Looney’s SmokeHouse BBQ

I made a Unilocal account just to say,
These were the BEST nachos I have ever had in my life, and I have eaten so many nachos at so many places I can’t even keep count. I have driven to Berkeley from Davis, CA SOLELY to eat these nachos, and I’m crying over the closing of this wonderful restaurant.
Shame on you Berkeley, for not giving this restaurant the patronage it deserves.
Come to Davis!!! We will support you here!

So as I’ve mention in my previous review, I was going to give this place a decent review after going here all summer. That was going to give me a chance to taste a variety of foods and see what their service was really like. I mean, sometimes you can’t based everything on a first visit.
Anyway…
I found their food to be very good. From a BBQ standards, I’ve tried their pulled pork sandwich and their brisket. Both I found to be well done and not dry at all. Plus the bonus of having a chance to try different sauce was also a plus. I was intrigued by their spice sauces, but worried that if I went with them and didn’t like them, then I couldn’t finished the meal. This gave me the chance to try without ruining my meal.
As for their appetizers, the prices maybe high, but their portions are nothing to sneeze at. The size of food they give you is enough to make a meal with leftovers. In my option, if you are with a group and looking to snack on something before the meal, then one should be enough to feed 6 or 7 people easy. But if you’re looking to have it as a meal for yourself, I suggest getting either the ‘Pick Any 3′ or ‘Pick Any 5′ this gives you a chance to try multiple appetizers in smaller portions and no worries about getting tired of just the one you ordered. Warning though, their Hush Puppies are spicy. And their chili fries aren’t what one might think they are. Usually, when one orders this, they think chili beans and ground beef (like you can get from a can). But here they have sasuage, strips of beef, and sweeten tomateos.
Personally, I found nothing wrong with their service the few times I actually sat down to eat inside. Being that I usually came on a Monday evening, I took meals outside where the dancing was. But on times when I showed up before dancing, they sat me relatively quickly and checked on me regularly. When it came time to pay the check, I just went to the front to pay. I find, in places like these, it’s the best way to go.

The building itself looks very much out of place, almost like a child erected the structure from various Lego rivals and then chose the colors because he had too many crayons not to use more than three.
As for the food, the wings were A-​OK. The sliders were a great deal for Happy Hour, but the pork is definitely not up to snuff. Their BBQ sauces are not quite outstanding, but sufficient. It’s just hard to dress up tepid, tasteless meat.
I pass by here enough to think about grabbing a meal here. I need to learn better judgment.

Bottom line: Overpriced food and poor service mean I won’t return.
The worst thing about this place was the service. During dinner on Sunday the place was not crowded at all, but it took nearly 45 min to get our food (for 2 people). Things like ribs and brisket aren’t cooked to order so why in the world did it take so long? I don’t know, because the waitress never bothered to check on us or give us an update.
Our meal came just before we were prepared to walk out. Although the food was slightly better than the service, we wouldn’t have missed much by walking out. The ribs and brisket were swimming in sauce (why not let people add their own sauce to their liking? what are you trying to hide under all that sauce) and the ribs were not very tender at all. The brisket seemed prepared pretty well but there was way too much sauce. The sides were hit or miss. The cornbread was too sweet for my liking and the collard greens too spicy. The green beans were bland and not southern style at all.

I was really sketched out by this place because everything was dirty and the patrons were kind of shady, too. I came here with my friend who read good reviews on Unilocal,but I think we both ended up regretting it. It was a weekday evening, so the place was mostly empty except for some people watching the basketball game at the bar.
Not only was the food expensive for the poor quality we were getting, our food was greasy and really, really heavy. I had the Southwest Burger and my friend had the North Carolina Pulled Pork. There was just so much sauce in my burger and the bread was way too soggy. The meat was juicy, but in a really oily way and I felt gross after a few bites.
The one good thing was that the portions were huge. Not knowing this, we also ordered nachos, which turned out to be a gigantic plate of nachos, guacamole, salsa, and all that good stuff. Those were soggy, too. Needless to say, we packed our food to go and ended up giving it to some people over at People’s Park.
It might be a fun place to hang out at when a big game is on, but I am personally never going to set foot in there again.

