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    Smoqued California BBQ

    3.9 (1.4k reviews)
    Closed 11:30 am - 10:00 pm
    Updated 2 weeks ago

    Order Smoqued California BBQ Takeout or Delivery

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    SMOQUED CALIFORNIA BBQ ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Casual
    Moderate noise
    Outdoor seating
    Good for groups

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    Recommended Reviews - Smoqued California BBQ

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    Megan E.

    My husband and I got the 3 meat combo for 38 dollars- you get a lot of meat. We got ribs, pork, and brisket with candied bacon and fries. It's a popular spot but has very yummy food. Great spot for family or friend dinners.

    Thomas S.

    Loved this place! The brisket was super yummy and paired really well with the habanero raz barbecue sauce. The service was good and they had lots of good looking drink options. The 3 meat combo was $38 and was a ton of food for 2 people.

    smoqued pulled pork: smoked pork tossed with bbq sauce, topped with coleslaw = $19.00
    Trung N.

    I came for a weeknight dinner. I ordered the BBQ chicken wrap ($18.00). The wrap comes with BBQ grilled chicken, fried garlic, pickled veggies, crisp greens + spicy aioli in a flour tortilla. Delish actually. If you're for something a little lighter, I highly suggest ordering the wrap. For one, it's stuffed with tons of greens and the BBQ chicken had so much flavor. The wrap is also very saucy, so you should eat it in one sitting otherwise the tortilla will get super soggy. For my side, I ordered the mac and cheese and received a whole skillet. The portion size was exciting, but the flavor was a little lacking. We also tried the smoqued pulled pork. ($19). The sandwich is comprised of smoked pork tossed in the house BBQ + topped with coleslaw. It was fine, but it was a little smaller in size. Everything was giving BBQ, but nothing was extraordinarily memorable. Fine for a weeknight dinner, but definitely not a destination.

    Brisket with chili Mac and tots
    Michael S.

    This place is exactly what I expected... nice interior, friendly service, and decent (but not great) BBQ. If you're craving S-tier brisket, this is not the place. It's certainly better than Lucille's (which is pretty bad) but it's nowhere near as good as Heritage or Badlands BBQ. Granted it's located right off the circle, which is a massive bonus. As for the food... Tater tots were good, but that's an easy side. Chili mac portion was massive and pretty good. The cornbread was so fragile that I tried to put butter on it and fell apart and became a pile of crumbs. I ate the second one without butter and it was fine but not great. This should be an easy fix. Overall, Smoqued is a fine restaurant, but I'm too spoiled by great BBQ to ever return here. It would be a great place to get together with friends for food and drinks. Other reviewers raved about the burnt ends -- maybe give those a try.

    Dry Rubbing My Brisket n Liquid Marinating My Tongue!
    Mark T.

    I have been an Irregular at Smoqued since it opened. The BBQ and Tap selection has always been solid but preferred chill n in my Biergarten instead. Over the last year, I was drawn in for their Brisket Baked Potato and their Haus Amber. I quickly noticed the New Vibe that has been created. Laura is engaging and has become intuitive to my tastes, Makayla (The G.M.) embraced me to join The Mug Club and Mathew, TCB! I recently took their Brisket klass. All that was included and the whole experience was really Kool. The Pitmaster Marc wasn't pretentious, but rather very approachable and a bit of a character. His theme that BBQ was 'Art Meat z Science' got me to think differently about cooking. Although Recipes and Techniques are a foundation Creativity and Experimentation is where the enjoyment lies. We started with about 20 strangers, but after the Klass (and a few Beers) we were a community. We had a chance to rub our own Brisket and put it in RUTH to be picked up Easter Sunday. Amazing! To the owner Mike Hernandez, you are a Rock Star. Thank You for putting this Vibe & Chemistry together & creating an Experience. Stoked on Smoqued!

    Frank P.

    Long overdue update. I've had chicken, tri tip, candy bacon and ribs since my last review. They sometimes do cooking classes. I've done the brisket, and twice for the turkey. Yesterday was the turkey class. Everyone gets their own turkey and prep it for the smoker. You take your turkey back to the kitchen and the smoking process. I'll pick my turkey Wednesday and take it home to reheat it. After the class you get a delicious lunch. Today was chicken, Brussel Sprouts and stuffing. Check for postings on future classes. This is a fun place to hang out, eat, and down a few cold ones. Everyone is super friendly. I recommend this place

    Jessica L.

    The food was delicious. I really enjoyed the burnt ends and the steak. I felt like the portions were pretty large too. Between 5 people we ordered 2 combination platters and two appetizers which was more than enough. We stopped by on the way home from universal so it was a much needed meal after all the walking. The restaurant is located in a really cute town and the restaurant itself feels very barbeque-ey. The service was good, they had us wait for our seats for a moment but it wasn't too long on a Tuesday evening.

    Smoked Brisket Sandwich with BBQ beans
    Linda B.

