Hoping Felix’s Will Provide Some Righty-O BBQ

 Felix's BBQ With Soul

3613 Ocean Ranch Blvd. 

Oceanside, CA 92056

If you are new to the blog or just like to look at the pictures of the places we eat, you might not know I'm a bit of a reader. I should qualify that statement. I'm really into audiobooks, which is different from reading, but it makes me sound more intelligent than I actually am. Not wanting to add another subscription service, I decided to get all of my audiobooks from public libraries. 

I've obtained library cards from OC and LA, San Diego, and other local libraries to increase my ability to get books. I signed up online for a temporary card from the Carlsbad Library during the pandemic. Now that the pandemic is behind us, they wanted people to come in and apply for a permanent card. This would also be an excellent opportunity to try one of the restaurants on my restaurant wishlist in the area. That's how I came to visit Felix's BBQ with Soul. 

Felix's caught my attention because they have an inspiring four-and-a-half rating on Yelp with over 2,400 reviews. This firmly cements them in the upper echelon of places to eat in Oceanside, and now that fellow barbecue restaurant, That Boy Good has announced that they are closing at the end of this month, it just might make them the number one destination for barbecue in Oceanside. At least, I was hoping that would be the case. 

After getting my library card, I drove about ten minutes to Felix's in Oceanside. This was the first of their locations opened 15 years ago. Since then, Felix Berry has opened three more spots in Lake Elsinore, Carlsbad, and San Marcos. Felix worked in a bbq restaurant in his teen years in Alabama before college. After completing his schooling, he opened other businesses, but a barbecue restaurant was always on his mind. So he decided to move forward with his dream of providing quality barbecue with a dash of southern charm to the people of North San Diego County. 

Not merely just a barbecue restaurant, Felix's southern roots are well represented on his extensive menu. Along with bbq meats, fried green tomatoes, gumbo, hush puppies, fried okra, chitlins, oxtails, and catfish are featured prominently here. Stuff that you only see on a few menus in Southern California. I had studied the menu before I had left home, so when I arrived at Felix's, I quickly ordered at the counter. Within ten minutes, I was handed my bag and was on my way back home with the aroma of barbecue wafting from my backseat. 

As soon as I saw the first item on the menu, I knew what I'd be having. As is my custom when eating anywhere for the first time, and since I pay for almost all of my meals, I veer towards getting combo plates if they are available. This BBQ Sampler ($35) allows you to try 4 types of meat and four sides and is meant to feed 2 easily. There are 14 kinds of protein to choose from and 20 sides to narrow down to 4 selections. 

I went with Pulled Pork, Brisket, Baby Back Ribs, and Beef Ribs for my meats. It's between both of the ribs for my favorite of the four. The baby backs had a good amount of meat, and the pork underneath was tender and flavorful. The beef rib also had plenty of meat and pulled away nicely from the bone. The pulled pork, for the most part, was delicious, but I did have a bite or two that were a little on the dry side. The brisket was not for me. Not awful, but not something I'd order here again. It was very lean and tough. It would have been better if it had had a ribbon of fat running through it. Next time I'd substitute the catfish or tri-tip for the brisket. 

I selected Mac and Cheese, Red Beans and Rice, Potato Salad, and Baked Beans for my four sides. Undoubtedly, the Mac and Cheese was the clear winner this afternoon. It's made with five cheeses and baked, so the cheese clings nicely to each piece of macaroni. An excellent flavor; I had a hard time saving some of this for Katie to try when she got home from work. Do not miss it. The red beans and rice were another hit. The kidney beans absorbed a great deal of flavor, and even though the rice got lost here, I enjoyed the slight spiciness included in each forkful. The potato salad tasted freshly made and reminded me of the version that my mom used to make. It had a mustard tinge to it, and the potatoes were tender. I also enjoyed that each bite had a different textural element to it. Nicely done. The clunker of the bunch was the baked beans. It was too watery, and even though the menu claims that these are made with real bacon, it was impossible to taste because of the abundance of liquid in our portion. 

Felix's offers Lunch Box Specials every day until 4pm. There are nine different ones to choose from, including french fries and coleslaw as sides, but you can substitute sides for anywhere between fifty cents to a dollar fifty. I went with the Hot Link Sandwich Lunch Box ($12 plus .50 cents for subbing the fries for Collard Greens). The sandwich did not look like much, but it was made much better when I added the provided barbecue sauce. The sausage had a lovely kick of spice, and the casing was very snappy. The coleslaw was fresh, and they added plenty of their sweet and tangy dressing to the shredded carrots and cabbage. The collard greens were traditional and tasted hearty, with some lovely bursts of garlic. I also received two individual-sized pieces of cornbread, which had a bit of sweetness to them, but I'm not the world's biggest cornbread fan, so I saved the other one for Katie. 

Based on this visit to Felix's, there were a few slight misses for me, but nothing that would prevent me from visiting again when in the area. I really enjoyed all the meat I had, except for the brisket. The sides were delicious, and I still can't get that fantastic mac and cheese out of my head. Overall the food here is better than most barbecue restaurants, and the value for the money is also better than other barbecue joints. With such an extensive and varied menu, I'd like to explore more of their southern specialties. Their customer service was good, as they had my food out to me in less than ten minutes, and it was wrapped up nicely for my 45-minute drive back home. It was a very good day off. I added another library card to my collection and had some delicious barbecue for lunch and dinner. 

Out of five bags of tricks (because when I was a little kid, I used to watch Felix the Cat, and he possessed a satchel that could be transformed into anything he wanted), five being best to zero being worst, Felix's BBQ With Soul gets 3.5 bags of tricks. 

For more information about Felix's BBQ with Soul, head to their website by clicking here: https://www.felixsbbq.com/