BONEHEAD’S TEXAS BBQ

“No Mo Bo’s”

Bo’s bbq restaurant located in Lafayette, California was loved by many. Bo has relinquished this location for Bonehead’s Texas BBQ. We were not enamored with our visit to Bo’s so we return with a clean slate to give Bonehead’s a try. We park in their convenient parking lot around 11:30 am. The place is totally empty and I even wonder if they are open until I am greeted with a familiar odor. The smell of sweet bbq smoke permeates the premise. No visible smoke is present but the odor is teetering on the verge of being toxic. We scan a familiar bbq restaurant menu on the wall and place our order.

The interior has been cleaned up and has a modern industrial style look. With no customers it is empty and has a cold feel. We are tasked with retrieving our plastic silverware and drinks at a self-serve station. Here two bbq sauces are offered; one plain and one hot. These are tomato based sauces that are decent. The hot is the best and has no real heat unless you believe ‘Taco Bell’ sauce is hot. Our orders are delivered promptly.
Ribs and brisket with a side of Cole slaw & beans are both my friend Ted and my choice of entre today. The meal is served on a paper plate. The first thing I notice is the slicing with the grain of the brisket. This raises a red flag because this is ‘BBQ 101” to slice brisket against the grain to insure a more tender bite. I slice a bite with my plastic knife and taste. Like the aroma of the restaurant this piece of brisket is very smoky. It is so smoky it is teetering on the verge of being over smoked.  It is seasoned nicely with a good tasting bark. It is on the dry side so a dousing of the bbq sauce helped with this offering. The ribs were also smoky and dry. They also have a texture like a cured ham. We are the first customers of the day and the ribs just seemed like they have been held for hours before serving.  They are not terrible and with another dousing of sauce they were consumed.

The sides were unmemorable. The cornbread was served with rock-hard butter and was so dry I literally had to take a sip of water to unstick the bite from my throat. I later found out this was honey butter but never sampled because my plastic knife was useless to serve.  Boneheads Texas BBQ has big shoes to fill by occupying this location. Looking back at our dining experience nothing here excited us about bbq. The food was not terrible but it is not a place I would return to.

Bonehead’s Texas BBQ
3422 Mt. Diablo Blvd.
Lafayette , California