Smoky brisket is so delicious for a Friday night fun…read more Got myself 2 lbs of brisket, and just went to town on this juicy, tender meat. It melts in my mouth. Amazing! Come try this juicy brisket cooked Texas style.

My family and I had been looking for a good BBQ restaurant in the Valley and came across Bludso's…read morein Van Nuys -Take out only. We were genuinely excited to find a BBQ spot we enjoyed, and for a while, we were happy customers. Unfortunately, over time, our experience became increasingly disappointing, particularly when it came to the size and consistency of the ribs. The first couple of times we ordered, the ribs looked like a standard, reasonable portion. But on our later visits, we noticed that the ribs appeared noticeably smaller. It wasn't just a one-time observation; after seeing the difference several times, we decided to call and ask about it. We weren't looking for anything unreasonable, we simply wanted an explanation and some consistency in what we were paying for. We were told, "Sorry, we'll have our manager get back to you." We appreciated that someone would supposedly follow up, so we gave them the benefit of the doubt. It has now been a couple of months, and we have never received a call, email, or any kind of follow-up. That part is honestly just as disappointing as the portion issue. Bludso's prices are high, and when you're paying premium prices for BBQ, you expect the quality and portions to be consistent. We understand that food costs, labor, and operating a restaurant are expensive, we're not expecting bargain prices. But when a restaurant charges what Bludso's charges, customers have every right to expect that the portions will be consistent and that legitimate concerns will be taken seriously. In a time when the cost of everything continues to rise and people have to think carefully about where they spend their money, spending more at a restaurant should come with the expectation of getting a quality experience. If we're willing to pay higher prices, we expect the food and customer service to reflect that. What really sealed the deal for us was that we actually tried to address the issue directly. We didn't immediately leave a negative review or complain online. We called the restaurant, explained our concern, and gave them an opportunity to respond. Unfortunately, the fact that nobody ever bothered to follow up after promising that a manager would contact us left us feeling like our business and feedback simply weren't important. We enjoyed Bludso's when we first discovered it, which makes this even more disappointing. But there are plenty of BBQ options out there, and at these prices, we don't feel there's a reason to continue spending our money somewhere that doesn't provide consistency or follow through with its customers. We tried. We gave them multiple chances. We reached out and gave them an opportunity to make it right. Unfortunately, we've moved on. No more Bludso's for us.

Was finishing up a job in the area and we needed to feed our team. We didn't know this was a…read moretakeout only spot and had our hesitations as we pulled into the parking lot. I am glad we stayed! The owner is super friendly and accommodating. He came right out and took our order, gave us a spot to sit and hang out and proceeded to bring us some really tasty BBQ. The ribs were fall off the bone tender and in a delicious rub and sauce. The lemon pepper wings also came out in the sauce and were some of the best I've ever had. The truffle fries brought everything together. So good. This guy deserves his own restaurant or should set up shop at a brewery because the meal exceeded expectations. Give them a shot!

We were in a work training session nearby and were craving BBQ...trusty Yelp app to the rescue!…read more Ordering online for pick up, via Yelp, was super intuitive and easy! My friend got the Wings & Fries Combo, $23.15 and I decided on the 3-Bone Meal Deal, $24.25. The Wings & Fries come with your choice of seasoning and she got the garlic-Parmesan - which she liked a lot. Her wings were tender and tasty with the traditional in-house sauce. This also came with a soft drink, water or bottled iced tea. The 3-Bone Meal Deal, comes with 3 super tender pork ribs and your choice of sauce. This is fork tender! The traditional bbq sauce is quite tasty! This combo comes with two sides, I got the Mac n' cheese - yummy, but there was, weirdly, corn in it. Also got the pineapple coleslaw which is just so-so - very mild and not much flavor. I ordered the unsweetened pure leaf iced tea. We were both satisfied with the service- the gentleman was standing out in the sun in the parking lot -waiting for me to drive up. Thank you! We would order from Belly Rubb again when in the area and in the mood for awesome BBQ.

The Restaurant is on the small end inside but food portions are big…read more Plenty of protein choices and sides to come with. A family favorite is the brisket cooked to your liking, Ribs, pork or beef. Sides are potato salad and fries. They have other choices like coleslaw and baked beans. We like to eat at the restaurant versus picking up orders as the food tastes better warm on the plate. We always have left overs to take home as portions are more for two people. BBQ sauce is another option for your meat, it is their own recipe and it comes on the side. The restaurant is always full and early dining is preferred for guaranteed seating without a wait. Compared to other bbq restaurants this one is unique for their portions and taste.