So, after reading a lot of reviews of this place (positive and negative), my curiosity was peaked enough to do an in-​depth review. I decided to try to include in my review some of the things that others had complained of to get a better sense of the place.
Criteria: Food would be ordered on site to go during a typical high volume time so that I could get a read on staff response, speed of order turnaround, quality of food in a worst case scenario (i.e. sealed up, jostled around in a car, finally sampled 20 minutes past optimal eating time, near zero probability of any presentation).
Food Selected: Full rack of baby back ribs (so I could sample from the edges which can be leathery, the middle to check for cook temp consistency and ¼ in to sample the sweet spot)
Sauce Selected: Carolina Spicy (so that I could taste the meat without having my taste buds overwhelmed by capsicum, yet still get a feel for how they balance heat vs. sweet)
Sides: Cornbread (based on others reviews), Sweet Potato (as this simple dish is deceptively easy to get wrong).
Results on staff and order experience: Very Good
Place was reasonably full but not packed at the time I went (7:30 on a Saturday night).
Staff was pleasant to deal with, took the order promptly, presented the check promptly.
Order was delivered faster that expected — under 15 minutes
Note: I had hoped the place would be packed to see it at its worst, but it was only full, so my experience is based on that.
Results on Ribs: Good
The end rib (which can be like chewing on leather when done poorly) was a bit dry but not dessicated. I tried it without sauce and it was passable. With a little sauce for added moisture, it was reasonable.
I took the next rib from the end and it was fairly tender.
The middle and ¼ in ribs were very good with a nice texture.
Overall: somewhat better than T-​Rex and far superior to Ernest & Jones
Side Note: These ribs are not «fall off the bone». However, true «fall of the bone ribs are braised (or boiled). These are tender but have texture (which is what you want in a smoked product. If fall off the bone is your thing, I would recommend getting a Safeway slab, your favorite sauce and an oven bag. Dump it all in the bag and cook it in the oven (add some liquid smoke in there, too) and call it a day.
Results on Sauce: Very Good.
Good balance on sweet vs. heat vs. astringency.
Side note: Do yourself a favor and get a small sample of your target sauce before anyone puts it on your food. Sauce taste is a very personal thing.
Results on Sides: Overall Ok
Spicy Cornbread — I found it a bit dry with not much heat. It has potential, but I personally think it needs a bit of a hydroscopic sweetener (like honey) to bring more moisture and maybe a jalapeño dice for the heat, but again heat is a very personal thing.
Candied Sweet Potatoes — I found a bit too sweet for me but not overly so. Again, I prefer a more savory note to my sweet, but this was well within the ballpark. It was not sickening sweet by any means, but I think with a bit more spice in the recipe, the place would have a home run here.
Overall results: A good, solid restaurant for barbeque, with great staff and OK sides. Worth a visit to on a typical night. Good as a take out option.

I would actually give them a 3.5 stars.
It’s a great place to chill with friends. Always lots of seating and great upbeat atmosphere. Our apartment always comes on Wednesday nights around 7pm so we can get the happy hour sliders (BRISKET!) and the $ 2 pints. Then get $ 1 fish tacos after 7pm. I wouldn’t say they’re the tastiest fish tacos but I find myself wanting to come back, so they’re decently good. Really fun place to chill. Never had the ribs but they look yummy.

Ummmm I understand people wanting to keep their place «their place» and a local secret or whatever, but me and two friends waited patiently for twenty minutes (all three of us got to use the restroom, check out the décor, smile at patrons and waitstaff alike) and yet no one asked us if we’d like a table, to sit at the bar, our favorite color, etc. At the very least, a fellow customer could have told us if there was a special procedure to follow for getting their attention. I’ve worked in several restaurants and bars and found the lack of friendliness unappealing to say the least.
We left. Our forty dollars we were ready to spend still tucked warmly in my hands. Got Thai food and friendly service around the corner.

An Homage
I feel silly, considering all the negative reviews of Looney’s, but lying won’t do– this sticky, inartistic restaurant makes the best burger I’ve ever had (in the world!)
My particular burger was incredibly juicy and meltingly tender. Beautifully pink on the inside, seductively burnt on the outside. An umami explosion of buttery, grilled flavor, the crux of wonderfulness but a thin slice of cheese draping the top of the sizzling patty, melting slightly down the sides. The best burger in the world culminated with a warm, toasted bun, which was thick enough to hold the heavy meat and juice sweating onto the plate of cool slaw and crunchy fries.
Maybe I just got incredibly lucky. I have no glowing words for the hush puppies or the brisket. I did have my amazing burger during the lull between Happy Hour and dinner. Perhaps it’s easier to let artistry flow when you don’t have hoards of drunk diners howling orders at you. But I can’t really explain this phenomenon, I only know that it was. Still, a caveat: The best burger in the world was also the most expensive burger in the world, pricing in at a crashingly steep $ 15. I have yet to buy another.
Bottom Line: Inexplicably heavenly.

