DJ’s Smokehouse and Grill

I went to DJ’s recently to try their barbeque. I was mostly unimpressed by the offering. I had the 16 oz. brisket platter that comes with two sides and a cup of BBQ sauce of your choice. The guy taking our order was one of the owners of the place. He was pleasant enough and suggested a couple of appetizers which we did not partake. I got hushpuppies and baked beans. The brisket was cut fairly thick, more like a plate of roast beef. It didn’t seem very smoky and upon talking to the owner, he indicated that their smoker was an indoor Chinese-​style smoker. The sauce I got was Spicy BBQ, it had a good amount of cumin in it and was thick and tomato-​y. I would have preferred a bit thinner of a sauce but it was spicy enough for my taste. The beans were very good as were the hush puppies. My criticism of the «pups» was that they were small, like the size of a large gumball. I would have preferred three golf-​ball sized ones. They were very tasty though. I also had a cornbread muffin which was very good as well. Also, pulled pork was had by one of the other guys and he said it was quite good. It was a bit hit or miss but in the spring, they said they would get an outdoor smoker and that might improve the smokiness of the meat. It was decent, and I might give them another try in the future but there’s other places I would go first.

Byob!
Tonight was our first trip to DJs & everyone in our party loved their dinner. I thought the cherry BBQ sauce was amazing! The Mac & cheese was super creamy, the briscit was cooked just right & I could have seriously eaten 2 corn bread muffins. All our plates were wiped clean. We can’t wait to go back & byob.

The last few times I’ve had their food, the pulled pork was much much improved. They get better and better. Did I mention their prices are insanely good for the quality of food? Our favorite BBQ place! Bravo, D.J.‘s!

The last time I drove by this place, it was a Mexican restaurant. The location is odd, in that the place looks like a house and it fits right into the houses around the neighborhood. The only drawback will be that, unless you know about this place, lot of folks will drive by… I just hope they will pull in and give this place a try.
The parking is located in the back… there’s about three paved lots and park in the grass next to the dumpster. The entrance is located in the front of the building, so go towards the main road (Michigan Ave.). Once you walk in, there’s about 8 tables… we (my foodie friends) grabbed the menu and found a table to sit. Since I had reviewed the menu prior to going, I had rough idea of what I wanted.
The waitress came out and greeted us. She is full of energy and cheerful, unfortunately, she is the only waitress working. By the middle of our dinner, the place got busy and she was doing her best to check on all the customers, taking orders and bringing food, etc.
For drinks, I went with sweet tea. For starters, we went with poutine with pulled pork and rib tips. For main course, we went with pulled pork — 12oz, brisket — 12oz. and I went with Country Ribs the large portion. We got the 3 cornbread for the $ 1.99 and for the sides, we went with mac-​n-​cheese, greens, baked beans and baked sweet potato.
The poutine was good… the first time I had poutine was in Shanghai, China… yes, not Canada, but Shanghai, China! So, it was hard for me to compare and contrast the taste with the original… but it was good. If you add the pulled pork, they do top a lot on the fries… granted, I felt that the mixture of the pulled pork and the fries with cheese and gravy didn’t really go well… as for the fries, gravy and the cheese… it was a good mixture of flavor. I also wish they would gave us more gravy… as for the pulled pork, half of it was moist and great, the other half was dried and tough to eat.
The rib tips was decent — some were dried out and others were moist. Of all the BBQ joints that I’ve been to, (except Ron’s), they typically have bottles of their BBQ sauce on the tables, but not here… you are only allowed one sauce per order — this was really sad, since being first timer, I couldn’t really determine which BBQ sauce would be great with the meats… so I asked if I could get the rib tips with memphis and Michigan cherry — the waitress said only one sauce, but afterwards said she could probably do ½ and ½… I told her if it’s too much work, then just give it to me with memphis bbq sauce.
When the rip tips came out… she brought ½ and ½… the memphis sauce is on the spicy side and I personally would not get it again. While spicy, it really didn’t have a flavor of it’s own. Go with the Michigan Cherry, as it was sweet and had a great taste to it. The carolina bbq was also decent.
While we waited, the sweet tea was little bit on the sweet side, but I had four cups :) For my final cup, I asked for the Lemonade and while it was more watery, it was decent.
Our main course came…
Pulled Pork — the tender meats were on the bottom, but sadly on the top, they put the dried out pulled pork, which was hard to eat. This was miss on my side… while the moist and tender meat was good, putting the dried out meat on top — yeah wrong move in my humble opinion… even masking the dried meat with sauce didn’t really help and one shouldn’t have to do that.
Brisket — while the meat was tender, the brisket could have stayed in the smoker for few more hours. You can definitely tell the meat was smoked… I liked the brisket, but I had better. But as always with BBQ meats, it’s hit or miss.
Country Pork — the meat was dark from the smoking and part of the meat was tender, while the other half were hard and dried out. I don’t know if I would get this again… I ordered a large one and on this visit, it wasn’t worth the money that I paid for.
Mac-​n-​Cheese — it was good you can tell it’s made there. They keep it simple.
Baked Beans — can’t tell if this is home made or out of a can… the taste was good.
Greens — very spicy, not sure why… they add meat in there. the greens needs to be cooked little longer… not my favorite amongst the sides that I had.
Baked Sweet Potato — this was the best side amongst all the sides we had.
Corn Bread — not bad.
Overall, promising joint… they don’t have any smokers outside the building, so most likely they smoke all their meat inside the kitchen using a modern smokers — which isn’t wrong… I would have preferred to smell the smoked as pulling up and parking. The one thing that I would encourage them to change is to place the bottles of BBQ sauces on the tables, so the customers can try all of them and decide for themselves instead of limiting their selections OR have a sample of BBQ sauces for the customers to try. Swing by if you are near.

