DCity Smokehouse

Best smoked chicken wings I have ever eaten, the pickles and brisket were outstanding too! Service was great, the dude with the beard and nose was super friendly and helpful!

45 minutes on a slow Sunday late afternoon to wait for Q. Seriously… and they weren’t even that busy.
Ok here’s the deal folks. Being a bit of a Q hound so take it for what it’s worth.
Brisket here is solid. Nice and moist and flavorful, not dried out, minor crumble but juicy and not dried out. Potato salad. too runny, although my colleague really dug it. Excellent chipotle side seasoned mayo, and a nice BBQ sauce that does seem tinkered and tailored with some good personal touches.
Pork is ok, well smoked and seasoned, slightly dry but not too bad, it works out ok and fine. Ribs are a big disappointment, to dried out no fall off the bone, more of that lame paper off ripping of the back, and if you get an end piece it’s going to be a dried out salt lick. seriously. no sugar cookies here folks.
Real good side beans as noted by my bean hound colleague.
So the thing is, unless you are really desperate then by all means grab some Q here. But I sat there at the bar while other patrons came in after me, watching the staff walk around doing next to nothing, while they rolled their eyes when I looked at them.
The Q is good, but it has faults, and honestly it’s not that great, it can be though, but they aren’t trying.
If this place were anywhere outside Austin Memphis Raleigh or rural VA it would need to step up it’s game.

I am sad to report that DCity has lost it. We were looking forward to their legendary BBQ on a rainy Saturday and were thrilled to find they had moved next door into a large space with plenty of seating and a full bar. We ordered our regular pulled pork and brisket sandwiches, except this time we could enjoy them with a couple of drafts. We got the drafts, sat at the bar, and waited. And waited. After 20 min we asked for an update from a different member of the staff, who was shocked that our pulled pork order had been taken. «Why did she take that order – we are out of pulled pork!» We ordered beef instead – and they promised it would be out soon. At 30 min, they said the kitchen was backed up. But very few orders had been coming out – maybe one every 5 min. At 35, she told a new customer that they were running «10 to 15 min» for an order. We said we had been waiting 35, so he left. At 40 they said it would be out «in a second.» At 45 they brought us a bag of food to go – while we were sitting there with our glasses of beer. Obviously eating in – and we had said so when we placed the order. At that point we were about to boil, so we asked for a refund and left. Another customer had already done the same thing. When he asked for a refund instead of his food, the waitress just walked away from him. So he just left. Not one member of the staff appeared to care about the lost business, the disappointed customers, or their lack of control over the place – which was only about a quarter full. Very sad to see what has happened to this once great institution.

This restaurant doesn’t even come close to the hype it gets. To be fair the bbq, is good but nothing to write home about and over priced. The service is what truly killed it. When we got there the restaurant was a quarter full with about ten people with one person in front of us. We ordered a platter and bbq slider trio. IT TOOK AN HOUR for them to bring us food with no acknowledgement of the wait. It is a bbq joint should’ve been about 20 mins at most (this isn’t Franklin’s). When we finally got our food, they got my original order wrong and forgot the ribs. We waited about 15 more mins after they said they would be right out. We had to grab one of them to tell me they had put in my order wrong from the get go and asked if I wanted to pay for my ribs I should’ve gotten about ask hour ago. First and LAST trip there. Oh yeah, everyone in the restaurant waited a minimum of 50 mins.

Really disappointing … I had high hopes after reading Tyler Cowens Ethnic Dining Guide, but Tyler was wrong on this one. Slow, unenthusiastic service, cramped dining space … But worst of all, the brisket was dry and flavorless. Sauce was okay and sides were quite good, but the meat was really bad. Oh, and the prices are too high, especially for bbq this mediocre.

