Wood Fire BBQ

I am a bbq snob. no question bludso’s on labrea is the best I’ve tried in la. I crave the smoky taste not just roast chicken and sauce. I saw the smoker here but the flavor was faint. so the chicken test gives it a roast chain store chicken three, the slaw was very good, rice dry. this place didn’t solve my cravings, bludso tomorrow I guess

The waiter wrote himself 15% tip as «save you some trouble». I feel uncomfortable, but OK. When the credit card receipt came, the tip went up to 18%. I’m luck that I double checked the price. What kind of waiter write his own tip and change without notifying customers!!!
And when I caught the waiter cheating on the tip, other waiters in the restaurant laugh at him. I feel it’s not his first time doing it.
By the way, his service is not professional.
Food is OK. Overpriced due to the location.

I was craving bbq food after watching Wicked nearby. I should have read the Unilocal reviews before entering.
I ordered the baby back ribs and the husband ordered the veggie burger. I was really disappointed. The baby back ribs had a lot of fat on it. I’ve never ate fat on baby back ribs before! I also had a side of garlic mash potatoes and cole slaw. I did not like the garlic mash potatoes at all. I expected it to be creamy but instead, it was very dry and clumpy.
Sorry, but I don’t think this place will last long. It has potential if the food was better. 2 stars for the good service though!

My love wanted to eat BBQ so we thought to try this place out. Our server was great, attentive and friendly. Was kind to suggest a side salad as one of my sides since I still wanted to eat semi healthy. He got kudos for trying to keep my girly figure in mind. The plate is large and can be shared for 2. We shared the 3 meat plate. Chicken, beef tri tip and pork rib. Meat was good and I l
iked the sweet BBQ sauce. I had my salad and my love had the mac cheese. He wasn’t too fond of it nor the meat. Everyone’s palate is different. I thought it was good. Cornbread was delicious with corn bits inside. Overall my experience was great. I would come back here again. :)

So, my father always told me «Take a chance, Columbus did…» Today I took a chance and decided to have BBQ for lunch while I was in LA.
The service was great. It was fast, friendly, and professional. The ambience was casual and the view was terrific. Sitting on the third floor terrace overlooking the Chinese Theater courtyard is a great place for lunch and the smell from the restaurant gave me high hopes.
The food was average BBQ. Bottom line. I had the two meat combo with beef brisket and baby back ribs. The brisket was tender but bland, the ribs were fall-​off-​the-​bone tender and the sauce was okay. My letdown was that the sauces had little tang, there was a smokey flavor but no zip. Honestly, they are very close on flavor but miss the mark. My sides were the real miss. The Mac and cheese was lumpy and bland, the fries were nothing special.
For being close and the service I’d give them 3.5 stars. The real downgrade was the sauces and sides. This place has potential but who was I kidding to try BBQ in LA?

Ever have one of those days when your schedule is thrown completely off and it’s past 9 PM, you’re not in your home city, you haven’t had dinner yet and more than half of the nearby restaurants have already closed on a weeknight?
Well if you haven’t figured it out yet that’s what brought me to Wood Fire BBQ recently. Wood Fire BBQ is located inside the Hollywood Highland Mall. The hotel I was staying at was a mere three blocks away, and I recalled having a fairly good BBQ sandwich here about a year ago.
The restaurant was still very busy with lots of tables filled both inside and out. I was greeted at the front of the restaurant and promptly seated in a large, comfortable booth inside looking directly at one of the prep stations. My waitress came by, greeted me, introduced herself, handed me a menu and placed a set of utensils in front of me. I ordered a soft drink and a glass of water right away. Don’t think it’s weird when you see the same gentleman who buses the tables, grab clean glasses from another area and bring you your drinks. As I remembered I believe this was the same gentleman who served me my drinks a year ago. That’s just the way they do things here.
I was hungry having not eaten in about 8 hours so I decided to order something heavy. I didn’t have to be in the office until 10:30 the next morning so I knew I had plenty of time to let my food digest. I went with the 2 Meat Combo and chose the BBQ Chicken Half and the Baby Back Ribs as my meat choices and Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Corn on the Cob as my sides. Looking back I probably should not have ordered the corn since this was already out of season and what I was served was probably pulled out of the freezer. The combo also came with cornbread.
The wait for my food was rather long. Considering that most of the items I ordered were probably already cooked and just needed heating up I couldn’t understand why it took so long. Seeing some of the staff standing around playing with their phones and chit-​chatting with each other didn’t set off a good impression either.
After maybe a 25 minute wait one of the servers brought me my food (
). I dug in immediately starting with the cornbread. It was dry and tasteless. Definitely needed a gulp of liquid to wash it down. The mashed potatoes were very good and the garlic in there was very prominent. I enjoyed that. The chicken half was huge. I started with the chicken drumstick and thigh and both were moist and quite good. The breast meat however was definitely on the dry side. I might note though that the chicken would have been a bit under-​seasoned if not for the sweet BBQ sauce on there.
My ribs were super meaty, but they gave me the end area with all the soft bones and thick globs of fat. Flavorful mostly from the sweet sauce and super meaty the pork was tender but definitely not fall-​off-​the-​bone tender. I managed to pick off most of the meat which was a lot.
The corn on the cob is served Mexican style slathered with a mayo-​like sauce and dusted in cheese. It was still hot when they served this. The kernels on the corn were huge and unfortunately very tough. As much as I enjoyed the serving style I couldn’t finish even half of the corn for it would have been an incredible workout for my teeth.
My waitress came by not once, but twice to check up on how things were and even refilled my drinks twice. All in all, the food filled me up which was exactly what I wanted. It’s not the best BBQ I’ve had but I’m glad they were there and still open when most of the other restaurants were not.

