mmm. ribs.

So today is going to a be a 2-post day: prepare yourself. These will both be firsts (for this blog, that is). The first of which is a culinary adventure in the form of eating at a local San Diego eatery: Phil's BBQ. I went with a couple of friends of mine, but for the sake of anonymity and in order to attempt to be kind of funny, I shall call them Don Juan and Seankykong. It's a rare occasion that we all have the same day off, so we decided to take advantage of that fact by going out and eating some bad-ass barbecue.

Phil's is somewhat of a(n) SD institution. It has lines out the door all day, and the portions are more than generous. While it's not dirt cheap (it's not crazy expensive either), you definitely get your money's worth. We showed up around 3 and there was line out the door and around the corner of the building. I would have included a picture, but I didn't want anybody to attack me. Here's a picture of the inside as soon as you enter the building and the line splits into two sections: to-go/phone orders and dine-in. There's generally never anyone in the to-go section, as least as far as I've encountered.


Both outside and inside, there are multiple menus plastered all over the walls and hanging from the ceiling. It seems a bit excessive, but it really helps the line move more quickly. They don't have an extensive menu, but they have a number of different variations of what they do offer and this leads to a pretty long menu in the end (there's quite a few side dishes to choose from as well).


We really only had to wait 10-15 minutes, despite the length of the line, which I've found is pretty typical. In addition to our food, I got some food for my gf (to go) and the total came to right around $70, with drinks (for you math majors out there, that's less than $2o a person). I got a "full rib" baby back ribs dinner (yes, I'm a gluttonous bastard), as did Don Juan, while Seankykong went with the more waistline friendly "half rib" dinner. I figured I'd have some leftovers to take home, so the sheer amount of food I was about to receive didn't worry me as much as it could have. I've been here before, so I'm relatively familiar with the menu and while I think the ribs are fantastic, I'm not super gung-ho about most of the sides. Consequently, I got a large order of macaroni salad, inside of two small sides.



Don Juan got mac salad and fries (with ranch) and Seankykong got baked beans and potato salad.




As I'm sure you can assume, it was freakin' fantastic. We more or less all demolished our plates in a timely fashion, all while watching one of the many strategically placed flat-panel tvs strewn about the place (for those of you interested in that sort of thing, Perdue was playing Oregon. football. fun stuff).

Drinks and to-go boxes (along with silverware, wet-naps and other amenities) are pretty much all self-serve, but there's still a number of employees walking around, clearing dirty plates, wiping down tables and making sure customers are more or less comfortable. It's a fun atmosphere and the food's really, really good. They even sell their bbq sauce in jars and you can buy Phil's BBQ clothing. If you live in SD or if you ever visit for one reason or another, this is definitely a place you should check out.

Phil's BBQ
3750 Sports Arena Blvd
(at Hancock St)
San Diego, CA 92110 (619) 226-6333

www.philsbbq.net
Hours:
Tue-Thu 11:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m.
Fri-Sat 11:00 a.m.-11:00 p.m.
Sun 11:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m.
Closed Mondays