So my entire apartment decided to have a hangout — but where? not in our cramped place! So we trekked a few blocks across to Looney’s BBQ for their $ 2 happy hour pints, wings, pulled-​pork sandwiches, and tacos.
The buffalo wings are spicy and go perfectly with some Blue Moon/​Fat Tire. After 3 pitchers, we were happily sharing childhood stories and laughing like maniacs. Thank goodness the atmosphere is already loud, so we enjoyed our tacos after waiting ’til 7pm and walked home.
If you come for their happy hour, definitely try the pulled-​pork sandwich bites! The fish tacos are more like fish tortilla with lots of salad on top. But for $ 1 each, I will be back again.

Just a hop and a skip from where I lived for 7 years. My how much the neighborhood has changed.
After hanging out for a few hours as the Lawrence Hall of Science, we came here for some beer and wings. Tuesday night is $ 2.00 tacos so we ordered a bunch of those as well. Wings are pretty good and the tacos were a great deal. Skip the fries. The pitcher of beer was also super cheap so this place is pretty much perfect for the college student.
But if I guy took me on a first date here, I wouldn’t be returning his calls.

I’m not gonna lie, I generally enjoy Looney’s, having lived right next to this fine establishment during sophomore year. I finally came back tonight and was crushingly disappointed with the service, despite the awesome Irish accent of the waitress. Food was good, generous portions as expected from Looney’s
Now comes my griping. The food kick’s ass here, but the service could seriously be better. Sitting upstairs, I felt like we were beyond the pale of the Iron Curtain in East Germany: completely ignored and left to stew in loneliness and destitution. The waitress treated us like we were struck with the bubonic plague and our table was a quarantine area. Water glasses were left unfilled for the entire evening and I had to run down three times to ask for the check… and that was just to get the bloody check delivered to our table; each run down resulting in 10 minutes of crushing silence and unattention. Two more runs down the stairs and a shrill shriek from my friend from the top floor was what it took for the waitress to deliver it back up the stairs.
We arrived at 7:20. We finished eating around 8:00. We left Looney’s at 8:45. Now, you might be saying: «Gabe, you seem to have fallen into a chronological paradox where time ceased to move forward for 45 fricking minutes.» No my friends, I possess no such flux capacitor, just the misfortune to be served by Looney’s waitstaff.
TL;DR: Yeah it’s good food. Too bad you’ll be constantly thirsty and when you leave it’ll be time for breakfast.

I’ve got to say, I’m not a huge fan of meat but this BBQ place is pretty good. I ordered the chicken, beef, and ribs… yes, I eat alot… the meat was super tender and the sauces were excellent compliments to the dish! I recommend going with friends so you can order more and try more stuff!
Draw backs to this place is that there are alot of drunk guys there cause it’s almost like a sports bar, so BE AWARE! It’s not really THAT bad but just watch out :)

For the longest time I thought the service at Yankee Doodles was bad. This place is beyond repair. I came to watch the NBA Finals and was pushed to leave by the server, Arianna.
Arrived after a few minutes into the first quarter, I went up stairs and sat at the middle table, eager for my friend to arrive to watch a good game. It must have been 6:15pm but Arianna did not come to greet us with the menu until 7:50pm. In between that time, she was busy serving larger tables around me, despite the fact that I had arrived earlier.
She finally came by after the arrival of my friend, and proceeded to ask whether we like to order. I replied by saying that we have yet to look at the menu and «it has been a while» since I have been sitting there. She was very reactionary and came back 10 minutes later and threw down the menu on our table, avoiding eye contact. My friend noticed her dismissive body language and rude behavior but we kept our focus on the game. We had trouble making decisions on what to order and by the time the food arrived, my friend had already left to speak at the local city council meeting.
My friend’s departure was the worst thing that could happen. Arianna forgot about my diet coke until I asked about it after my meal. When it finally came, it was without the cherries that I had asked for. My order of ¹⁄₃ pork spare ribs ($ 13.50) came in four gigantic pieces that were tender and smoky but the supposed Texas spicy sauce was boring without pulse. My collard greens were nicely anchored by pork pieces but it was also too buttery while my boiled string beans were bland and tasteless.
While the food was barely passing for a sports bar, the sound system was awful and difficult to comprehend. Beside the large screen the other smaller TVs were a good 3 seconds behind real time.
By the time I finished my food, Arianna stopped by to ask «if I needed anything else». Already displeased with how she mishandled my visit while never came back to refill my water and diet coke, I told her «no». She then proceeded to give me the bill at the beginning of the third quarter knowing that I was there to watch the game. About five minutes later, she came back to grab the bill and asked if I was ready to pay. Her tone was haste and it was obvious that she wanted me to leave. As I looked around at the tables nearby, no one else was ordering anything new by that time, but no one had to put up with the same bullshit either.
Disgusted by the overall experience, I packed up and left without finishing the game. It was a good game too and I only hoped that I had a different server. One star for beating Yankee Doodles for the rudest service in a sports bar. It was awful.

