The Lancaster Smokehouse — Restaurant in Kitchener

Hands down the best bbq I've had in all of Ontario.

I used to live in Texas and NY. Moved up to Ontario about two and a half years ago. The one thing i couldn't find is legitimate bbq where smoked brisket was done right. I've tried close to a dozen spots. Mostly tasted like roast beef (temp on smoker likely a bit too high to cook faster, humidity not monitored, or any number of other issues resulting in dry brisket with very little flavor).

Then i found Lancaster Smokehouse from a recommendation from a friend who said her other friend from Texas loved it. I'm in!

Tried it last night. I kid you not, everything we had was at the very least very good to excellent. Other spots in Ontario tend to top out at very good. If that.

Scott's corner is definitely the place to be within the restaurant (we were a larger group) and he was amazing!

Definitely will be coming back when i get a hankering for bbq!! Found out owner is from Louisiana so I'll definitely be checking out their jambalaya and gumbo!

The breakdown

Excellent: The sauce that comes with the food was very well balanced and really good!! This makes a big difference as most other places I've tried, the sauce didn't cut it for me personally and was distracting from the meat. Not here. Goes along with the smoked meat very well! Love it!!

Excellent: Pork ribs as well as the pulled pork are probably their strongest mains. Texture is great, has very good flavor. These two were everyone's favorite in our group. The ribs absolutely hit the spot. The pulled pork wasn't dry at all and wasn't too goopy. Was the most enjoyable I've had in decades. Its very hard not to end up with dry pulled pork at restaurants due to many factors. They're definitely doing something right~

Brisket and sausage are also very good. They don't smoke it nearly long enough for brisket (smoked 1214hrs here when it's usually 1921hrs) but it's still done the best out of almost every other bbq spot outside Texas that I've tried except for Mighty Quinn in NY/NJ (They do the full 19~21hr smoke so it's hard to do and hard to beat). It tastes like smoked brisket to me with the proper texture and flavor. Perhaps the fatty brisket needs more salt as there's a lot of fat (fat with less salt doesn't taste as sweet when cooked) but I've seen in certain YouTube clips there were complaints of being too salty so it is what it is. We just added more salt where it's needed and we were good!! You know you've got good smoked brisket if their lean brisket is good (theirs were wonderful).

As for sides, got the sweet potato fries, fried Brussel sprouts, coleslaw, and tater tots and they were all very good but the star was their sweet potato fries. Those were excellent. Has good flavor with a very satisfying crunch.

Fried Brussel sprouts are very good but the outside felt a little bit burnt that day. Still very good!

Coleslaw is also very good. Tater tots weren't the really cheap kind so they were good if you like tater...

We visited the restaurant at around 5:30PM, which appeared to be right before peak hours. The reviews praised the restaurant , and the pictures taken with it seemed to support it. Considering this was my first time having BBQ, I was very excited to try this place out.

We ordered the 4 meat platter (brisket, ribs, wings and sausage) with 3 sides (mac and cheese, collard greens, and red beans and rice). The food came out in on a steel oven tray with decent portions, and honestly, looked incredible.

The first piece of brisket were soft and juicy. The red beans and rice were warm and well cooked. Up to this point, I was quite satisfied with what we received. However, the rest of the food left me with mixed emotions. Unfortunately, it was extremely disappointing, considering that the food was around 85 dollars after taxes.

One of the brisket pieces - located on the bottom of the pile of biscuits, hence hidden in the photo - was so thick and hard resembling the texture of a very well-done steak, that it was difficult to cut, and harder to chew.

The ribs were cold once we got to it, and the ends of the rib hurt my jaw while I was gnawing on it because of how hard and sharp it became.

The sausage tasted okay, but nothing about it gave it a "house" quality as the menu stated. Same went for the mac and cheese, which tasted like nothing.

I'm not sure if it was because we were unlucky and received the last leftover servings before peak hours began, or if it was because we sat outside, but most of the food came out cold and dry. Keep in mind that we were pretty fast eaters, and stayed in the establishment for around 30 minutes.

Considering the overwhelming number of reviews that praise this place, I think we were unlucky. Someone has to eat the final leftover servings, and perhaps that was us that day. It happens.

However, with that being said, the quality of food we received was simply unacceptable, and nothing about it justified its cost. I hope that if I ever visit again in the future, I don't leave with these bitter...

Visited for the first time after hearing about how great this place was from so many people. Expect a 20-60min wait if you're going after 5:30pm. This place is packed! Ordered the rib ends as an appetizer and they were SO DELICIOUS! I highly recommend them, could have eaten them all night. Monday night is .99¢ wing night so my husband had the honey garlic and BBQ wings. Very delicious as well, nice and crispy. I ordered the 2 meat platter, with chicken and brisket, cornbread, fries and beer battered onion rings, with a side of coleslaw. The meat was cooked very well and was extremely delicious. No wonder their brisket won 2nd place! The onion rings I DO NOT recommend at all. They are huge, which would be amazing if they tasted good. They are very oily and quite frankly lack taste. The French fries were not crispy or seasoned at all, and they felt almost like day-old potatoes. I expressed this to Sarah, our waitress and she was THE BEST! She apologized and offered something in exchange. I chose the PJ salad which is a bed of greens, onions, caramelized pecans and goat cheese. OH MY GOODNESS! I'm getting this next time, it was so so SO GOOD! The coleslaw hit the spot, they make it in house and it's really good. The cornbread had some interesting web-like strings when pulled apart so I set it aside. Sounds like I'm the only one that had this issue, everyone else loves it and orders extra! All in all, it was a great experience and we will definitely be returning. I'm excited to try the ribs, they...