Carmen & Family Bar-B-Q

I have always came to carmens for her bbq m, but today was he first time meeting her, she is so sweet I will never forget that you helped me out the way you did, I will definitely come see you again I hope your their.

Yesterday a co-​worker treated me to Carmen Bbq. I ordered the pork rib lunch with potatoes salad. The meat was a bit tough on some ribs. The potatoes salad was bland. What I will say is tgat there bbq sauce is EXCELLENT. I could have just had the sauce with bread and been content.
I will try again.

I absolutely love this place! I’ve been going ever since I was little and still love it now. The BBQ is so good! My favorite is the Tri Tip with medium spicy bbq sauce. The price is decent for some really good BBQ that comes from a brick oven.

I enjoy Carmens but its hit or miss. I stopped in on a Sunday afternoon… The place was not busy. There is an old school pacman game on the left when you walk in. I sat at the bar counter. There were 3 people working. I ordered the Brisket with mild sauce. First off the prices are kind of high. About 14 bucks for one item. It was cooked well but the sauce left much to be desired… The sauce was watery. Very watery. It comes with one side… I ordered mac and cheese. I patiently waited while one of the young ladies microwaved the mac and cheese. It was lukewarm fresh from the microwave… But it was still very tasty. I think for the price they charge they should put a bit more effort into what they serve. The lady who seemed to be in charge was very friendly… I have nothing but good things to say about the service. I will probably come back but it won’t be for a while. 3 stars

This place lacks a lot in customer service. The staffs behavior and treatment of customers is enough to make me never come back. Their rules around they’re menu and what you are allowed to order is ridiculous. I wasn’t asking for anything I couldn’t get just down the street from their competitor. Their menu rules gouging their customers!

2 star for the old lady, she was so cute. So I had high expectation since the restaurant has been around for awhile but nope… boy was I wrong. It was empty when I arrived.
Corn bread was okay, greens were pretty good, Mac n cheese was very good, beans tasted nothing but pepper, and the pork spare ribs were very hard to chew on. It was way too dry and it didn’t fall off the bone as people stated. Oh and the potato salad they gave on the side was disgusting.

Pretty cool spot, its practically a hole in the wall spot. One of my co workers told me about this spot, literally past it a couple times, until I slowed down to find the actual resturant. The food is pretty good, and the cornbread is pretty spot on. Not going to lie. Pretty happy one of my co workers told me about this spot. I had the brisket and the ribs. Pretty good food.

Drove past this place many times over the years. So I finally decided to come inside and place an order. There was one person ahead of me other than that the place was empty. It must have had a large order because there were two cardboard containers with food in it ready to go.
The cook or smoker was slicing some brisket into bite size pieces and placing them into a foil pan. That’s when I happen to noticed that she was not wearing any gloves so her hands were extremely greasy from cutting the brisket. Now here’s my problem these are bite size pieces and you are handling them in the palms of your hands. Shouldn’t you be wearing gloves? Apparently the guy that ordered the food was sitting right there at the counter chatting with the owner/​manager. He never gave it a second thought, for me it was a complete turn off. Any good cook should avoid close contact with food as much as possible. If I’m at home serving people I don’t walk around with a brisket in my bare hands and I certainly would not slice off meat and place it on your plate bare handed either! Upside down world now I guess.

While my dinner companion was inside ordering me an entire rack of ribs, I nervously read the reviews and realized that this place seems to be hit & miss.
Hungry as I was, I would have had no patience for mediocre food for $ 35.
He comes out with this piping hot plate of ribs that was bigger than anything I have ever hungrily over-​ordered before. Score!
The greens were perfect. It’s hard to find a place that makes greens that don’t suck. They aren’t afraid to be spicy and greens should be spicy.
Then he pops out with this cobbler. I’m like hey! Lemme try that! And told him about the guy who couldn’t get a single serving of cobbler because he didn’t order food.
Fearful that I be turned down for a dessert for not ordering food, I sent him back in for the banana pudding. But they were out!
So I settled for sweet potato pie, which was as good as the cobbler but I’m sure didn’t have anything on the pudding.
He said the customer service was on point.
Seems like the bad reviews are a bunch of crybabies who don’t know that a 90 year-​old woman still serving food to a disrespectful generation is always right.