Came in here as a last resort, other restaurants were full on New Year’s Eve. Sat quickly and had a great waitress. Very responsive, quick and attentive.
Good wasn’t great. The corn although tasted weird was pretty good. Fries good, tri-​tip was okay. Good flavor. The cornbread was Awful! Worst ever.
Could use a facelift, but decent if in a hurry and just hungry.

Solid BBQ to appease the bbq rib cravings. Ate here for dinner after I saw a show at the Dolby Theater. Nice staff casual environment.

I’m a huge BBQ fan and have a smoker in my backyard that’s got years of use… this was not bad, meat was cooked well (I had beef and pork ribs) along with the mac and cheese. I’d recommend whoever is tending the meats to use wood. there was no smoke flavor at all and both the rub and sauce were to sweet… it’s sweet on sweet on sweet. you need some tang, in the sauce… some heat and salt in the rub!!! Try gates BBQ sauce to see what I’m talking about (although I make my own :-).I use pecan and cherry wood but in this case any wood would be better.
Switch it up, make some adjustments and you might have something. but keep making sweet BBQ and even the tourists will stop going.

Our food was pretty mediocre. The place was practically empty, but maybe that is because it was a Thursday night?
My pulled pork sandwich was okay. the meet was really good, but the bun was not and got soggy very quickly. I also found it very odd that my pulled pork came with no bbq sauce, because it was on the table. It was just weird, and it is always nice when the bbq sauce is the same temperature as the sandwich.
I ordered the mac’n’cheese as my side. The cheese part was pretty good, but the noodles were really mushy. Also, I really truly hated the crumb crust, it was really gross.

Waiter was attentive and 2 other staff members came to make sure we were good. Food was delicious and plenty. My daughter and I sat outdoors overlooking Hollywood and Highland. Great meal. Great time.

We were at the Loews Hotel for a convention so this was close by.
We ordered the Woodhouse BBQ Burger and because I wasn’t that hungry ordered the appetizer Sliders (3 combo, brisket, bbq chicken and pulled pork). First, the sliders were a huge serving! The pulled pork was delicious but too much juice/​broth made the bottom bun a soggy mess. BBQ chicken was also pretty good. By the time got to the brisket I was too full but wasn’t as impressed with the taste as much but their mild bbq sauce was also delicious (we didn’t care for their spicy sauce, bit too salty and more like Buffalo/Frank’s sauce) Okay. the coleslaw needs help, more flavorful sauce. it was kinda peppery and pretty dry so didn’t add it on top of the slider as waitress said it was intended. Burger was very good, nice and smoky and had quite a few onion rings on top vs the 1 – 2 you usually see.
Our waitress was busy but kept our drinks well maintained. the hostess seemed bored, spent bit of time on her cell but just an observation, the waitress seated us etc.
If there was a «half» mark, they’d be getting 3 ½ stars but burger tipped it over!

Sorry. It tasted like someone boiled a pork chop, shredded it and put some ketchup on it.
Good service though

This is the last choice any food consumer should go for food in the area. My experience at this establishment was just fine, until the food came out.
First off, we ordered the 3 meat combo between the 2 of us. We ordered baby back ribs, the St. Louis ribs and the brisket. Our sides were the mac ‘n cheese, the garlic mashed potatoes and what was supposed to be corn bread.
Now this is around 430pm during a lull, and was quiet. We were greeted and sat at a booth (that was still sticky and was not clean by any standard)
Ignoring this minor hiccup in cleanliness, we proceeded to order drinks which, to the servers credit, came out prompt.
After a few minutes of agreeing upon the afformentioned order, we placed it with the server, who mentions to us that they were out of corn bread. So he offered us rolls (more like hamburger buns) instead. Cordially, we accept the offer and excuse this issue once again.
We wait for our food for a standard amount of time. But when the food comes out, the dinner goes south.
First off, the mashed potatoes had no hint of garlic flavor, or any flavor for that matter. They were barely luke warm and chunky on top of that. The mac and cheese was almost inedible and I later was quoted telling the manager that it was garbage. No flavor and it seemed as though the food had been sitting for a while, or reheated. Not fresh at all. No bread comes out with it either, we had to ask for it, twice. And when the bread did come out, it was burnt, not toasted, burnt, like rock hard, black on both sides.
That’s just the beginning, the brisket that was served was also burnt, not chard or blackened, but burnt. It turned to ashy soot in my mouth.
2 items burnt, 2 sides aweful, we didn’t even touch the mac and cheese or the potatoes after the first bite.
The server comes over to ask how the food is and I politely inform him of the status of our food. He asks if I’d like to see a manager.
Of course I wanted to.
While I wait to speak with the manager, I Unilocal the restaurant. Come to find out, this seems to be a trend with this restaurant.
I told the manager about our poor quality of food. Also informing him of the frequency of the reviews.
Long story short, he gave us a 7.50 discount.
1 star, AWFUL food, need to replace chef, lousy service and attention to major details, and no action to fix the problem.
DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY HERE!

