Rusty Kage Smokehouse & Grill — Restaurant in Town of Sylvan Lake

My friend and I had a day trip to Sylvan Lake with his dog. Most of the restros in the area are not pet-friendly. So we went to this place as they allowed dogs in the patio. The overall experience was below average. Would not highly recommend this restro unless you have no other choices.

Food and drink The food is average. For a brisket that’s allegedly slow cooked for 14-16 hours, it was too dry. The coleslaw and the drinks were very bland. They had something that impressed me though. The smokey flavored Mac and Cheese gave a pleasant aftertaste.

Service The service was the most critical issue we had. We first went into the restro and were led to the patio because we had a dog. A server said there was a gate outside to the patio but she had no intention to lead us to the gate. After finding the gate myself, we sat at one of the bar tables. We have waited for at least 15 mins and no one gave us any menu or water. We were simply forgotten. The table was not cleaned either. I actively looked for a server and asked if we could get a menu. That server was polite but she didn’t seem to know what to do at all. She told me “I will get your server for you but I forgot to tell you earlier, the kitchen is currently very busy and it will take extra 30 mins for the food to be prepared.” I was like “sure (I have spent 20 mins without water sitting at your patio already. That won’t make a difference).” Another 10 mins waiting, we finally got our menu. 5 mins discussing what to eat and 15 mins waiting for someone to pass by. With little patience, I still maintained my friendly attitude and told a random server nearby “excuse me, we have been waiting for a few ten mins already, can we order now?” To my surprise, that server’s reply was not particularly friendly: “yup, that why I’m here. But I want you to know, the kitchen was a bit busy now. It will take 1.5 to 2 hours for your food to be ready. I just want you to be aware of that. Is that okay?” - as if she wanted us to leave. We have been waiting for 40 mins to humbly get some attention, and now you told me to wait for 1.5 hours for food? With all the time we have spent already, we said sure. At the end, it took 40 mins for the food to arrive. Surely, her attitude was not something we enjoyed. To be fair, she was a bit more friendly later. But still, the experience was...

Good smokehouse bbq (especially brisket) is the rarest of things and seldomly delivers.

Rusty Kage in Sylvan is yet another example of location location location. The town of sylvan has many places to eat which few rate above 4 stars so the shortcomings of Rusty Kage get lost in a town without good food.

I ordered the Mac and cheese with their Kage queso. The queso has no pop. It’s like a poor diner in-house cheese sauce on the flour side of taste with no sharpness of cheddar to be found. The light but not overly present smoke (and likely liquid smoke) saves it just barely

The sausage links were tasty but really tough and chewy

The burnt ends app was a box full of un-rendered brisket point mostly made up of over size (not proper bite sized) chunks of spongy fatty not so soft deckle. You can’t classify these as burn ends, but rather carving leftovers of the least desired poorly cooked pieces

The Texas twinkies have a nice heat but fall short big time because the thick cut bacon makes the bite so difficult to make that it explodes in your hand. The Kage queso is inside which doesn’t work. The claimed brisket inside was also not present. Great idea. Poor execution

We didn’t try the chicken or pulled pork. But heavily sauced meats usually fare ok if they’re cooked safely

The staff were not rude but didn’t have that come back to eat here again vibe. Just going through the motions

The dining room was typical rustic of almost every smokehouse which leads me to the most important comment. There was very little smoke flavour in the meats. It’s more of an oven cooked flavour.

Try it if you really want bbq. But send back the not so good items you get because keeping a business afloat that doesn’t deliver...

Rusty Kage? More like Rusty Cage, because I felt trapped in one of the worst dining experiences I’ve had in ages.

For a restaurant handling a large group ( who made a reservation 30days in advanced), you'd expect some hiccups, but not across the board like this. It felt like the kitchen had completely dropped the ball on timing or prep. When that many people are served food that’s clearly been sitting too long, it’s not a coincidence — it’s a problem.

I don’t know how a kitchen messes up something as basic as serving hot food, but somehow Rusty Kage managed it. My meal arrived stone cold — not lukewarm, not slightly off — ice cold, like it had been cooked yesterday and just slapped onto a plate. I’ve had leftovers with more heat and flavor.

I flagged it to the staff, expecting at least a basic level of hospitality. Instead? zero urgency. I really wanted to like Rusty Kage. The service was actually great — polite, attentive, and professional. Unfortunately, the food completely ruined the experience.

When you dine out, you expect a minimum standard: warm food, decent service, and maybe a little care. I left hungry, irritated, and completely unimpressed.

Again, I want to give credit where it’s due: the staff were doing their best, and they handled the chaos as gracefully as they could. But good service can’t cover for cold, disappointing food. For what we paid, it should have been far better.

Wouldn’t return if...