Johnny Mitchell’s Smokehouse

Two words… Redneck Reuben. Best sandwich on the menu. Very inviting environment. This is a must try for any foodie!

Place is cozy romantic and the owners are nice and hospitable. Only got my order to go but look forward to dining in.

Johnny’s continues to be our go-​to place and they have now settled into the new location in Cartersville. It is so much more than a barbecue place. We greatly enjoy the unique brisket quesadilla and redneck reuben, but also the seafood: great fish plate, excellent shrimp and wonderful crab cakes. They also have many options for vegetarians, including the veggie burger, hummus, black bean dip, and more. The tiered wine service is a special way to try out up to six different wines at once.
But watch for the specials. Today, I had mussels in a garlic white wine sauce. Last week, we greatly enjoyed the crab bisque and the current burger of the month (with caramelized onion cranberry jelly), plus the fried whole okra as an appetizer. I’m especially a fan of Johnny’s special soups this time of year.
There is much more to love: excellent wings (sweet georgia brown sauce is my favorite), steaks (great with the mushroom sauce), smoked chicken and many excellent burgers and sandwiches.
We are very lucky to have the Smokehouse in our community, and when we travel we measure all other restaurants against it.

I have family that have really enjoyed but I ordered the special which was smoked salmon and it was spoiled. Definitely won’t be going back.

Great food, great service, only negative thing I have to say is they were out of the brisket but we didn’t mind cause it’s all the more reason to return for more awesome barbecue! The steak may be pricing but good god it’s massive and yes it taste awesome! Cocacola cake was pretty good too!

Delicious. We enjoyed our food I would come here again The staff was friendly and food was fantastic. Yummy.

Very disappointing experience.
It seems this group simply moved into the old «Steak Place» without so much as taping up the splits and tears in the booth seats.
There wasn’t even MUZAK to accompany the ambient mood with the low lighting they seemed to be attempting.
The place was simply just dark.
We went at 6pm mid week and we were one of only three tables occupied in the entire place. The young hostess seemed agitated that we disturbed her face-​booking or whatever she was occupied with on her phone. She seated us quickly and didn’t speak further. Three different wait staff took our drink order, but none came. Our final waitress asked us again and kept us topped off from that point fwd.
On to the food.
Salad was a bowl of european salad blend you can buy in a bag at the store, and they had no blue cheese dressing per my request (plenty of ranch of course).
The fried zucchini was very tasty and crisp but the «strip steak» — it was a terrible cut of meat served cooked accurately to order and seasoned simply with salt.
Im a firm believer in the adage that one gets what one pays for but this was a cut of meat one would expect at a truck-​stop that serves a steak and egg breakfast for 9 bucks, not the 20 I paid. It was sinew throughout that when chewed had an elastic quality to it.
We will try it again once more, but after that we will be driving south toward Marietta for other steak options.

First of all, let me preface by saying that this restaurant just opened, we went on their second night after opening and they CLEARLY were experiencing a lot of «glitches». However, I believe that if you are not ready to open… DON’T OPEN. Just don’t. Thankfully, for this place, they seem to have a very loyal crowd (based on their reviews that I read on Facebook… that I believe are NOT accurate). I have no allegiance to them, so I can be honest.
First red flag. Lobby was full… tables were less than 50% full. Either understaffed or not prepared. Or both.
Ambiance: The menu seemed like a last minute project. For example, there is a picture of a plate of ribs… next to one lonely pickle. It is very comical to look at and some of the descriptions of the items could be reworded… The place is decorated on point, the staff wore classic uniforms… WHY would you plop a crappy diner-​style menu down in front of your customer?
We decided to go to the bar to have a drink while we waited. Another red flag. They weren’t selling beer or wine… they were «giving it away». This read, «we don’t have our liquor license yet» and can’t sell. This should be firmly in place before you open up the place. I mean… come on! They had ONE person staffed at the bar. I stood at the bar for TEN minutes waiting for her to even notice I was there (And that was after my husband stood their for 5 – 7 minutes trying to get me a glass of wine). She seems frazzled… which I get… opening night, lots of kinks… blah blah blah. While we were standing there waiting for our table a waitress, also clearly frazzled came through the bar and was loudly reprimanded by the bartender because she accidentally let the door slam close. She yelled at her and told her that she would get her whatever she needed… seemed like the waitress was tired of waiting.
45 minutes later we were finally seated. Ok, no biggie. We get it. New place. But at this point, I can tell that all of the staff were on edge from the numerous problems… we saw so many… there had to have been so many other problems unseen. We all were understanding and nothing but polite and jovial to the staff, as we all saw how stressed they were.
I’m sorry to keep going, but I just have to.
Our waitress seemed inexperienced and did not have much of a personality. Maybe it was because they were running into so many problems in her defense? Your waitress should make you feel at ease, explain what is going on, etc. Nothing.
First, we got drink orders from another person, and then again from our waitress. Another glimpse they had no communication. I am thinking that nobody did a walk through before opening night so people knew what role to play during service. We all asked for a glass of water and pinot noir. We got pinot grigio. And 1 glass of water for the four of us. Our waitress didn’t know the difference. Oh well, it was free, right?
Two hours later we got the, «your order is five min away»…then 10 minutes later, «just 10 more minutes, okay?». Ugh. At least we had good company and they fed us full of wine. We were there for THREE ½ hours!!!
Food review (the most important, right!!!)
We ordered a few appetizers which would have been 100%…IF they were warm. We got the black bean queso dip which had the BEST flavor to it BUT IT WAS COLD!!! Ahhhhh!!! We ate it of course, because at this point, we were so hungry.
BBQ Sampler: cooked to perfection… great seasoning and smoky flavor!
Wings/​honey mustard: probably the best or close to what we have all had in a while!
14oz Strip Steak: ordered med/​rare: came out medium :-(Flavor was good though
16oz Rib eye: ordered med/​rare: come out that way!
Sides ordered:
–green beans (they were canned!!! Came out almost brown. Gross.)
–Home fries (they were described as «hash browns» came out as looking like buttered fingerlings with garlic… tasted great! But another show of lack of communication.
–Fried green tomatoes: first they were not green, they were yellow and completely ripe and really soggy. Yuck.
HOUSE salad: After waiting for 2 hours, and being told that our «food is on it’s way», we were told that they ran out of lettuce. Ok, no problem… BUT a grocery store is DIRECTLY across the STREET! Seriously… you see you are running low on ingredients for a HOUSE SALAD… send someone across the street to buy some lettuce to make it through the night. Come on.
So, after all that criticism, I will say that the apologies (from, I think the owner… she never introduced herself as such) and good tasting food, we will be back to give it another chance. In a few months. They need to work out the kinks for sure. I really hope that they focus on some of these issues and that they will continue to be a success! Go give them a try and leave them honest feedback so they can improve!