- Restaurants |
- Nightlife |
- Shopping |
- Movies |
- All
Carmen & Family Bar-B-Q
Rating Details »
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- No
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good for:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
26 reviews for Carmen & Family Bar-B-Q
My family has been coming here for years, since I was a little girl. Its a no frills spot- if you want frills, go to Tony Romas.
I love the sausages and the potato salad. I order my sauce medium, and for me, it has just enough bite. The lunch portion is a decent size. I don't know why people are complaininig about the service, everytime I come in there, they are kind and it usually only takes about 5 minutes for my order. What do you expect?? Popeyes fast food??
Everyone complains that Fremont lacks good food, and I agree, the spots are few and far between. If you are in the area and have not been here yet, I definetly encourage you to try this place once. Its been around this long for a reason!!!
I found Carmens back in 2001 searching for GREAT BBQ not Tony Romas or anyplace that asks if you want "white sauce", no thank you to all those others after trying them once.
At Rob's I have to say he needs to do something about his chicken. Those in the know avoid the chicken after 1pm cause it dries out.
However it's the baby back ribs that fall off the bone with a little bit of burnt end on there and medium sauce I'm not changing my 35 mile drive just for the best bbq within driving distance for lunch or dinner. My wife says the same, everytime we go to Concord for a concert or to Oakland for a game we stop in at Carmens open 7 days a week.
Those that talk about a front? You know something about shady businesses or is that just some generic vanilla white chick/ talkin?
I think yer full of it lady, you aint seen nothing if you think it's a front.
Rather actually it's visited by people who know bbq - doesn't matter about the chicken either if I don't eat it, I just stay away from the HOT sauce cause it's hot going in and hot coming out. Medium with a splash of mild if you dumkoffs knew anything about doin it right!
I give Carmens 3.5 stars of 4 cause all lunch plates cost less than $9 for lunch w/drink but chicken is on the dry side. Thats potato salad w/no onions only way I can eat, whole bread, 5-6 ribs, sauce, & drink.
Best value is the combo meal with 3 sides. Other places want you to pay $13-$17 for 3 regular beef spareribs. Rob's you get a plate full!
This is my first review and I think like anything you have to try first.
How else you know it's going to be killer? You looking for expensive signage? Nope wont find it here along with jacked up prices to pay for fluff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A good BBQ place is hard to find in Northern California, so I'm glad this place is near me. I've been to the other BBQ places in Fremont and this is by far the most authentic and the best. I always get the dinner BBQ pork ribs with the mild sauce. I first got the medium sauce but it was a little too spicy for me. The decor of the place isn't the best, but the service is always quick and friendly. The ribs are always tender and fall off of the bone.
This unassuming little place in a tiny strip mall in Fremont hold a world of deliciousness. Simple meat, potatoes and slices of bread. Simple. Nothing to distract from the great flavors. For most, the lunch size will for for dinner. Get the medium with an order of hot on the side. The hot is hot, but not oppressive. It has good flavor.
Don't let the decor dissuade you from enjoying a meal here.
If possible, I would give this a negative star rating. I have tried it two times. Both times were awful. The bbq chicken was so dry it reminded me of the National Lampoon Christmas Vacation movie when he carves the turkey and it just goes poof and shrivels up. THAT turkey had more going for it than that dried up, stringy bird that I got at Carmen's. There is not enough sauce in the world to help that bird.
It's overpriced. Service is sluggish. Ambiance is non-existent. I have long thought it is a front for something else. There is no way that place could stay in business that long and be that bad. I live close by and I NEVER see anybody in there.
Do not waste your money here. If you are really jonse-ing for bbq, head over to Southern Heritage on Grimmer. It may be a wait but and it is not really great bbq. It is edible...unlike anything served at this dump.
there's plenty of room to eat down and eat in at carmen's should one chose to. the dining area consists of cafeteria style tables with flatscreens for entertainment.
lunch items are 7 tops dinner is 11 tops. on mondays & tuesday, you can get the ribs or chicken lunch for 5.50. had the sliced beef &; links combo(14+ tax))
-nice spicy sauce
-sliced beef, lean, chewy and dry
-links, very dry, not flavorful.
-portions anemic compared to oaktown's.
-potato salad ok not great.
-sliced bread -ok
service ok but there weren't any other customers.
they have three strikes against them, they are out of repeat territory.
This place is OK. It looked so promising from outside because it looked like a nice dive place with really good food. Unfortunately, it was just ok. I had the BBQ beef brisket and it was good, but parts were a little dry and portion was very small. The gal who served me was very nice and did all the work (it didn't look like she had any help). There was a television there with some game show on, but the place was a bit quiet and I felt a bit awkward eating. Overall, I probably wouldn't go back.
This place reminds me of Dreamland barbeque in Alabama: ribs, bread and beer, and that's about it. But they are the best ribs I've had in the bay area. Not overcooked or drowning in sauce, they were tender and tasty. I like dark beer, so I docked a star for them only having bland brews like miller and bud.
You have to get the beans, potato salad and cornbread. They are all some of the best I've tasted. And since they have a small menu, they can focus on making those items REALLY well.
My fav barbeque place.
I come in for dinner/lunch about once a month. In a bit of a dive area of Fremont and the place needs updating, but the cooks obviously know their BBQ. Perhaps they should send one or two of their cooks over to Dickey's for lessons.