Food: I have yet to try their sandwiches, but a guy close to me in the restaurant had one and it looked really good. The brisket, ribs, rib tips, and wings are a bbq/​meat lovers are pretty damn good. The Smokehouse no longer offers french fries so your side options consist of greens, cole slaw, potato salad and the likes. In addition to their food, this establishment offers several different kinds of bbq sauces.
This is a restaurant for bbq lovers so the options for vegetarians and/​or vegans are very scarce.
Service: Staff seems to be really limited. It may seem like they lack great customer service but it might only be because they do not have a big team to meet the demands of customers.
Ambiance: Whether you just want to catch up with friends after work or enjoy some great bbq,
this place will provide just that. Recently, this place has teamed with a business called Wicked Bloom that serves alcoholic beverages and also provides a bigger space where customers can sit down and actually enjoy their meal inside the restaurant. Prior to this, DCity Smokehouse was a «hole in the wall» type place that was more of a carry out restaurant. R&B and/​or pop music are usually playing and there may be a ton of commotion due to the restaurant being busy.
Value: Most of the platters are north of $ 15 (with tax). If you’re solely interested in one meat, that might be a better deal. Now that the business has teamed up with Wicked Bloom, they offer alcoholic beverages. In addition, they have a happy hour everyday from 4pm-​7pm then again from 10:30 pm-​close
Location: This venue is located in an urban area on a corner on North Capitol NW. There’s a ton of street parking available a block or two from the area. This location is not close to any metro station so riding with friends or taking an Über to the smokehouse would be a great idea.
Happy eating folks!

The portions are OK but the sauce was definitely disappointing — it was more hot sauce than BBQ sauce. Still the service is good but the value can improve.

For now, DCity has temporary digs for ordering/​eating at the Blooming Onion. You can order take-​out by going up to the bar. Be warned however: the menu is different from what is posted on their website and their phone was not working this last weekend. Most notably some of the great sides like mac & cheese and the charred brussel sprouts are not currently on the menu — much to our dismay. The non-​functional phone and outdated website are the reason for the reduced number of stars; if we hadn’t bothered to walk down there, we might have thought the place was closed.
Be aware also that a lot of the meats sell out, especially on weekends. DCity opens at 12 pm on weekends, so if you want pork belly or ribs, be prepared to go early. We ordered take-​out several times around 7 or 8 pm, and a lot of the meats were sold out.
We have tried the pork belly, rib tips, brisket and smoked turkey. The brisket is probably the best, though some of the pieces are a little fatty, even for those of us who enjoy some fat on the meat. The smoked turkey was good, but a bit dry in places. The sides — including the chili and potato salad, were OK, but not something to write home about.

I recently had DCity cater an event for around 20 people. Everyone was very pleased with the food (brisket, turkey, sausage) and sides (potato salad and cole slaw), and the food was definitely worth the hype that DCity has gotten. Prices were very reasonable for the amount of food that we got.
While the food was really good, DCity still seems to be figuring out its catering. The staff could have been more responsive in sending an invoice (it took nearly a week after putting in the order to receive an invoice), and the wrong invoice was sent. We also had the food delivered, but it arrived without bread or BBQ sauce. Despite this being a mistake on the restaurant/catering’s part, they gave us a hard time about going back and re-​delivering what they had forgotten.
Again, the food was really good, but I would need to know that DCity had improved their customer service and ordering before getting catering from them again.

DCity Smokehouse tastes good. It does not taste good enough to justify the price or time it takes to get your food. I ordered the Brisket Champ and Meaty Palmer for pickup, walked over 20 minutes later, and still had to wait another 40 minutes for the food to show up. An hour for two sandwiches is ridiculous. Sure, both sandwiches were juicy, but the meat was kind of chewy.
I walked a block over to meet my girlfriend and the sandwiches were already cold. Plus, the bread was stale.
I’m willing to wait for good food, but when you finally get the food an hour after ordering it and it’s cold, that’s just disappointing.

Oh boy was this place mouth watering! We had a Brisket champ sandwich and I had a mouthgasm. We ordered takeout: Brisket, chopped pork, turkey, wings, coleslaw and beans. I highly recommend all the foods. Great service, cool atmosphere, TV’s and delicious food. Go immediately :) Aussie approved!