NEVER AGAIN!!! 1ST of all they expect you to park in the back and walk in a poorly lit area with a torn up sidewalk to the front. There was no smoker outside, nor did the inside smell like anything was smoked in there. I got the brisket, collard greens and mac n cheese. NO SMOKE RING on the meat, it was fatty and where there wasn’t fat it was chewy and tough. The collard greens had not been trimmed properly and the flavor was salty and of the red pepper flakes in it. The Smoked Gouda mac n cheese? Was just greasy and really didn’t taste like any cheese. I accidently came in the back door. When I got ready to leave the waiter stood in front of me and blocked me from going out the back door. The whole experience was bad.
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Just an update, was up until 4:00am this morning with what appeared to be food poisoning. Concerned all those great reviews were by the owners friends

This was just a strange experience for me. I walked into the restuarant (which I think is a converted house). I was a little confused as to what was the front door and what was the back door. I think I walked in the front. I came to about 6 tables and took a seat. Thankfully there were others in the dining room and the waitress was bringing them their food as I took a seat.
The waitress (who was very nice) gave me a menu and asked what I wanted to drink. I ordered a diet coke and reviewed the menu.
I decided on the smoked chicken sandwich. The waitress asked me what type of sauce I wanted. I had no clue what my options were as I didn’t see them on the menu (maybe I missed them) and they weren’t on the table.
I heard someone else mention a spicy sauce, so I decided on that. A short time later, my meal came. It looked good. A large sandwich with lettuce, chicken and tomato. The unfortunate thing was that the sandwich was more lettuce and tomato than chicken. When I did try the chicken there was hardly any smokey flavor. I was dissapointed in that I could smell smokers when I walked by the restaurant and I thought that maybe I had found BBQ Nirvana, but that was not the case. There wasn’t as much chicken as I originally thought there was and when I tried to eat it, the bun fell apart. I ended up eating just the chicken.
The sandwich came with chips or fries for an extra dollar. I got the chips, and there was an ample amount, but HOLY SODIUM, they were salty! While they were thin, and crunchy and you could tell home made, it was almost painful to eatt them.
The meal was reasonable. $ 7.41 for a sandiwch, chips and a soda.
I had really high hopes for DJ”s, but I don’t think I’ll be back.

Joy, the owner, is wonderful! The portions are substantial, and the meat on ribs and beef brisket is really moist. They also have a variety of homemade sauces to go with!

Nice little restaurant. Super friendly staff, great food, and price is super reasonable for BBQ. Collard green is very tasty, tangy and spicy. Fries are good. We had pulled pork, brisket, and rib tips with spicy, Memphis, and Carolina BBQ sauce. All were very tasty.

WOW! My family is definitely excited to try more. I ordered carryout of their ribs for lunch with collard greens and baked beans as the sides. I also ordered a side of their cornbread and white rice.
THE RIBS WERE SO GOOD! fall off the bone and they had a dry rub that was delicious! I ordered a few of their sauces on the side so I could experiment. I’m so glad I did because the dry ribs were awesome with no sauce at all!
The sides were good as well.
Lastly the CORNBREAD!!! OMG they were the best cornbread muffins I’ve ever had!!! The side of muffins comes in 1 or 3. I ordered three and am going to double my order of them next time. They are definitely made from scratch and they are so soft and moist!
Just delicious!
For twenty bucks my husband and I are full for lunch and have enough ribs for dinner. My husband will be picking up some more cornbread to have with our leftovers for dinner. This time we’re getting double!!!
Definitely check this place out. You will not be disappointed !!!

Checked this place out for lunch last weekend with my fiancé. We ordered the BBQ Sampler, Mac N Cheese, Caesar Side Salad and Hush Puppies.
My favorites of the meal were the Mac N Cheese and the pulled pork. The ribs were really good too, but I’d like to go back and try their country style ribs. my fiancé really liked the brisket with the cherry bbq sauce. That sauce was a bit tart for me but I really liked the Honey BBQ and Memphis. The hush puppies were cooked perfectly and were very good. The caesar was standard, and pretty large for a side.
I had some lemonade and she had the sweet tea. They were both tasty and we were happy to see that the refills were free.
Our total with tip was about $ 28 bucks and we couldn’t finish all of the food.
This is definitely the best BBQ you’re going to get in Ypsi, and it won’t break the bank. The service was really great as well. We were told they were hoping to have seating outside at some point, and that they hope to serve beer come spring. I look forward to going back.