Now, I'm a big fan of BBQ. Most "Great" BBQ restaurants that I've been to across the country weren't the fanciest looking places.
That's true for Carmen and Family. Not a great atmosphere, spartan tables, but what you will get is really great BBQ pork ribs and chicken plus a TV showing the local sporting event.
I've asked the owner, Robert, what his secret is to the dry rub they use. Of course he wouldn't share that with me. Anyway, the ribs are the kind that are slow cooked where the meat falls off the bone! They don't boil their ribs, they do have a great smokey taste to them. The sauces are good, I recommend trying a mix of the mild and medium sauces on the ribs. Best time to go is lunch during the weekdays or dinner on the weekends.
A solid Four stars on this spot. Its not the best bbq ever but being minutes from home it is great. This is one of those spots that is always a plan B for the dinner plans. A solid amount of flavor and the cornbread is like a nice golden chunk of heaven. I get the two meat combo sliced beef and ribs perfect. Right with Ben on that combo meal. A little on the expensive side but worth the great feeling after.
Here's another place that makes me wonder how they stay in business. The food is mediocre, at best. The service is slow and amateurish. What's pitiful is that the guy I talked to there (employee) seems to think this is fantastic Bar-B-Q. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. But, geez, how can people be this desperate for Bar-B-Q?
Fremont only has 2 Bar-B-Q places and neither of them are worth your time or money.
Best sweet potato pie in Fremont. No joke.
Decent food. Nothing to fancy. I liked the sliced beef. The spicy sauce is really spicy.
I love the bbq here! Sometimes a little slow because there is usually only one person working when I show up, but it's always been worth the wait and the price. I always get the beef, ribs, or a combo meal with some corn bread on the side. Overall I think its a nice neighborhood joint with some great bbq when I don't feel like cooking. I think they sell pie too.
Probably the worst BBQ joint that I've ever been to in my life. The links looked like they were bought across the street at Smart and final. The beef was tough and not at all smokey. The sauce and sides were nothing special. The dude working there was fairly friendly, but slow as hell. I don't know how this place stays in business, or how they have multiple units. Places like this are why people say the Bay Area has such awful BBQ.
Well I live near this place and my man really wanted some BBQ so I thought why not. Wow after seeing these reviews I might have thought twice but honestly I thought the place wasn't too bad. Okay, the place wasn't awesome inside but what do you expect from a BBQ joint? The service was very nice. I think I got the owner. Kinda expensive for bbq but I figure it takes time to make good bbq so maybe that got figured into the cost of it all. I got my man a dinner plate of ribs because my honey can eat and was hungry! When we got home and looked it wasn't so big. Eh, well at least we tried it. The BBQ tasted okay and the potato salad wasn't horrible. So I think 4 stars for the service and the effort. My man ain't picky so as long as he was happy with it so was I!
This place is kind of a dive stuck in the 80's. They have a donkey kong console and a few tv's for sports. The walls are plastered with old beer ads and sports memoribilia. I think the sliced beef/link combo is pretty decent but at $13 it's pricey. The sauce I was disappointed in by the fact that the hot was just a lot of pepper flakes added to it, but the mild alone has a pretty good kick and gave my co-worker some problems. I didn't find the service to be slow but then I was in around 1pm and the people were pretty friendly. There's not too many old school southern bbq places around so this is a decent place to serve the craving.
I've driven by this BBQ joing everyday and thought I'd give it a try. I ordered the Link Lunch special. It came with potato salad and a slice of brown bread. It didn't taste very smokey to me and I wondered if it was just some regular Keilbasa from Smart-n-Final from across the street. The sauce, though flavorful was somewhat runny. At $7.95 a plate, I didn't think it was a very good deal. I'm still hungry!
Sliced wheat bread on the side. Does that say it all? No frills- decent meat, unobtrusive sauce. I know Carmen used to work at Everett & Jones, so I expected a bit more. It is what it is, and I will take a family run joint over a chain any day. Check out Southern Heritage BBQ (Fremont Blvd & Grimmer) for the real deal.
I have been going to this place for years. This happened after going through a couple of other, local rib places first. The first sentence says it all: I keep coming back for more.
Yep, it isn't upscale at all. I've done some lunches there, but do dinner at home with take-out. When it gets busy (and it does from time to time), things may slow down more than you like.
But the food is worth it. The sauce is transcendental and, if you like hot, it can be hot as hell.
Decent place to eat. Prices are kind of steep and service is kind of slow.
I have been to this place 3 times and I always think it will get better. You basically pay for bones drowned in sauce. The "potato salad" is the worst think i have ever tasted. i dont know where the owner buys its from, but he really needs to send it back. The cost does not reflect the quality. This place will not have a 4th visit from me.
The chairs were up in the area in front of the counter, and the lights were off in the dining area to the left. I guess they expect you to take-out, which everyone was doing. The worst part was that the Donkey Kong machine was turned off. Minus one star for that!
I too wonder how this place is still in business. Their food isn't very good and the menu is limited. On my first and last visit I ordered the brisket and links with mild BBQ sauce on the side. The only option for a side was potato salad. The links were okay, the brisket was charred and dried out and the sauce was watery. At almost 15.00 for the combo I would expect more food and more options as well as juicy tender meat.
went here due to extreme hunger and lack of better knowledge...it was SHIT. don't go. EVERYTHING (food/service/place) was bad.