Big mistake to come here! After I ordered 2 full slabs I saw them take 2 slabs out of the freezer (i could be wrong but it looked as if they already smoked some slabs and were reheating them) and replace the 2 I was taking. The meat was dry and flavorless (it definitely wasn’t «falling off the bone»). The sauce was watered down and was just plain gross all together. Waste of $ 72.

Delicious! Man… Carmen’s is great. Their bbq is one of the better bbq places here in hayward. The ribs were so tasty, the meat was falling off the bone.
I got the 3 meat, not sure what I was thinking, but it was all gone…
Will be back.

Great place to order bbq. Highly recommend this place. I’ve been coming here for a long time and still taste great.

Very tough and chewy. Not tender at all!
I waited for them to open with high hopes, Carmen was there (she’s 90!) and it smelled good, but it wasn’t good. Didn’t finish the ribs and did not take anything home!
Sorry…
Oh, and the potato salad comes out of a gallon tub that looks like Cosco…

DO NOT COME HERE!
My first time here and I had high expectations due to other reviews. I usually don’t give out reviews but this has to be said. The old Jamaican lady working was rude and kept ignoring me even if I would smile at her. It’s like she didn’t want my money. I ordered a 2 meat combo. The menu said it was 15 bucks. That was already pushing it. She charged me 20 bucks for it. I opened my to go box and the amount I paid for it was not worth it. It was mostly sauce. I could have made my own bbq for that price. The bbq was dry and their sauce sucks. My combo came with a small scoop of potato salad and 1 stale slice of bread. For 20 bucks, it was not worth it. I didn’t even feel welcomed here as well.

This is one of those hole in the wall mom and pop shops that you can’t help but love! The owner, carmen, was there and she was just the sweetest lady. We ordered the family meal to go. Pricey, but worth it! It came with so much food! It included 1 slab of ribs, 1 whole chicken, beef brisket (or hot links), 2 large sides, 4 pieces of cornbread, and peach cobbler (or banana pudding). Everything was cooked to perfection! Chicken was juicy, ribs were fall off the bone, and brisket was tender! It was so flavorful I couldn’t stop eating even when I was stuffed! As for the sides, we ordered the scalloped potatoes and greens and an extra order of small mac n cheese. The greens were my favorite. I’m not into dessert so to me the peach cobbler was very sweet but it was good. It’s amazing how all that sauce can be mixed in and yet there were bits that were still so crunchy! I enjoyed all the textures in it especially since I was just expecting it to all be mush. Dinner that night was absolutely amazing and I’ll definitely be coming back!

This place has a very homely feel to it. As with all BBQ, it is on the pricey side. But you get sooooo much noms for it. We get to see them prep the food right in front of us. Straight out the brick oven to our to go boxes. No surprises. They sauced my slab of ribs perfectly. I typically like it more on the ligher side. We got the mild sauce with the medium on the side per their recommendation. It worked out perfectly. The brisket was a little more on the dry side. Their chicken was also very good. Their cheese scallop potatoes were a little more on the cheesy side for me. Their greens were perfect! I wanted to try their hot links but I will save that for another time.
We had the pleasure of meeting Carmen, the sweetest lady. We talked about her Price is Right experience. Lucky lady! We will be back.

I think that I’m really biased because I grew up on Flints, McCoys, Everett and Jones and sadly this wasn’t very tasty for my palate. I’m sure they have a following. I’m a link person and these were store bought so I was disappointed.

Food was below meh… and the old bat working was so rude…
Would not return for any reason

Carmen and Family bbq has been at this location for over 15 years and although I can recall driving by this place often, I came in for the firs time. I had the two meat combo lunch (ribs and hot links) and it was pretty good. The ribs had a good smoke flavor and the sauce was delicious. The hot links were probably my favorite as they had a mild flavor and the texture was great.
Definitely will be back.

Had the brisket and the pork spare ribs to go. The hubby loved them.
The vinegary potato salad, which I said I didn’t want, did end up in the to go box and we tossed it out.
This place is very good for a California BBQ!