Smokehouse

This is the best place to go to in Bloomington for brisket. It is well seasoned and delicious. The pulled pork is very good too. The other meat rotates, the only one I haven’t liked is the tilapia, it was plain and dry. The sides are always excellent, with good variety. I’ve been here 5 or more times, and each time there’s new side and a new soup (which is also always delicious). The sauces are not very good, I don’t even use them. Also, the dessert isn’t the best, it’s peach and apple cobbler, but they are almost all filling and very little fruit. If they could get better sauces and dessert, I would give 5 stars for sure! Wish they were open for dinners! They are also closed for the summer, so you will have to wait for the fall for their delicious brisket.

Buffet of wonderful meats always top notch

We had heard about this from some friends. Wow, it was awesome th brisket and pulled pork were outstanding. Slaw and sauces were great with the pulled pork. They had a smokehouse hash as a special feature and it was great. Kind of hard to get into the coliseum, had to enter by the Pepsi ice center.

I’m not usually a fan of buffets or at least haven’t been since i started appreciating quality over quantity. (Brazilian Churrascaria’s being the exception of course) So I was sad to hear that this is a buffet, which would normally equate to dried out, barely warm meat and sides.
I was pleasantly surprised with smokehouse though.
The Brisket had a mixture of pieces to choose from and I’ll be honest some of the pieces did look dried out and flavorless. But if you take the time you can find some slices from the fatty end of the brisket that remained moist and had a decent bark to it. By far the best brisket you’ll find in Bloomington and possibly Central Illinois. It cannot compete with the Brisket at Smoque in Chicago or any of the places in Central Texas but given its location it was pretty dang good.
The pulled pork was decent but again you have to be careful when selecting pieces some are better than others.
The pork loin was fairly dry and lacked flavor.
I was pretty unimpressed with the sides, except for the fried okra. If you can catch the Okra while its fresh and add a bit of salt to it, its pretty good. But if its been sitting the breading gets soggy and its not very enjoyable. (Again why I usually hate buffets)
Didn’t particularly care for their sauces either which is sad because the meat didn’t necessarily stand on its own.
They are only open lunch Tuesday-​Thursday and rotate meats each of those days, so check out their website before you go to see which meat is available.
If I was rating this strictly on bbq\food in Central IL it would easily get 4 – 5 stars. Definitely worth the visit. (Wear stretchy pants)

I almost don’t want to write a review because I want to be selfish and keep this little jewel all to myself, however that wouldn’t be right for the folks that own and operate this most awesome BBQ buffet lunch. This little gem is located in the US Cellular Coliseum in downtown Bloomington and is only open Tuesdays through Thursdays from 11 AM to 2 PM.
If you attend sporting events or concerts, you’ve seen the restaurant in the end zone with the glass walls. Well that’s the location. You need to park on the IBC side of the coliseum and enter the door on the side near section 113.
I’ve only been twice and both times they’ve featured smoked: Brisket (freakin tender and most awesome) and pulled pork. They rotate another meat each day: Ribs, Tips, Chicken Quarters, Wings (one or two of these). Sometimes they have other sides like the most awesome BBQ Hash I’ve ever tasted. It had a mixture of all their BBQ meats diced into a hash like corned beef hash. It was very good.
They have all the normal sides like: fried okra, salad bar, green beans, baked beans, mac & cheeses and many others (some rotated). They have chili and corn bread, sometimes pizza, sometimes cheese quesadillas.
Add a sweet tea and I think the price is around $ 11 not counting tip. They get pretty packed and are normally short handed on the wait staff (I think they only have one person serving but a group cooking and refilling the trays). Just grab a table and help yourself and when the waitress makes it over she’ll take care of the drink order.
I plan to make this a regular stop for lunch when I’m in town.

An actual tasty high-​quality BBQ buffet with beef brisket, pulled pork and a rotating list of tasty selections… all for $ 10. Need I say more?! Ok, fine… hidden gem. The days that they have the BBQ hash, ribs and rib tips should not be missed. Only down side is that they are only open for lunch Tuesday thru Thursday. They are also open and serving messy but tasty things like BBQ nachos and pulled pork sandwiches during Coliseum events.