Seated right away at 12:30pm on a Saturday! Cant beat that. It started getting busy right after as…read morewell, so prepare to possibly wait if you come after 1pm Food and sides were INCREDIBLE. Our only complaint was on the baby back ribs - they were very dry :( We will try the recommended beef rib next time. We got brisket, bbr, chicken, and pulled pork with mac salad, potato salad, baked beans, and cole slaw. All were great. Staff was kind and on top of it, even as it got busy. it seemed like only 1-2 servers were working but they were incredible and kept up on drink refills as well. Good amount of parking, but as I said, by 2pm the lot they had was full. We will be back and look forward to it!

The meat is incredible, tender, flavorful, the sauces that come with it; the bomb! Pete is a master…read moreat his craft and cares for his clientele. He serves his food with such care. He's a pop up venue guy but despite serving from his food truck and different venues, his food is fire!

Delicious but kinda expensive. I've eaten this twice now with both being at different events…read morewhere they had a booth. This one was at the global grill festival at Northridge park. The menu had lists to choose from so I decided on the brisket bowl which was about $25 plus tax. Meat was tasty and tendered. Loved the Asian fusion bbq flavors and the egg is always a nice touch. Staff was friendly and food came out quickly

Do yourself a favor and make sure you follow him on Instagram if you wanna know where they'll be…read morenext. I have followed him to a few pop ups at breweries across the valley and let me tell you it never disappoints! I've tried everything. Pulled pork nachos, ribs, brisket, and his delicious cheesy Mac n cheese. Portions are perfect. Definitely worth the price. Brisket melts in your mouth. Ribs fall off the bone. Pulled pork nachos are well balanced with the right amount of cheese, chips, meat, cilantro dressing and his award winning BBQ sauce. Ant is the man behind the food but the folks behind the table are just as amazing. Always service with a smile, which is always a treat when ordering. I truly recommend. Support small businesses and your local breweries.

Greated by Grumpy Cashier But I'm Not Going To ruin my Time here I Ordered Cilantro Chicken and…read moreRaisins Got it in a pretty decent amount of time, and ice tea, so much for having a sit down lunch work had other plans, we tried to have them make it to go but they brought us a Box rice was So Good Chicken was BBQ Perfectly raisin added such a great taste so Good thanks

Who doesn't love a little nostalgia? The Kodiak Special is where it's at…read more I've been seeing more negative reviews lately, and honestly, I just can't relate. This place has been serving great BBQ long before every trendy social media food craze came along. If you appreciate history, tradition, and supporting a longtime local business, this is the place for you. If it's not your style, that's fine--just move on instead of leaving bitter reviews. I'd absolutely recommend this place to friends, family, and anyone looking for old-school BBQ done right. The service has always been friendly and consistent. Don't forget to ask for the relish tray. Love that special treat....

Bear pit has been in Mission Hills forever and it's always delicious, service is great and the…read moreatmosphere is nostalgic and so welcoming It's great bbq Hope you enjoy it !

I Love this guy's cooking , tri tip,ribs ,coleslaw,chicken,potatoes,Mac n cheese... can't get…read moreenough. Cooked to perfection, melts in your mouth. Im hooked!

Darius Takeover BBQ is finger licking good!! The Ribs, Brisket are so tender!!!!…read more The Mac & Cheese is creamy cheese love on noodles, Cole slaw is great too, I love it because it's not super sweet like others are. Black beans are great too! And I'm the manager of the Encino Farmers market on Sundays and so excited to have him coming on Board!! But if you can't wait for the yummy awesome food go to his website to see what his locations him to be at my Market, you can see his pop-up on Saturdays in NOHO. So last night b had the above items I spoke of so today going to pick up some other items like Tri Tip. And whatever else he has smoking on the grill!! Thank you Darius for the love you put into your BBQ!!! Your not just an amazing pit master your truly a beautiful soul!!!

I ordered off Uber Eats and the food is very PRICEY!…read more However... Beef ribs: 10/10 SO damn good. Definitely the star of the entire order. Chili beans: 10/10 Also really good. No complaints! Baked beans: Honestly, it's pretty hard to mess up baked beans. Very standard, traditional baked beans, good. Potato wedges: 8/10 Also kind of hard to mess up potato wedges unless they're undercooked or overcooked. They were seasoned too. So pretty standard tasting Mac & cheese: 3/10 I'm from the South, so there's just a certain baseline I reference when it comes to mac & cheese, and unfortunately this wasn't it for me. I would never order the mac again. Cornbread: 10/10 Southern girl approved!!! Collard greens: 4/10 Not a slither of seasoning but I got them together myself. Fish: The fish is actually why I ordered in the first place because I was craving some fried catfish. On Uber Eats, it just said "fish of the day," and I assumed it was catfish. It was, in fact, NOT catfish. I'm not sure what type of fish it was, but it tasted more prepackaged like something you would get out of the frozen section at the grocery store vs. freshly prepared, so I was a little bummed about that. It didn't taste bad, but I probably wouldn't order it again. I was also extremely disappointed by the portion sizes of the sides. They are VERY small, especially considering the prices. I would definitely keep that in mind before ordering extra or individual sides. I still gave them 5 stars because those ribs were so damn good that they made up for everything else. I'd absolutely order the ribs again!