How can I put Wood Fire BBQ in context? If Wood Fire BBQ was the first BBQ you ever ate, you’d think it was great. However, if Wood Fire BBQ was located in Texas, there would probably be a hanging.
A real BBQ place has a smoker out front. Unfortunately, the only smokers out front of Wood Fire BBQ were the Euro tourists who sadly think this is real American BBQ. That’s basically the story with Wood Fire BBQ… it’s for tourists, not BBQ enthusiasts.
What’s wrong? Maybe I’m picky, but the main ingredient of a good dish should be ‘flavor’. Wood Fire had none– No smoky taste, no meaty taste, just a tender and fatty texture. The only flavor came from the BBQ sauces Wood Fire provided… speaking of which:
A real BBQ place would never trust a generic sauce to taint the flavor of its meat – a real BBQ place makes a homemade sauce to complement the flavor of their meat. Unfortunately, Wood Fire’s philosophy is a bit different as their ‘signature’ sauce is undoubtedly a forgery, as I’ve tasted that same sauce from a bottle at Ralph’s. As for the sides: the fries were fine, but the beans should have had the letters BBQ omitted from their name as no trace of barbecue flavor accompanied this bowl of randomness. Noticing a trend here?
If you want to ignore Unilocal’s 2.5 star review and still decide to give Wood Fire BBQ a try, trust the reviews of actual patrons you see leaving the place. Don’t ask them their opinion, rather, take a look at the not-​so-​empty plates they leave behind. Have you ever seen cornbread left untouched? That should have said it all.

Really nice place in nice area. I came by to check it out and was very interested in the menu options. I couldn’t help but try the mac n’ cheese burger since it was so unique. Loved the burger and fries. Very good service and friendly staff. Will be checking this place out again when I bring my wife for some more mac n’ cheese. :P

We went here for a quick bite to eat after walking around the strip. Wood Fire BBQ is located at the corner of the mall, you will have to really search to find it.
The service was quick and all staff were very friendly.
The food is where the 3 stars come in. Too much seasoning on the fries, and the Mac and cheese was just not good overall.
Find a better place nearby.

Wow, this place so bad! Service was decent, waiter was nice enough but wow they food was terrible. We got mac and cheese which was clumpy and on the cold side. Mashed potatoes were worse than boxed mashed potatoes. The beans were extremely bland, but were ok if you added bbq sauce to them. Bbq chicken was ok for the dark meat but the white meat was over cooked. Thr tri tip was all fatty and chewy. Corn bread was the worst of it all, it actually tasted sour, I almost had to spit it out.
Take my word of advice and avoid this place like I wish I did.

**This is simply based on their take out**
Oh yes I love their beef ribs! Their full rack is well enough for 3 people, it may not look like a lot, but their beef ribs taste like 6 pieces of tasty steak bone in smothered in a pretty good BBQ sauce. Probably some of the best beef ribs I’ve had in a while.
Don’t know about the bad reviews, but it will make me think twice about ordering the brisket, but personally I love Blue Cheese so I think I would try the Mac and Cheese.
I’d come back here with my wife or with friends… and if not to eat there then to buy and take to some place else.
enjoy.

This place is about a month old, says the servers, but it will garner a huge clientele in no time. The food is delicious, and I mean terrific. Tons of sides to choose from: Rice, corn, fried okra, collard greens, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, onion rings, beans, fried green tomatoes, you name it… got tons of additives… But let’s not talk about just the sides, the main thing to come here for is probably the BBQ.
And wow, the BBQ dazzles. For two, we got the 3 BBQ platter: Baby back ribs, beef ribs, and pulled pork. The cook accidentally gave us brisket, but the server decided to let us have the 4^th meat since it was a kitchen mistake. I tell ya, each meat was great. tender, fall-​off-​the-​bone style. Cooked to my delight.
They also carry decent salads, burgers, and sandwiches. I am sure there is something here for anyone.
Happy Easter!