Burrell's BBQ Pit

After reading about Burrell's BBQ Pit at Elmo's Monster Munching, I decided to make a big detour on my way home from San Diego. The joint is a small shack in a residential neighborhood and has a dining area out in the back. Inside, there is a wall adorned with numerous newspaper and magazine clippings all praising Burrell for the great BBQ he churns out. Hmm...we'll be the judge of that!

I made my stop at around 1:30pm on Saturday. Kinda late, I know. Traffic was god awful on the 5 and I was really worried about getting served dried up leftovers from the lunch rush. Burrell's lunch plates are moderately priced, ranging from $8-10. With the lunch plates you get meat (ribs, chicken, sausage, tri-tip, etc), one side dish of your choice, and one cube of cornbread. Dinner is two to three bucks more and you get an additional side. I bought three lunch plates:


Beef Ribs with Potato Salad:
I was really disappointed with the beef ribs. The meat was a bit too dry and tough. Furthermore, it lacked flavor. No offense, but I've made better ribs at home...I hope these ribs were just a fluke. On the other hand, the cornbread and potato salad were awesome.


Pork Ribs with Baked Beans:
These were much better than the beef ribs, although I do wish the meat was more tender. I guess they just sat under the heat lamp for too long--my fault for coming late. The pork had some good meaty flavor, but some more BBQ sauce would have been nice (to make up for the dryness). Baked beans were very enjoyable, striking a perfect balance between savory and sweet. I've had baked beans at quite a few BBQ joints and I have to say, Burrell's is totally kickass.


Baby-back Ribs with Candied Yams:
These ribs were just fantastic. The meat was tender, flavorful, and fell right off the bone. I don't understand how there can be such a discrepancy between the baby-back ribs and the others. I really don't. My only beef is that the ribs were sitting in a really watery sauce. Monster Munching's Elmo raised a similar complaint. It could have been condensation, though. After all, I did not open the take-out boxes until I arrived home half an hour later. Regardless, the ribs were pretty damn good, though I've had better at Phil's BBQ in San Diego.

Oh yeah. The yams were good too.


To be honest, I don't share the same enthusiasm for Burrells' BBQ Pit as all those journalists who wrote the articles posted on Burrell's wall. The ribs weren't awful, but they weren't great either. I've had better ribs at Chile's, Claim Jumper, Lucille's, Phil's, and a ton of other places I don't remember. Sure the prices are great at Burrell's, but they are the same (roughly) as Phil's. And Phil totally kicks Burrell's ass. While it was fun exploring Santa Ana, (I got lost finding Burrell's...) but I won't be making a second trip.


**EDIT 4/6/08: Guess I'll give this place another shot. I dig Charlie's tastes, so I'm going to trust him on his comment below.



Burrell's BBQ Pit
(714) 547-7441
305 N Hesperian St
Santa Ana, CA 92703