Country Bar-B-Que Chicken & Ribs

On Monday, December 29 my wife and I had dinner with our friend that originally introduced us.  She had attended high school with my wife and college (undergraduate) with me.  She’s from Los Angeles but is now living in the Boston area and was visiting for the holidays.  She actually used to work in Azusa and had been to this restaurant previously along with many others in the area.  Soon after she arrived at our home we drove north on Citrus Avenue and turned right on Alosta Avenue, also known as Route 66.  It is one of several restaurant buildings on the right (south) side of Route 66 just east of Citrus and also across the street from Azusa Pacific University.  There’s also a Sizzler, an Acapulco, and others so we had to keep an eye out for the chicken & ribs place.  It’s after the Sizzler but before the Acapulco.  We had heard about it from one of Mom’s (my mother-in-law’s) friends, the same friend that got us free admission to Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure back in October.  We pulled into the drive and parked very close by.

Country Bar-B-Que Chicken & Ribs is a medium-sized eatery that occupies its own one-story building and is surrounded by parking.  Most of the tables are wooden booths.  Customers order at the counter just inside the door and they only accept cash, though they have an ATM.  Also inside the door are some retro video games such as Mortal Kombat.  Above and behind the counter is the menu.  As their name indicates, most of their meals consist of either chicken or ribs of different sizes and combinations.  Customers can choose between beef and pork ribs and pay just a little extra for all-dark meat chicken.  Most meals come with a dinner role and a choice of cole slaw, rice, or fries on the side.  They also have a soup and salad bar and a few non-chicken & ribs meals such as the fish dinner with breaded cod fillet.  The prices start at $5.99 for a 2-piece BBQ chicken dinner and $11.33 for a 2-piece rib dinner and go up to $56.47 for 9 pieces of chicken and 9 ribs.  We ordered our meals and chose to sit in a booth near the east window.

They soon brought us our orders that amounted to a lot of food.  My 2-rib dinner had two small but still substantial racks of pork ribs with a scoop or rice covered in gravy all on one plate.  My fries came on a separate plate.  I chose pork ribs because I had beef ribs from Phillip’s Barbecue earlier in the month.  The ribs were covered in a shiny reddish-brown barbecue sauce.  They were good with lots of meat between the bones all fully cooked but still juicy.  The sauce was sweet and tangy but not as spicy as other barbecue sauces I’ve had (e.g. Phillip’s).  They put on just enough to flavor it so it wasn’t very messy at all.  The rice and gravy were also very good and went well with the meat.  The fries were thick and crispy and kept their warmth throughout.  My wife’s meal was identical to mine except she had chicken in place of ribs.  She had ordered the two-piece chicken dinner with all dark meat but they gave her three pieces of chicken, all leg-thighs.  She enjoyed all of it.

It was great talking to our friend who we only see around the holidays since she moved to Boston.  There weren’t many other customers so the place was fairly quiet.  This is the second time I’ve had a meal with a Willamette Alumnus at a restaurant near Citrus and Alosta.  This time the food was better and the conversation even more fun and interesting.