Tip Top Meats, Carlsbad. Rated ★★★☆☆
The meat selection is fabulous; if you’re buying to take home and cook, this is the place. The market has a great European section — spicy mustard, beers, marzipan, and so on.
The restaurant is relatively inexpensive but has a Eurodiner feel to it. Most of the time there are people speaking German, probably visitors who came to Carlsbad because of the name and are still wondering where the hot springs are. (They’re there, by the way — on Carlsbad Boulevard, the Carlsbad Mineral Water Spa.)
I think Mom could have done better with the cooking. The meat was good quality but overcooked; the barbecue sauce might as well have been ketchup.
Three stars: better to take the excellent meat selection home and do it yourself, rather than have them do it for you.