Update 1:
Nice 70 degree F weather and staring at Heritage BBQ’s updates for too long, we suddenly found ourselves on the 405 freeway heading towards the restaurant. 
Showing up just around Noon on a sunny Saturday, the outdoor line wasn’t too bad at all (for their busiest day of the week). We ended up waiting about 35 - 40 minutes, and you can order some nice draft beers from Capistrano Brewing Co. (which is literally right next to Heritage BBQ) while waiting in line. 
As an excellent way to build up your appetite, the line to order snakes around the outside near the 2 custom-built 1,000 gallon offset smokers, so you can smell the delicious smoky meat aroma wafting over that entire area. As previously mentioned, Pitmaster-Owner Daniel Castillo was so dedicated to the craft of creating authentic Texas BBQ that he worked with the state of California and was the first and only legally permitted business to use these offset smokers in all of California when they first opened up (pre-pandemic).
Time for some Q!
Brisket Beans with Burnt Ends and Cotija Cheese:
Pitmaster Castillo and his team rotate out the flavor of their excellent Barbecue Beans every week. This week it was Brisket Beans with Burnt Ends and mixed some Cotija Cheese. The Shredded Smoked Brisket added some nice meatiness and the Burnt Ends added little bits of cartilage crunch (but for our batch, we only got a couple bits of the Burnt Ends). Still, this was delicious and probably our favorite BBQ Beans flavor so far at Heritage BBQ.
Smoked Beef Ribs (Black Angus USDA Prime, Niman Ranch):
Incredible! Look at the bark, smoke ring, and marbling on that Black Angus USDA Prime Beef Rib. Thankfully it was slightly less marbled than our previous 3 visits, which is a good thing (it was maybe too fatty before).
One bite and you realize the level of disparity between Pitmaster Daniel Castillo & Heritage BBQ compared to the rest of the local BBQ offerings. There’s a wonderful balanced, gentle smokiness from the California White Oak, your mouth is filled with tender, decadent, lush marbled Beef. The balance of flavors is spot on and even better than our previous 3 visits! 
Coal Roasted Broccoli:
Their Veggie of the Week was Coal Roasted Broccoli, which sounded rather simple, but the end result was superb! The Coal Roasted Broccoli was smoky and tender enough, but it was spiked with a Chinese Chili Crisp Hot Sauce (which was only lightly spicy) and then cooled down by some Housemade Aioli which added creaminess. It might sound weird, but this was seriously some of the most delicious Broccoli I’ve had in recent memory.
Smoked Beef Brisket - Fatty Cut (Natural Black Angus USDA Prime, Creekstone Farms):
If you don’t specify, Heritage BBQ will normally give you a mix of Lean and Fatty Smoked Beef Brisket. We wanted to see how an order of all Fatty Cut Smoked Beef Brisket would turn out:
Ridiculous.
Incredibly moist, meltingly tender and fatty, but with enough lean USDA Prime Smoked Beef Brisket in each bite as well, so it wasn’t overwhelming. Seriously, the best Smoked Beef Brisket BBQ in So Cal. So good! 
Housemade Chorizo Smoked Sausage:
Heritage BBQ is serious about all that they offer, and with their Smoked Sausage offerings, they make their BBQ Sausage in-house. This allows them to add variety and they end up rotating through many flavors of Smoked Sausage, which changes every week.
On this visit, they were offering a Housemade Chorizo Smoked Sausage, which sounded great. There was an excellent snap on the exterior, and the a nice smoky salinity, some decent heat and porcine flavors coming through with each bite. This might be their best Housemade Smoked Sausage flavor we’ve tried to date!
(Complimentary) Housemade Pickles:
Your order of BBQ comes with a complimentary offering of Housemade Pickles. They were perfectly tart, and the tang and acid were much needed to help cut through that fatty glory you were consuming.
Smoked Beef Brisket Tacos (on Burritos La Palma Housemade Flour Tortillas):
Heritage BBQ offering some of their excellent BBQ in Taco form made sense as a way to let customers sample in smaller quantities, but it was the fact that they partnered with the excellent Burritos La Palma, to use their top tier Housemade Flour Tortillas for these Tacos that caught my attention. 
This sounded too good to be true.
Taking a bite: Unfortunately it was. The Burritos La Palma Housemade Flour Tortillas still had a nice, pliant, softness, although it loses a bit of their magical quality with the passage of time and the toasting on the grill (compared to eating their great Flour Tortillas at Burritos La Palma directly within minutes of ordering). But the big hiccup was a strange, chemical aftertaste in each bite(!). 
Looking at the Taco, the only culprits were the Salsa, or the combination of Heritage BBQ Brisket mixed with that particular brand of Cotija Cheese and the Salsa perhaps? But something ended up causing this weird flavor distortion and it just wasn’t appetizing. Even beyond that, it needed a better Salsa (perhaps something that Chef Wes Avila (Angry Egret Dinette) could conjure up, or Chef Ray Garcia (Broken Spanish)) to help marry the BBQ Brisket and the Tortilla.
Smoked Pork Spare Ribs (Duroc Breed, Creekstone Farms):
Thankfully things rebounded nicely with their incredible Smoked Pork Spare Ribs (Duroc Breed, Creekstone Farms). As with our previous 3 visits, the Smoked Pork Spare Ribs are my favorite item at Heritage BBQ. The gigantic Smoked Beef Ribs, the tender, luscious Brisket may get the most attention in general, but their Smoked Pork Spare Ribs are probably the best BBQ offering on the menu!
A great exterior bark, that perfect amount of gentle smokiness, incredibly juicy, lovely porkiness, tender, a nice balance of lean and fat and the cartilage is soft enough and adds that crunch. It’s truly a skill and art form to get Pork Spare Ribs this good!
Housemade Bourbon BBQ Sauce and Hot Mustard:
Don’t forget to ask them to try both of their Sauces on the side. We like our Texas BBQ without Sauce, but that Housemade Bourbon BBQ Sauce is addicting and adds a nice tangy sweet and savory angle to the Smoked Meats.
It is a great sense of relief and joy to see Pitmaster-Owner Daniel Castillo and Heritage BBQ continuing to thrive during the pandemic, and their quality has not dropped a bit since their Grand Opening days (a couple years ago). We’ve seen so many BBQ places end up inconsistent, or drop in quality, but Heritage BBQ continues to push forward with as much energy and commitment to deliver top-quality Texas-style Barbecue to this region that it’s something worth supporting and celebrating.
Heritage Barbecue
31721 Camino Capistrano
San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675
