Where to eat BBQ Ribs in Geelong
This list gets checked. Some of these I’ve eaten at and reviewed, some I’ve yet to get to, and a few that were here when I first wrote this have moved on. They’re at the bottom, because knowing where something went is more use than a dead address.
Last checked September 2026.
The real thing: low ’n slow barbecue
Wildfire Craft BBQ
54 Watsons Road, Newcomb
(03) 4239 0655
Friday to Sunday only. Pre-order to avoid disappointment.
KC Hildebrand went from pop-ups and cooks out of his garage to the first proper bricks-and-mortar barbecue joint in Geelong. Texas barbecue built on a fine-dining background, with everything made in house down to the sausages and the sauces. It’s the mix of genres that makes it worth going back to: the flavour profiles change with the seasons, so you’re not eating the same menu twice. Traditional Texas-style ribs, and they’re delicious.
I sat down with KC on The BBQ and Brews Show →
Armstrong Barbecue
1 Unity Drive, Mount Duneed
0497 210 189
Thursday to Sunday. Book ahead.
The atmosphere here lends itself more to a traditional barbecue joint than anywhere else around Geelong. Traditional Texas-style ribs, and they’re delicious. Wildfire and Armstrong both do their own thing and both do it well, and this is the one to sit down in.
Workers Barbecue
No fixed address
0482 906 517
workersbbq.com.au
Six years on Little Malop Street, then four at the Newton & Chilwell Cricket Club, and these days no permanent home at all. They run a trailer smoker and a food van, cater events, and do dine-in with Martians Saloon from Thursday to Saturday. Check where they are before you go.
Not quite barbecue, but the ribs are worth it
Parkers Steakhouse
2 Shorts Place, Geelong
(03) 5221 8485
parkerssteakhouse.com.au
Tuesday to Saturday, dinner only.
A steakhouse in a bluestone building off Little Malop. Read the review.
Squire’s Loft, Geelong West
76 Preston Street, Geelong West
(03) 5222 5864
squiresloftgeelong.com.au
Squire’s Loft, Torquay
Shop 6/15 Bell Street, Torquay
(03) 5261 4304
Bellarine Estate
2270 Portarlington Road, Bellarine
(03) 5259 3310
Weekends.
A winery doing Texas-style barbecue platters, which is a better combination than it sounds. I reviewed the baby back ribs here back in 2015. They’re still running the Texas plates, and I’m well overdue another visit.
Lazy Moes
84 Yarra Street, Geelong
(03) 4244 1199
American-style, large servings. Haven’t been yet. It’s on the list.
Moved on
These were on this list for years. Most of them didn’t close so much as go somewhere else, but not all of them.
Lone Star Rib House & Brews on Moorabool Street has closed. That one stings. It is where a lot of this started. The Rib Appreciation Society was built on turning up to places like it and arguing about whether the ribs were any good, and it is where we went back for the reunion party with the original crew.
Sethro’s Texas BBQ was on the Surf Coast Highway at Grovedale. They packed up and moved to Yeppoon in Queensland, where they’re still going. sethrosbbq.com.au
Mulita BBQ was at 64 Separation Street, North Geelong. That address is gone, and the phone number now belongs to Armstrong Barbecue at Mount Duneed, so if you were looking for Mulita, try them.
90 Little Malop Street was the Workers Club, and it has closed. Workers Barbecue carried on without it, and they’re up the top of this list.
Know somewhere that should be on here? Tell me, and I’ll go and eat the ribs.
