Smokehouse

This was the worst chopped brisket I have ever eaten. It already had sauce that tasted like ketchup mixed in it. It very possibly came out of a can and was heated on stove or even in microwave. The first bite I had was of onion rings and they tasted so bad I knew the BBQ was going to be bad. My wife’s smoked turkey looked like pressed processed turkey. She said it tasted worse than that. Her green beans were clearly out of can with no salt or seasoning at all. However, the tea and Texas toast was okay, which is the only reason for the 1 star. Needless to say we took it to go, paid and threw it away at the first trash we saw after leaving.

When I lived in Denton this was THE BBQ place. It wasn’t a weekend if we didn’t have Smokehouse! It’s location hasn’t changed in years, which makes it a convenient place to find right off the I-​35. The inside décor hasn’t changed in years so it was just like coming home! I don’t think they allow smoking inside anymore but the smell of years of nicotine partaking lingers.
I have to admit, this past visit I was a little disappointed. Our family experience was a little less than grand. It started with ordering the onion rings for an appetizer, which used to be the best in town but I can’t comment on them since we never got them. The wait staff actually took our order to the table next to us, which the table came in about 15 minutes after we did. Since we were sitting there starving, I flagged down for our waitress. As she was coming back to our table with our meals, she said «the onion rings are on their way». I commented they were ordered as an appetizer, not as a side item for our meals. She said she was sorry but our order was given to the table next to us but it wasn’t her fault but the person that brought out the order. There was no offer to make it right.
I got the chopped brisket which was as good as I remembered. Their plates come with a slice of onion and pickle. The cole slaw was crisp, cold and creamy. The Texas toast could have used more butter, in fact was non-​existent on several slices. The mashed potatoes needed more seasoning and tasted like they were out of a box. Even the gravy didn’t help with the lack of taste.
The sliced brisket was dry but the St Louis ribs were juicy and full of flavor.
One of things that hasn’t changed… they serve their drinks in huge, red plastic Coke cups! Who needs a refill??? They aren’t chintzy with their portions here! It’s Texas sized!!!

The food is incredible, the restaurant itself leaves a little to be desired. It gets busy very frequently, so get there early. The brisket and hot links are A1, fam.

that is not pumpkin pie. pumpkin pie has no nuts or cream cheese frosting on it!

I usually can tell a BBQ joint has the potential to be good by the smell eminating from the Parking lot. I should have listened to myself. Ok, here we go, upon opening the door 1960’s Alabama came to mind. We walked in and picked our table. I didn’t have my usual bottle of hand sanitizer so I left my order for a Rootbeer with my girl and headed to what turned out to be the nastiest Bathroom I had seen in some time and that was at a Bar in the French Quarter in New Orleans, which this Bathroom reminded me of. It really was worse when we realized that a table of 6 were actually Employees just kicking it. The High School aged girl who served us was friendly and knowledgeable regarding the Menu. We ordered the Sampler of several meats and 2 sides. It came with 2 Ribs, 2 beat up pieces of chicken, Dry smoked Brisket, and a load of 2 types of pretty good Sausage, smoked Ham and I think smoked Turkey. The sides were Beans and German Potatoes. The Beans were literally right from the can, and I mean, «Right from the can» Like opened the can just for us, at that moment. Brisket was blah and dry. Ribs were tasty but would have been better had we gotten there 3 hours earlier. BBQ sauce was kept warm in bottles somehow which was surprising that so much detail was expended on that but the meat was about room temp. All in all we won’t be back. I should mention that we had a lot of meat left over which i took home for the kids to finish. One bite from my 17 year old and he said, «Brisket is dry, how did they do that with so much fat on it? The container was still on the stove an hour later with 2 Teenage boys eating everything that doesn’t move. Except of course Smokehouse BBQ in a to go container, in plain sight, on the stove. Yeeeaaahhh, we won’t be back.

First of all, I’m not an expert in Texas BBQ, but I know a good meal. In my experience in the lonestar state, hole in the wall BBQ smokehouse joints are all over; and while not all of them are good, almost none of them are bad. This is one of those middle of the road decent meal joints. Still worth a stop if you are out of town and you want to experience something a little more local than Outback or McD. The chicken and turkey was tender and had good smoke, though I could not detect the use of a rub and the sauce was a little tame on the flavor. Other than good service, the best things on my table were the german potatoes and sweet tea. 3 stars.

Been here several times its ok old wore out chairs and tables and food is sometimes great snd other times not so good.
The place is ok and reasonable prices.

Great BBQ for a reasonable price! They have lots of variety as well, including ribs, briskets, sausages and normal BBQ meat. Many sides to choose from and their portions are good/​big.

We happened upon this and wanted to try some BBQ. It smelt wonderful inside and out. Service excellent… We had catfish, NY Strip, Pork Ribs, OR, and the German fried potatoes… All was off the chain! Would def recommend this place, everything was good! Big portions. We’ll definitely be back while we’re in the area. Oh, we didn’t get BBQ when we saw all the other selections, and we were going to a catered BBQ party the next day.

This place is always packed, so we decided to try it. The joint was older, but that’s okay. The service was good, as were the side dishes we ordered. However the meat was awful! The brisket was so dry we ended up taking it home to the dogs. The German sausage had a strange taste. The hot link was okay, but the ribs were canners and cutters at best. If you don’t know what that means, google it. You do get a lot of food for you money, but we ended up feeding most of the meat to our dogs. They really liked it! I won’t eat there again.

