Moonshine BBQ Smokehouse — Restaurant in Hawkesbury

The restaurant choice was not mine, we were going to get back home to Montreal a bit too late, so my wife offered and my daughter picked it. Never trust a BBQ smokehouse in which you can't smell smoke. Sadly, did not enjoy my meal. It started out badly when first being told they had burnt ends, and ten minutes later being informed they didn't actually have any. Disappointment before even receiving my food. So I opted for the brisket. Looks like the a little bit like the real deal, sort of, but the thin layer of a "smoke ring" is a product of sprinkling it with sodium nitrite, because only high combustion gets wood to make naturally occurring sodium nitrate to give a smoke ring (you see a smoke ring in the brisket photo from their website which I attached, this is not what their's brisket actually looks like, there wasn't a smoke ring), and if they're burning wood at a high temperature then you should smell burning wood. Or they are smoking it for too short a period to get more than the superficial ring that is not in the meat but on the meat. Whatever the case maybe this is why I don't think they are really smoking their meats. The brisket was about as dry as it can be, I sense that it gets cooked, and then refrigerated and rethermalized when it's ordered. They choose to serve the brisket in a BBQ smokehouse with a peppercorn sauce, essentially gravy, kind of weird. Though to be honest I asked for BBQ sauce which they brought over, then I tasted it and it tastes mostly of dried smoked paprika and not like a BBQ sauce from any of the major American BBQ centers, not Memphis, nor Carolina nor Texas and not KC... Interestingly, the waitress asked the other two in our party how their meals were, but didn't actually ask how mine was, which is a shame as I could have told them all this in person. Don't know what else to say. What I have written is an honest review nothing malicious. I wish I had something nicer to say, but then I feel I would have to lie to say there was anything redeeming about my meal. The decor is as you might expect for a restaurant of this style, clean. The wait staff did an acceptable job taking our orders and delivering the food to the table, the waitress was friendly but not as attentive to the mood as I think she could have been. I don't know if my expectations were too high for a small town restaurant, though given the prices are big city prices I think I should have some expectations in that direction. Premium prices with average food, that's because the prices are the same in Montreal, but I have to assume everything is more expensive in a big city, so not sure why in Hawkesbury they charge so much. With all these high reviews, the best I can say is that the reviewers simply don't know any better, and that can happen. They would lose their minds if they had good BBQ. Look for restaurants that proudly display trophies they have won for their BBQ, if they don't have any, let's say it is a big clue. For reference, I have a degree in professional cooking and restaurant management, plus I...

MEGA BIG shoutout to the Moonshine pit master!!! Been there twice in 2 weeks...and we think that it rivals Texan, Florida and Carolinas' BBQ, except it is way closer to home. So good.

The brisket, the BRISKET!!! Burnt ends or regular. Both are so amazing. Thick slices and bite after bite, it just desintegrates in your mouth. Don't forget to baptise each bite in their sauce. Perfect!! Bark is there, smoke is there, beefy taste and so moist...aaaaah. watery mouthful with each bite. So sad that most people don't understand how hard it is to make good brisket but we know. Respect, Moonshine.

Very close 2nd fav are the pork ribs. Fall off the bone, finger licking, tangy, sweet, smokey goodness. Someone needs to GMO pork to add at least 20 ribs on each side of that beast and give them all to Moonshine pitmaster to cook.

Pulled pork is great! Good chunks of meat, Great sauce but you can still taste the smoked pork (shoulder, I would imagine). Def eating it by the mouth full. No shame.

Chicken is very good too and not dry but it is def outshined by everything else. We still eat that sucker to the bone. Nothing left!

Corn bread. C'mon! So good. They look so inoffensive because they so small but pack awesome taste and just perfect dry/moist. I would pop as many as they give me.

Coleslaw rarely gets mentioned, but it is so so good. The perfect crunchy and cool refreshing bite between watery mouthful of meat.

Thanks for loving good smoke and good meat the way we do. The food is amazing!!! Keep it coming, my friends! We'll keep going whenever we can.

(Sorry. We have 0 pics of the actual food because we were so excited that we forgot to take pics each time. We dug in as soon as the...

First off ..poor service.greeted by hostess or a waitress at he door asking if we had a reservation...we did not have one and apparently didn't need one?? We were seated next to the washroom....and it had a dirty sink...appeared to be tomato sauce in there.

We then were greeted by a waitress that was limited in English...she took our order for drinks...told us an English speaking waitress would take our food order.

10 to 15 minutes later a second waitress arrived and started speaking French and we thought she was going to take our order in English...we placed our order started with the entrie and it was ok i guess...we preceeded to receive a kids poutine when it was supposed to be an adult order.... I ordered a burger and it was undercooked I was also given 2 choices on side dishes that supposedly came with the meal and was charged extra....She specifically asked what I wanted in the burger and brought me something else other than what I ordered.. my wife's meal had no dip for her chicken nuggets, no ketchup for the fries and to make things even more inconvenient there was no cutlery as we had to ask for some and no napkins!

After this meal we shared our concerns with the waitress and all she did was make excuses that they had no electricity the night before and that they couldn't serve a hockey team....bizarre indeed zero stars stay away horrible service and overall terrible ...the last waitress was named Caro

Overpriced and overrated...