Although I have not physically been to the restaurant, we had Looney’s BBQ delivered to our office. I have never been able to get good pork here in this area. I like different kinds of BBQ and whereas other local places do have great ribs, I haven’t found pulled or sliced pork.
Well this place makes the BEST NC style pork with the vinegar based sauce. Recently I ordered some NC BBQ online from a place in Raleigh. It was good, but this is better.
And then there are all these different kind of BBQ sauces. The hottest one is to die for. I even took some meat and sauce home. Jack loved it!
We’ll check out the restaurant soon. I hope I won’t have to downgrade it because it’s a «Sports Bar».

Every Thursday night we make it a point to stop at Beckett’s and have a drink, and then wander around trying to find some place new to eat.
So today, we decide on Looney’s. We went knowing that it was going to be a bit expensive, but we figured if we had just one beer it wouldn’t be anymore expensive than just having a few drinks at the bar.
We walked in and the guy behind the bar was very friendly and welcoming. We chose our seat and perused the menu. We decided on a pulled pork sandwich (spicy) and a beef brisket sandwich (spicy). The beers we chose were a Drakes ale (very hoppy and very good) and a pilsner.
We decided on fries after contemplating cornbread. Now that I’m reading these reviews it sounds like I should’ve tried some cornbread.
As we waited for our food we enjoyed our drinks and discussed the variety of regional BBQ sauces at our table.
The beef brisket sandwich was good, a bit sweet, and sorta spicy.
The pulled pork sandwich… now THAT was spicy. I can handle my spice and after the first few bites I was a bit saddened that it hadn’t been really spicy.
But then those bites build up…
and my mouth was on fire by the end! It didn’t help that I’d doused my fries in Spicy BBQ and tabasco. They were delicious nonetheless.
My only advice is not to get that Drakes IPA until after you’ve finished the food because the flavors clashed terribly.
Next time I plan on getting a «pitcher» we would’ve today, but hey funds are low and I should be writing a dissertation (instead of Unilocaling).
Very delicious… I only wish I still received those coupon books in the mail that had this place’s coupons in it a few months ago.

So it was a rainy day out and nobody is in Berkeley because most of the students already took off for Thanksgiving. Seems like a perfect day to grab lunch out. Our party of seven arrived at Looney’s and sure enough, there were only three other tables in the place during lunch hour. Perfect, we’ll get in and out and back to work in no time at all…
… except that 45 minutes later, we still didn’t have our food. Kind of problematic when you have a lunch HOUR and have to get back to work. Half of us got our food, the other half waited an additional 10 minutes (Clock is now at 12:55pm of the 12:00pm-1:00pm lunch break). And we ordered nothing even remotely exotic… two hamburgers, two salads, some chicken fingers, and two daily specials.
We ate so fast that we all commented that we had terrible indigestion on the way back to work. Took a while to pay, because they put the wrong items on the seperate checks. Barely got an apology for the near-​hour wait for the lunch specials. And the one server was short with one of our party members when she asked for a seperate check.
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that one party of seven, during lunch hour, when there are only about 10 other people in the place, should not overwhelm a restaurant. Sad for them; we work half a block away and all seven of us were really frustrated today. I think they just lost a lot of revenue in the upcoming months…