    My friend and I had lunch at Smoqued BBQ today for the first time. It is now our favorite bbq restaurant. Our server Destiny was great. She saw to our needs before even asking. She was friendly and very efficient. I had their smoked brisket sandwich and a side of their bbq beans. Both were awesome! My friend ordered their chicken with sides of Mac & cheese, and deviled eggs. She loved it all. She was kind enough to share one of the eggs with me and I snagged a bite of her Mac & cheese. They were excellent! We both look forward to returning to try other dishes. They do not disappoint!

    Brisket chili
    Brian I.

    Restaurant is located near Chapman college in the old section of City of Orange where you can find a lot of eateries and shops. Have eaten bbq in Texas, KC and Atlanta so I'm a little biased when judging bbq, but I felt that the food was quite good. Our favorites that you should try are the burnt ends and avocado fries. Their brisket and pull pork was decent but like I mentioned earlier, I'm a little biased when it comes to bbq. Their Mac and cheese was very good but their corn bread was a little dry. Service was great but unfortunately they sat us between two families with little ones. One family had really well behaved kids but the other one did not. It was very hard to enjoy your food and company when parents allowed their four year old to run back and forth on the bench seat, run into me a couple of times, and later kick me because he wanted to tumble on the seat and try to climb up the wall Hints: Restaurant is pretty small so I would recommend making reservations. There is only street parking so allow some time to find a space.

    Interior
    Anastasia F.

    I went to a different American BBQ restaurant where the service and food there were good, but it made me want to try other American BBQ restaurants. This restaurant came up after doing a little search on Yelp. I arrived around 12pm on a Friday and it was already a little bit busy for lunch service which was a good sign, but there was plenty of open tables and I was seated right away. Restaurant looked clean as well. I ordered Burnt Ends because it got raving reviews on Yelp. This was so good and I highly recommend! I also ordered Brisket Cheesesteak with a side of mac n cheese. These came out pretty good. Nice and hot. It took me awhile to finish the cheesesteak and when I finally got to my mac n cheese, it was still hot which was nice. There is street parking and a parking lot towards the back. I forgot that there was a lot in the back, but I got lucky that I found street parking near the front of the restaurant. I saw some other items on the menu that I want to try out, so I plan to come back in the future.

    420 Mac, Deviled Eggs, Burnt Ends, and Candied bacon
    Shirley W.

    Visited here for dinner and there was quite a good amount of people already dining! Parking situation is either the public lot behind the building or street parking around. We were seated immediately when we arrived, and service was pretty decent here as well. It wasn't too slow, but also wasn't too quick. We ordered the burnt ends, 420 Mac, and the jalapeno sausage by itself. The portions are also surprisingly pretty small here, only the 420 mac was decently sized; however, it was the most filling one! We all enjoyed teh burnt ends the most, very flavorful and the fatty parts of it was extremely flavorful as well. Literally melts in your mouth. The 420 Mac kinda felt too liquidy (probably because of all the juices from the meat). Although, I wish it was cheesier. The cornbread was also very crumbly, it falls apart to quickly. Also it does get kinda too soggy with all the ingredients in the 420 mac. We actually ordered a side of cornbread, but I think the waitress misheard and we ended up getting the candied bacon. We all didn't enjoy the candied bacon lol. We also ordered the devil eggs here, but it wasn't too special. The filling could be creamier, but just tasted like regular eggs. Although portions were pretty small, the 420 mac was at least pretty filling. It's quite heavy, but still feels overall a bit too greasy. The ambiance is quite nice here. It really sticks into theme and is a nice place for large gatherings.

    2 towns hard cider - mango
    Michelle S.

    I've been here several times. This is a decent local bbq spot. Especially if you are looking for bbq after exploring the shops around the Orange circle. It's good bbq and great Mac and cheese. My favorite thing here is the Mac n cheese with added candied bacon. We had the deviled eggs with candied bacon, the Mac n' cheese, and the avocado poppers, a side of candied bacon, and a beisket sandwich with a 2 towns mango hard cider. Everything was delicious. It happened to be my birthday and the server brought me a fun treat. Cornbread covered in caramel sauce with vanilla ice cream on top. Soooo good! I would like to see them improve their offering by including trip tip as a main dish. Smoqued has a great casual atmosphere. It's close to the downtown circle center. The service was friendly and attentive. We were seated right away. It was a Wednesday early evening. So I can't attest to weekend business. Overall I would return with friends or family again.

    My Brisket to prep.

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    Food was great and service as well. The brisket and chicken were highlights. They also managed a large group very well.

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    Smoqued California BBQ Reviews in Other Languages

    Ask the Community - Smoqued California BBQ

    Are they open on July 4th?

    No, only for catering orders

    Do they still have their Sunday Brunch?

    We still offer our amazing Breakfast Burrito and Champagne Splits. But, Sadly we don't have our full brunch menu back yet.

    Do they have a lunch menu?

    Yes

    Do they offer outside dining?

    Yes

    Are they currently open still?

    No they are not. I went last week and there was a sign saying they will be closed until further notice

    View All 9 Questions

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    Smoqued California BBQ - bbq - Updated June 2026

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