy, tangy, and it did not mask the pork flavor. The smoke flavor came right through, and swirled its way up into my nose in the sweetest way. It was really close to being Pork Rib Perfection. The only drawback was the presence of tough membrane on the underside of the ribs. But this will, hence-forth, be the rib that all future ribs will be compared to. Bravo.
There was some chicken, and a hot-link in there too. But those seemed to become afterthoughts. The beef link appeared to be of the store-bought variety. The chicken was very tender, and expertly smoked.
At this point, we were both pretty stuffed. But we had left just a little bit of room, for a taste of that banana pudding. This was some old-school stuff. Nilla wafers, bananas, and creamy pudding. Oh man! The first taste was heaven on a fork. It was amazingly buttery, with just enough sweetness to not be overwhelming. It made my eyes roll back just a bit. We could only muster a few tastes, then we threw the lid back on, and called a "to be continued".
4 solid stars! This place has given Bludso's a run for their money. Bludso's has the Brisket, but Earls has the ribs. Earls has the sauce, and the banana pudding. But Bludso's has the links, and the wherewithal to peel their ribs.
I will be returning to Robert Earls, and im bringing friends. read more