Hi. My name is Mary. I write about food. Here’s a post about a place Jake and I visited recently in El Cajon called Buckboard’s Barbeque and Brew! It is a potential spot for our rehearsal dinner next year!
Buckboard’s Barbeque and Brew has been a catering company in San Diego for years and they just recently opened up their own restaurant. The restaurant is not too far from our wedding venue and we were looking for a potential spot for the rehearsal dinner. I’m really into planning and I like doing things far in advance. What can I say?
The service was pretty friendly here. We got plenty of recommendations on what we should try and the staff would come around to check if we needed anything while we were eating our meal.
Buckboard’s Barbeque and Brew has three different BBQ sauces to try. I don’t remember them all specifically but I do remember I liked the “OG” sauce since it was a bit sweeter than the others.
For the sides we tried: Mac & Cheese Balls [$6], Wedge Fries [$5], and Cornbread with Maple Butter [$4].
The cornbread was outstanding! It has a generous portion of butter melting all over it and the cornbread is tender, a little sweet, and amazingly delicious.
The wedge fries were okay. Little bit on the soft side for my liking.
The mac & cheese balls are a MUST ORDER item. They are super duper cheesy on the inside and it’s so incredibly creamy. I loved the flavor of the cheese and how luscious these were. The crispy coating is the perfect vessel for this babies, too. I was in love after one bite!
We actually got to talking with one of the partners, Crystal, who we told that we were considering using them for our rehearsal dinner. Not only was she incredibly friendly and answered all of our questions, but after hearing about how we love the onion rings at Phil’s BBQ, she brought us a little sample of two onion rings for us to try!
The onion rings at Buckboard’s Barbeque and Brew are amazing. The onions on the inside are smoked and then they’re battered and fried which creates an amazing layer of flavor. 10 out of 10, would eat again!
Jake and I also shared some beef ribs. You get 3 ribs for $16 and these were MEATY suckers. They had a good “give” on the bone and the meat has a great flavor and tenderness that we loved.
Probably my favorite item though was “The Tip” sandwich, which is a tri tip sandwich on telera bread with cheese. It’s literally just meat, cheese, and bread and honestly you don’t need anything else! I’m not usually a big fan of tri tip but the tri tip at Buckboard’s Barbeque and Brew has a wonderful seasoning to it that enhances the flavor of the meat. I actually ate my half of this sandwich the next day for lunch and I think it tasted even better the next day. The flavors really developed and the meat was just as good as when I had sampled it the day before.
After coming here and sampling the food, Jake and I were pretty much on board for having Buckboard’s BBQ next year (and well, let’s be honest – we’ll probably come back sooner than that just to try more things on their menu – it’s delicious).
Buckboard’s Barbeque and Brew
975 Greenfield Dr
El Cajon, CA 92021
Just for fun, here’s a shot from our engagement photos which were partially taken at Belmont Park.
Why yes, Jake is actually licking that giant ice cream cone while I, on the other hand, am just semi-pretending to lick it.
Photo by our amazing photographer, Mel of Goodnickles Photography!
The end.
well that makes me hunger!! love this content hope to see more blog post like this. keep up the good work!