BBQ that made my BBQ, finger licking, meat devouring family members happy!
BUT and by but I mean a really really really big BUT… this place is so understaffed it lost a couple stars… we had one waitress for the whole top floor and she was this tiny little skinny girl who was literally running from table to table, up and down the stairs, you could tell why she was skinny from all of that effort she put forth and we still waited FOREVER for our food… and then when our food finally did come, only half of it did and then we still had to wait more until the other half of our table’s orders came along. The wait definitely ruined a lot of the meal for us, especially since we came from a football game which always makes someone hungry!!!
You can either eat cheaply here or for quite a bit of money for a bbq spot. I got the pulled pork sandwich which came with their house made potato chips which were actually pretty tasty so in my book you don’t have to pay extra to substitute fries if you like chips! And my pulled pork was pretty darn tasty too! But their wheat bread really can’t stand up next to this pulled pork because my sandwich bread fell apart a few times… so get the roll and or ask for it toasted or something because this meat is juicy and kills the bread!
My dad second with me on that note. He got their bbq spare rib sandwich and he LOVED the meat and the sauce, but his bread too fell apart and he ended up eating the meat with his hands and fork which is more like how eating bbq food should be anyway. Real bbq needs to be a little messy right?
My uncle and my cousin both got combo plates which are the pricier choices on the menu but my uncle who is an avid meat and bbq eater said he would easily drive back to looney’s for their bbq sauce and ribs all the way from sacramento a 90 minute drive away! And that is saying a lot I think! BUT he did say that he wanted faster service… because keeping hungry people waiting that long just makes them grumpier… low blood sugar you know?
The other downside was not enough tvs upstairs. They need a few more on the walls upstairs so their projection screen isn’t the only perspective you can see, since some people have to face the opposite direction while eating, so looneys, hire some extra staff and get a few more tvs and then we’ll come back!

When my coworker from Alabama suggested we all go for BBQ today I was all for it. I’d never been to Looney’s and when I saw the Unilocal reviews I got nervous. I shouldn’t have. Lunch was delicious. I went with 8 other co-​workers and we all sat on the back porch. The music was nice, the padded recliners were comfortable, there’s free parking in the back, and even free WiFi (username is «guest», ask your waitress for the password) so we could all geek out.
Our waitress was a lovely Ethiopian woman. She didn’t know much about BBQ since she’d just started working there, and her cool Windows Mobile order taking device wasn’t working for her, but she was very friendly.
Most of the guy’s got the $ 6 lunch sandwich special (Monday is brisket). I had the spareribs, along with spicy slaw and whipped sweet potatoes. Everything was DELICIOUS. I loved all the BBQ sauces, and the meat was tender and not too fatty.
My coworkers from Texas and Alabama both said it was good!
They didn’t bring out the two Jalapeño Popper appetizer plates (with cream cheese baby! Never cheddar.) until after we already had our food and inquired about their whereabouts. That wasn’t so cool. Luckily, they didn’t put them on the bill either, so I’m happy.
I don’t know why they have so many bad reviews, maybe I just got lucky? I don’t normally doll out 5 stars after a first date, but I’m going to go 5 sexy stars just to counterweight some of the poor reviews. I love rooting for the underdog. This location is the Bermuda Triangle of restaurants. So close to campus you’d think it’d be awesome, nice layout, a patio… but every place that ever opens up here goes out of business in months. Looney’s broken 2 years now, I hope they can keep it up.
PS: I love your chewy crushed ice! Perfect for a sunny summer day on the patio.
PPS: I wore a white shirt… and it’s still white! It’s a BBQ miracle!

Still trying to find a good lunch place to dine in Berkeley is sure a tough task for Matt. Maybe he has found something here?
This corner Barbecue smokehouse is located right across the street from the U C Berkeley Campus and a popular hangout for the college sport spectators to chill and mingle during any of the «U C» sporting events.
Matt was here for a late lunch, which happen to be the best time. Looking at the menu, the entire items had prices ending with the number «7». He had the Kansas City Smoked Beef-​Brisket Sandwich. The $ 7.97 sandwich had a bunch of thick slabs of the tender slow-​cooked meat on a thin Wheat-​bread. There was more meat than bread. To excite the taste of the sandwich or any meal from here, on the table, they have various southern barbecue sauces to compliment the meal. And the sauces made a huge difference with the already lean, tender and tasty sandwich.
Matt was sitting at the bar enjoying his meal and watching Jim Rome’s «Rome is Burning» on the huge Plasma screen television.
Everything is purchased separately. And for an additional $ 2.00, Matt had the Beer-​battered Onion Rings to join with the meal, and was very good. Happy-​hour begins at 2pm and they have $ 1.00 Beef Ribs. Matt ordered one. The naked beef-​rib came in a little plate with no sauce, but it was so tender that the meat fell right off the bone. Normally the beef-​rib special is valid with an alcoholic-​beverage purchase, but the waitress was nice enough to sell the rib to Matt with his already huge meal.
Reading from other Unilocaler’s review from this place, some of the reviews were not too positive. But Matt enjoyed this place after not finding any luck in the city of Berkeley.