Culver City Beat

In the heart of downtown Culver City, right across the street from Tender Greens, is a little barbeque place on the corner called Santa Maria Barbeque. From across the street, it looks like a small place with a few tables for outside dining, but it actually has a good number of tables inside -- good for small groups.

I ordered the sampler plate, which came with two to three pieces each of brikset, chicken, and ribs as well as a side of fries and some bread. The plate was certainly something two adults could share and still be full.

The barbeque sauce that came with the plate was tangy, sweet, and went well with the meat, which was good because most of the meat was tasteless.  The brikset had no flavor at all, but it did soak up the barbeque sauce well. The ribs were also lacking in much spice and didn't even have a nice smokey barbeque taste despite this being a barbeque place.  The chicken, equally as tasteless, was at least tender and juicey -- I just wish the juices had more flavor.

The fries were decent and had some tasty dry seasoning on it, but I didn't come to a barbeque joint for fries.

Santa Maria Barbeque was a place that I very much wanted to like, but it just was lacking in soul and flavor. My sampler plate tasted like the person who cooked it knew how barbeque looked like and cooked to the appearance of barbeque, but had no idea what it tasted like because there was none of the delicious tastes I've come to associate with barbeque at all.  If my meal was a sample of what the restaurant has to offer, I'm taking my appetite elsewhere.

Santa Maria Barbeque
9552 Washington Blvd
Culver City, CA 90232
(310) 842-8169