Name Of Establishment	Hot City Barbeque
Address:	1313 6th Street Los Banos Ca. 93635
Phone Number:	209-826-4300 or 209-826-4325
Website:	Unknown
Prices:	High
Date Of Review:	August 19, 2006
Check out the Official Merced County Health Inspection of this Restaurant - If that link isn't working try this link (note: these links are slow to load)
Our Overall Numeric Rating	+
Summation Opinion: In general the food is pretty good and the ribs / meat is great but for the price we expect a lot more.

On August 19th 2006 we made our second trip to Hot City Barbeque of Los Banos. We made our first visit when the place had been open only a short time and had not at that time done a review on it. We came away with really mixed feelings about Hot City BBQ. While in general we loved the meat of the main course, there were certain aspects of the dining experience that we did not think hit the target.

We arrived at Hot City Barbecue and parked in the small parking lot in front of the building. As we opened the car doors we were met with the wonderful smell of real barbecue and noted that there was a simply gigantic barbecue / smoker puffing away just to the right of the entrance to the restaurant.

We entered the building and made our way across the linoleum floor to a paneled wall where a young lady took our order. After reading over the wall mounted menus we ordered "Pack 1" which said it would serve the two of us and included a full rack of pork ribs and some beans. We also ordered the potato salad for an extra charge and two sodas which were served in plastic bottles for a buck seventy five each. The bill came to about 33 dollars!

We sat down at one of several tables which were covered by plastic red and white checkered table cloths. Hot City seems to be trying in the decor department. They have made an attempt to decorate the orange painted walls with an odd and eclectic mix of vintage posters and country western themed plaques and signage. The walls look a bit bruised and slightly dirty here and there and though it does not look shabby, it sure does not look 'sharp' to us either.

After a short time our food arrived. The ribs came in a plastic tray with wax paper covering the bottom and the beans and potato salad came in large styrofoam 'cups'. We were given mismatched stoneware like plates one with a rooster and another some country scene on it. The silverware and two different sized serving spoons for the potato salad and beans were also placed before us in a plastic basket. Apparently Hot City is trying to convey a laid back 'country eatery' feel and it works... sort of. The orange walls and 50s posters detract from the country western atmosphere but the way the food is served and other decorating accouterments successfully convey what Hot City seems to be trying to do.

We dug right in and ladled the beans and potato salad onto our plates. We also took a couple of ribs each and dug right in. When we got down to eating we found that the food itself was a real mixed bag that cut across the spectrum from superb to barely acceptable.

First the bad news. This time, as was the case with our first visit, we found the beans to be undercooked to a degree that we found unappetizing. In our opinion beans should not have an al-dente feel to them but should be very soft and squishy and have little if any resistance when chewed. While the beans were not undercooked to the point of not being edible, neither of us finished the small amount that we put on our plate. The sad thing is that had they been cooked a bit longer we would have liked them. The flavor is nice and the sauce is just right for this application.

The potato salad was an improvement to be sure. It was not perfect in that the chunks of eggs in it were too large, but it was a great consistency and had a good flavor. I personally prefer a little more dill or vinegar 'bite' to my potato salad, but we both agreed that this was really pretty decent stuff.

The meat, a full pork rib rack, was the highlight of the show. Though it was served a couple of degrees cooler than I would have preferred it was by no means not hot and boy was it delicious. The meat was very tender indeed. The ribs were not at all stringy and the meat was not overly greasy even though it was pork. The BBQ sauce that Hot City uses is wonderful and I even used up a bit more from a squirt bottle that they brought to the table with the meal. The flavor of the meat was very good indeed.

The service was pretty good, the older gentleman who came around to the tables twice was friendly and was just chit-chatty enough without being intrusive. He also noted when we needed more napkins or wipes and brought those without asking. The other staff was obviously 'doing their job' but nothing special good or bad was noted in their approach to their work.

Though we liked the potato salad and we outright loved the meat, this review would not fully express our personal opinion if we did not mention our negative opinion of the price. The two of us needed a hefty 33 dollars to eat at Hot City BBQ! While I am sure that the overhead is going to be higher than at a traditional restaurant, it it our considered opinion that the price of the meal was just too high for what we got. Perhaps this would have been less apparent if the portions were bigger and there had been enough for us to take home, or perhaps if bread or other items like the potato salad or dessert were included with the meal. Even free soda refills would have blunted the sticker shock a little bit. Sadly, Hot City did not offer us the ambiance that would make up for the high prices either. While it is certainly not the worst decorated place in town, for 33 dollars it is not going to compete with Espanas, Grapevine, or Me-N-Eds for our families 'special nights out'. The overall rating of this restaurant was brought down a great deal because of the price issue.

I must say that this was one of the harder restaurants to review. Most places we review have a similar level in quality between servers, and their food items, but Hot City had a real mix of everything. Still, in the end, because of the beans, the decor, and the price our opinion of value vs experience was not what it could have been and it is with a lot of ambivalence that we rate Hot City with a lesser number of stars than we KNOW they could obtain with a little attention to the things noted above.

Specific Opinions By Reviewer One
Overall Rating :	The low number chiefly reflects the price Vs experience
Food:	A real mix
Service:
Decor:	Too eclectic
Price/Value:
Bathroom Cleanliness:		Not Observed
Romance Factor:
Family Friendliness:
Hot City BBQ has a lot of potential. In my opinion if they address a few items particularly the price it would be a very nice place.

Specific Opinions By Reviewer Two
Overall Rating :
Food:
Service:
Decor:
Price/Value:
Bathroom Cleanliness:		Not Observed
Romance Factor:
Family Friendliness:	We did not notice a less expensive kids menu.

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In this section, the staff of Our Los Banos .com shares our personal opinions on the restaurants that we patronize in the City of Los Banos. We would like to stress that we are not professional reviewers, that we have had little or no training in the food arts, and that we are simply expressing our own personal views and opinions on particular visits that we made to the establishments under consideration.

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Merced County Health Food Facility Inspections Site

Finally, we strongly encourage our readers to make use of a truly wonderful online resource we discovered last year. Merced County has put together a very cool Food Facility Inspection website which discloses the results of the County Health Department's last few inspections of each restaurant. The results are sometimes quite fascinating and are always interesting. Beware however you may not want to eat at certain places once you read some of the more dramatic entries. We at Our Los Banos .com very much appreciate and support the county of Merced putting these Department of Health food facility inspections online for the public to see.

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