Went back and was impressed again. The chef was nice enough to come out and advise us on what sauces paired best with each dish, etc. You can tell the staff really cares about the quality of the food.

What a pleasant surprise! The food was so innovative and tasty. I would definitely come back here. The fried mozzarella and salmon cakes are awesome!

I don’t really want to body-​slam this restaurant, because the tastes aren’t necessarily bad, they’re just different, and I think they are worth experiencing. They just didn’t fit what my wife and I were expecting.
We ordered the BBQ Sampler appetizer, sampled all of the BBQ sauces, had the hush puppies, mac-​n-​cheese, fried chicken, and mashed potatoes. Here are a few notes:
— The staff was very kind and attentive. They allowed us to sample all of the BBQ sauces; we enjoyed the Honey and Memphis, we didn’t really care for the others.
— My wife had to send her hush puppies back because they weren’t fully cooked.
— On the sampler: The pulled pork was excellent, the ribs were pretty good (a different type of flavor, strong but not overpowering), and the brisket was hit-​or-​miss (the parts that weren’t fatty were either good or dry). The Honey and Memphis sauces worked well with all the meats.
— The mac-​n-​cheese was just «ok». It was cheesy, appeared to be homemade, but it was hard to get a lock on the flavor. It was different, but not bad.
— The fried chicken was tasty, I generally like more breading, but the skin was crispy and flavorful, and the meat was juicy. This was the best part of the meal.
— The mashed potatoes — by themselves — were just «ok». But I didn’t care for the gravy at all. It had some kind of smokey flavor to it, but it didn’t work for me.
— We spoke to another customer who ordered the Salmon; she said it was delicious and very well cooked.
— My chicken came with mashed potatoes and gravy; I wasn’t allowed to substitute the mashed potatoes for anything except another potato product.
— The sweet tea was tasty, without being too sweet. Free refills.
— $ 38 for two people, and we did feel like we got a lot of food. The portions were just about right.
The thing that comes to mind with this place is that there’s nothing (from what we tried) that’s «must have». I like that everything has the freshly-​made feel, I don’t get the sense that something has been waiting under a heat lamp. But from the things we tried, there wasn’t a dish where I can say to my wife «Let’s go to DJ’s and get this tonight».
All that being said, I’ll probably give them another try to taste another dish, but I know that my wife wasn’t pleased and she won’t be ordering from there anymore. They’re definitely worth a try, but it’s not a place I can see becoming a part of our rotation.

Upstart new place with great potential. As soon as the usual opening kinks are worked out, this place should shine. BBQ is slow smoked and the sides are tasty. Mashed potatoes are well worth ordering. Give this place a try!

Tried this place out and was not disappointed. Our table had smoked chicken, brisket, poutine, and pork chops, sides were baked beans, collard greens, mac & cheese and potato salad. We used the Michigan cherry and Carolina BBQ sauces. Everything was incredible, the collards really stood out to me, I am used to getting collards in a briney sauce, these were dry and spicy with large chunks of pork. The apple sauce on the pork chops and the mashed potatoes were also full of subtle flavors…
Some of the best in Ypsi. and there are many exceptional restaurants here.

A new restaurant! DJ’s Smokehouse and Grill opened just last week and they hoping to make it work in Ypsi by making reasonably priced (bordering on cheap) upscale grilled and smoked dishes with fresh, locals products.
First up is Poutine! Poutine you say? Fries with gravy and cheese curds. Slightly on the wet side but thy just means there is lots of extra gravy to go with the rest of the meals.
Kids meals of popcorn chicken and burgers are very substantial. The burger was large enough for an adult!
On to the main courses. Although I’d love to try the ribs the two things that caught our eye were off the sandwich and burgers menu.
First up was DJ’s BBQ Burger deluxe. ¼ lb of beef topped with brisket, pulled pork, bacon, cheese, and coleslaw… wow. If you check out the photos, you’ll see that this is truly a «man-​sized» burger. The combination of flavors between the bacon, pork, brisket, and burger is really something that needs to be experienced. The brisket was well smoked and salty, but seemed slightly dry, although very tender.
Second on the order was the Grilled Cheese Bacon Burger, which is basically a burger with bacon between two full grilled cheese sandwiches. Once again, a very different taste from what were used to finding in this neck of the woods.
We cut both of our burger in half and shared. I have to admit that I was stuffed when I tried to finish off the homemade fries and potato chips on my plate.
Do I have any minor gripes … sure…
1. Straw was too short for the water glass
2. Fries were slightly soggy
For a restaurant that’s only been open for 1 week, these are minor gripes.
What I liked:
1. Good and inventive burgers
2. Very good portions for kids meals
3. Fresh ingredients for everything
4. Homemade everything (fries, slaw, spinach and artichoke dip, chips)
5. Meat was smoked just right
6. Happy and courteous staff, which is something you don’t see much in restaurants around here
7. Cute eating area and they’ve done the best they can with the outside of the building.
Unilocalers… please check out this restaurant. They deserve to be seen and tasted. Make your own decisions, but I think this is the start of something big in Ypsilanti. This may become my goto place in the area when I’m really hungry.