Smoke Shack

The food was very yummy

Portions were sub par for the price. The sauces were tasteless and bland. Bartender and waitress were good. The place just should be better.

Hadn't been to smoke shack in a number of years. My original experience was a bit disappointing, but it's been so long I can't even recall specifically why. Had a craving for barbecue so I thought I would give this place another try. If memory serves me, it was more disappointing the second time than it was the first time. Clearly they were very understaffed. Drink Service took a very long time, and was not offered another drink until after both people in my party had finished their food and put their napkins on the plate. Now, for the food. Cornbread was delicious and we both enjoyed it very very much. As for the food, both of our entrées were noticeably lukewarm and pretty disappointing as a whole. Both of my meat entrées were very much room temperature and my guest's pulled pork was also cold. Macaroni and cheese was hot, albeit pretty runny and the beans were a perfect temperature and pretty tasty. When the bill finally arrived, we were charged full price for drinks, even though we were there during happy hour, but service had been so slow and visits to the table so sporadic that we just chose to pay the tab and be done with the experience.

Office wanted bbq today... I cringe when thinking of upper Midwest bbq, but they agreed on Smoke Shack. Not horrible. The food is OK and way better than dumps like Saz, but something is missing from being like Central TX bbq. Maybe it's the wood, but the brisket is lacking almost everything that a nirvana inducing TX brisket will have. Also, it's sliced with grain and super thick nuggets vs. against and is a stringy eat vs. a hearty TX slice that holds up as a slice. Chili is a pretty solid flavor but the bean controversy ;) Sausage is really like elevated hotdogs, honestly. Nothing to it. Tastes like a hotdog from a smoker. For the upper Midwest, this place is pretty good. Hey... at least they have a real wood smoker on site. Serves its purpose of giving me some smoked meat when I am not back in TX, but it's a far cry from about 90% of the BBQ pit joints all across Texas. 11/23 Update Today, literally nothing was good. The Brisket had no flavor and was ridiculously dry (at least it was sliced correctly today). Pulled chicken was so dry that the 2 people that got it just tossed it. The pulled pork was, however, the opposite... it was literally more sauce than pork, and to call it TX Pork? I spend a great deal of time in TX and I cannot recall the last time I saw pork with any noticeable sauce and many places in TX will only lightly sauce on the prep board if you ask for it. TX lets the meat and smoke take the lead. Today was a big miss.

I have been craving brisket from Buc-ees in the Texas area. Unfortunately, we don’t have one in Wisconsin. So I decided to give Smoke Shack a try. I did an Uber eats order. It arrived quickly and nicely packaged. That’s where the praise ends. This couldn’t be fresh brisket. It was dry and flavorless. Cut in small pieces which made the sandwich hard to eat. The Texas bbq sauce and sweet pickles were the best thing I ate. I also got a side of mac and cheese. Now this is Wisconsin so I’m always like that should be good we know our cheese. Wrong again. This mac and cheese doesn’t seem fresh or have much flavor. Not sure if I’ll try this again.

Overall a great experience.

quality bbq with a fun/friendly vibe