The Smokehouse is a Denton stable offering a standard meat + 3 type of set up.
Venue
This place is very old. It has a 1960’s cafeteria vibe. There is zero pomp and circumstance in this location. Generally, from the dining room, the place looked old, but clean. That is until I went to the bathroom. I wish I had taken a picture of the filth in the bathroom. There was a cabinet above the toilet that had about ¹⁄₃ inch of dust that had been there so long I think it had a family and kids up there somewhere. Gross. I can’t help but wonder what the kitchen looks like when the bathrooms are in such disarray. Old is not bad. Old and dirty. Is bad.
Food
I had a brisket sandwich with french fries. The brisket had a slight smoke flavor to it but was gray throughout and slightly chewy. The fries were hot and crispy. My lunch including a coke was about $ 10 dollars.
Service
Our server was very friendly and attentive. We waited for nothing and she had a smile on her face the entire time. One thing I really like about Texas restaurants is this take your drink to go thing. That is cool. We don’t have that in Seattle and I think it’s a nice touch.
Summary
I probably would not go back here. It is just not my kind of place. Marginal food, mostly deep fried or fatty, with good portions, and a great price. If you walk in with these expectations, you will be satisfied. The super friendly and speedy service is what eeked out (just barely) the 3 stars.

Love, Love, LOVE their BBQ and smoked turkey. YUM! Great, tasty sides. Just simple, downhome cookin’ delivered with downhome friendliness. Will be back soon.

Smokehouse is nothing fancy as far as atmosphere goes, but they have the best BBQ in town. I’ve been getting food from this place since the mid-90’s, and I’ve never gotten a bad meal. Whether you get their BBQ, chicken fried steak or a sandwich, you can’t go wrong. Their sides are really great too, the fries and onion rings are the best in town, but I highly recommend the German potatoes. Of all the things I’ve tried there, I like their sausages the best. The German sausage and hot links are really top notch. The bottom line is, this is straight up BBQ, nothing fancy. If you want your ribs in some sort of red wine reduction sauce or some crap like that, go to a Bobby Flay restaurant and get some of that foofoo BBQ, this is regular down-​home cooking, untouched by the cooking channels or foodie fads.
Edit: Had to drop them down a star and might not be visiting for a while (after all these years) due to a terrible experience. Ordered a bunch of food takeout for a little gathering, the first problem was that they left several sides out of the order, luckily I checked before I left. Served up the food to my friends and it was terrible. We had brisket and German sausage. The sausage looked underdone compared to what it normally looks like, and really chewy. The brisket had almost no flavor. One of my friends at the gathering is a professional BBQ guy, going to various cookouts every weekend, and winning a lot. He told me «Jack, that’s baked brisket». It didn’t look like it normally does, it was just kind of grey and no smoke ring of any kind. On top of that the German potatoes had a really strange taste, a fishy taste, as if they prepared it in a pot they’d used to cook fish but forgot to wash it. I wanted to drop it lower than one star, but for a so-​far one time experience I won’t go that far. Especially for a place I’ve been going to for so long.

Good old fashioned barbeque for a great price! I love their German sausage links and smoked turkey, my husband loves the ribs and brisket. The service was very friendly and helpful, we followed the waitress’ suggestion and were very satisfied. The barbeque sampler could easily feed 3 or 4 and is a great value for the amount of food. It has kindof a whole in the wall atmosphere that we found charming and a sign of good barbeque.

Well I had a night out with my family and had a bbq sauce explode in my face all over me and my clothes the owner knew it happened never said sorry or take care of me or my food or anything will never go back because he does not care about his customer

The definition of average food. Filling, but bland and tasteless, no spice or seasoning. Chicken fried steak tasted like cafeteria food, not bad but not good either, just there. Smoked meats were moist and marginally better. Service was quick and friendly.

We had dinner there were looking for someplace to eat and glad we chose it. In town for race and food was very good staff friendly even gave recommendations on breakfast places and where we could go to get items we forgot to bring. Keep up the good work!

Dang, how long has this place been around?! Not much has really changed inside either. An older run down building and tiny little bathrooms that need a good cleaning is what you got here. I think an update on the place is due, like so many other places in Denton.
Staff is very friendly and laid back. They give you a good amount of food for what you pay for and it’s pretty good. The brisket sammich is a bit watery for my taste, but it does break apart nice. It’s kind of hard to pin it down as far as taste, but I didn’t like their sausage. Mac was nice!
I think this place has a ton of potential. It’s just fallen into the old Denton that gets looked over. If a new manager came it with a little bit of money and revamped everything I think this could be the little hid away spot that people go to get away from the corporate restaurants.
Note: after you eat you can hit up some pool and drinks at the bar if that’s your thing :)

Stumbled on this place yesterday and decided to try it out. Drove up about 7:30 pm on a Friday to a full parking lot. Maybe we are on to something!
Walked in and after a minute realized we needed to seat ourselves. Found a table and pretty quickly a server walked up with menus. Beer selection is pretty sparse but they had cold mugs so… score!
We decided to try the Bottlecaps which were fried jalapeños. The batter was a little thick but these baby’s had some kick! And we eat spicy so non-​spice folks probably wouldn’t want these.
For our entrée we decided to try the Captains Feast… chicken, brisket, hot links, German sausage, ribs, and ham. Got French fries and okra for sides. We aren’t big hot links folks but they were good. The German sausage was really good. Not fatty and smoked great. Brisket was average. Ham was great. Chicken was moist and tender. Ribs were excellent! Okra was really good. Made with fresh okra. Fries were greasy hamburger style and got an a plus on being «real». Barbecue sauce wasn’t anything to write home about.
Overall this place was a typical hole in the wall joint with some great and some average food. It has been there for 20 years so they are doing something right! Service was top notch.
They have really reasonable prices and some nice looking steaks. Next time we will go for the steaks and report how those were.
Try this place out with an open mind. It’s a great place.

BBQ done right, great prices and very large portions, staff was very nice, our waitress had a letter to the owner she had written as a child framed on the wall, saying she wanted to work there when she grew up. Her dream came true!