I have been wanting to try the bbq here for some time now and I finally got the opportunity to do…read moreso. Big Pops is accommodating to dine in and take out but I will say it can get quite warm in there as you are eating which for me it was they do however have two tower fans for the guests when it gets hot but it was just me in there and so it was off but still I run hot and I was starting to warm up while eating. With that being said I think the service for what is worth wasn't too bad. This place is nice and decorated and very quiet other than the radio playing in the back ground for the cooks. There are a few tables inside that can seat about maybe 10-12 max and they do have a drink fridge for you to choose what drinks to get. The person helping me out was very quiet didn't ask me if it was my first time or anything like that maybe just the hello and such but he was polite but just not welcoming I suppose. Since it was my first time I didn't know what to get and I think it's my fault for sure for not asking more and engaging on what I should get because I only asked like one question about the Tri tip plate and stuff but I ended up getting that and I will say it's quite a bit of food but at the same time it can get pricey I paid about & $29 for the plate with tip ended up being $34 in total. It's about what you would expect from a barbecue place. So with the plate or any plate as show on the menu, you do get a small side of fries, a piece of corn bread and a small side. The small sides are about $2.99 for and as shown in my picture they are that small like a tiny ramekin like double or triple the size of what you get from a sample from Costco. So the fries are fries nothing special about them but they were fried well and it had a nice crisp outside when you bite into it and the inside was cooked right. The corn bread was spectacular in my opinion! It was moist and flavorful with every bite! I used it to dip into my Tri tip plate because of the sauce and it was great! The Mac and cheese I will say was ok. Barely any flavor and it honestly reminded me of getting Mac and cheese from the grocery store hot deli like Ralph's and Vons because the consistency and texture of it really felt like it was made the same way and flavor wise as well because there as no flavor now with that being said I will say maybe my tastebuds were already saturated and nuked by the sauce from the Tri tip (which I'll get to a moment) and I couldn't appreciate the Mac and cheese as well or tell if it was salted or peppered or something. But to me it was pretty bland Mac and cheese like I wouldn't pay for it as my side. Now I will say that's the only side I got I didn't buy the others which I regret because maybe those sides were the ones you should be eating like the baked beans or collard greens which is the more essential sides of any barbecue eatery. So definitely the Mac and cheese was a miss for me and next time I'll get the other sides instead. Now the main course which is the Tri tip. I loved the Tri tip it was nice and tender and you get about 10 ounces and in the photo I have it's a lot! But I will say this, there are people who love wet barbecue and dry barbecue I'm a person who loves the dry barbecue as in only into dry rub and stuff I dont mind saucy meat but an over abundance of sauce just ruins it for me and this was the case for my Tri tip. In my photo you can definitely see that it is heavily drenched in their barbecue sauce which by the way is very flavorful no doubt about it! But it was so sweet and so saucy also it wasnt spicy as I had the option to choose from regular or spicy but there was no indication of spiciness at all. Like maybe I'm just used to spicy food but whatever is meant to make that spicy didn't really shine out and that was a big disappointment. I'm not really into sweet foods which most barbecue sauces are sweet or very vinegary based. This is very sweet and very acidic like my mouth was nuked. But the Tri tip itself was amazing! But my plate had too much sauce and it was too sweet and vinegary like I could swim in the sauce is how saucy it was. No matter how I felt about my saucy Tri tips that's how you're supposed to eat it as is because that's how they made it and it would be a disservice to do so differently. With that being said over all the food was great except for the bland Mac and cheese and heavily sweetened barbecue sauce all over my Tri tip other than that it was great.. Again if you're not into eating super saucy barbecue or you're a dry rub type of barbecue eater like me then I would warn you again that it gets saucy here hahaha at least for my plate. I'm still gonna come back because I'd like to try their other stuff and also it's a local business and helping support them and any other local business is great! So for me it's 4 stars out of 5! Thank you again! :)