Inkie's Smokehouse — Restaurant in England

First time getting to experience Inkies Smokehouse BBQ! I’ve read some of their reviews and lots of different people were talking about how great it was so I decided to make the trip down to Golitha Falls from Devon. When I first arrived I got told to come back at 12pm and when I did those smells of the smoker were getting me amped up!

So I went for their wood stack bap which was filled with beef brisket and pulled pork which had both been smoked for over 20 hours along with some of their carolina slaw and on the side I got their rib and turkey wing combo!

The wood stack bap with beef brisket, pulled pork and carolina slaw - 9.5/10

At first glance it was humongous! I tried their beef brisket on its own first and that first bite of it was exquisite! it felt like the meat just disintegrated entirely in your mouth with all of those juicy flavours and I could not believe it! after all this time in wanting to try out beef brisket this was just a phenomenal experience. Their pulled pork was simply devine! I tried the bap with some of their carolina slaw inside it and the vinegary combination with the meat was outstanding! every bite I had of that bap was just full of those succulent meat juices just hitting at the back of your throat (DADDY!) I even tried it with some of their special house sauces which was their epic bbq, smokey hot bbq, carolina mustard and carolina vinegar and honestly this was the best food experience I’ve ever had in 2023!

Rib and wing combo - 8.5/10

I tried one out of their two rack of ribs after having the bap and I kept the other rack for when I got home, the taste of those ribs were delicious! the amount of sauce ratio on them were perfect my only criticism is that I wish the meat had just fallen of the bone abit more easily but other than that the flavours, the meat texture and the smokiness of those ribs were the best ribs I’ve ever had! their turkey wing was ginormous! I tried a few bits of it and then decided to take it home and carve it all up. I was pretty impressed with this turkey wing they retained their meat juices and the kick from the spiciness of that meat rub all together it was very nice!

My overall rating of this food experience at Inkie’s Smokehouse BBQ I would give it a high score of 9.5 out of 10, it was well worth the drive down from Devon and I would happily wait in a 10 minute line to...

We arrived at 2:30PM, and by the time we were seated and ready to order, it was around 3PM. As we approached the counter, I could see the woman taking orders was visibly stressed and openly shouting at her staff through her comms. Not exactly a welcoming vibe.

When I started to list what we wanted to try, we were abruptly told there were no wings and no burnt ends left. Disappointing, but I simply asked, “OK, so what is left?” That seemingly innocent question triggered an aggressive and defensive outburst. I was told it was “our fault” for arriving at 3PM when they shut at 4PM, and that everything is made fresh (which is great, in theory). But the tone and attitude were frankly appalling.

I even asked, politely, “Are you meaning to sound as rude as you currently are?”—hoping she might take a step back and cool off. Instead, she doubled down, snapped that she was the business owner, said they were on their 93rd ticket, and repeated that we’d arrived “late,” as if that excused her attitude.

Against better judgment, we placed our order. I wish we hadn’t. The brisket was incredibly dry—like it had been aged in the Sahara. The slaw was basically just vinegar. The mac and cheese tasted cheap and unpleasant. The only decent part of the meal was the bun.

You’d expect that a business owner, especially one operating in Cornwall, would know how to handle a rush and speak to customers with basic courtesy. If you’re going to stay open until 4PM, then running out of core menu items by 3PM and snapping at customers who arrive within your advertised hours just isn’t acceptable. That’s poor planning, not our fault.

Wouldn’t recommend this place at all.

So, if you wanted to come around 3PM don’t expect to have the same quality of food as you would at 12PM, because it’s an hour before they shut and apparently it’s fine not to be able to keep up and maintain your standards throughout your entire...

I didn't enjoy my experience at Inkies today, its usually great, I live an hour drive away, its usually worth the effort to come but today just made me feel sad and put a dampener on what had started out as a lovely day trip and tainted what has been our favourite spot for ages. I didnt like the cream soda float. It didnt taste or look right. It tasted unlike any cream soda I'd ever had and was brown like coke. I was hoping they had made a mistake as I really wanted a cream soda float and this drink did not taste good at all. I approached the server who told me it was cream soda she poured it but she would check and walked off. I went back to my seat and waited for her to come back to deal with it but nothing. So we talked to another server, he said not an issue i'll take it back just pop up to the hatch and pick something else. He took my drink away and I thought ok, ill just go pick something else. Then a different person came over telling me it was cream soda agresively thrusting the can in my face to prove it and putting the rejected drink back on my table. She kept going on about how it was a natural drink which is why it wasnt what I was expecting. I was condescendingly told "we already told you it IS cream soda" she then walked off. She was quite aggressive and made me feel anxious, I dont like complaining or asking for issues to be fixed, I find it difficult. She seemed far more interested in being right and focused on prooving it was cream soda than resvolving an issue with it tasting awful. If I'm paying £4.50 for a drink I expect it to taste good. It did not. I just wanted to order a lemonade instead. I waited for the server to bring our food and asked for a glass of tap water. He was also kind enough to help us to move inside away from the wasps. I just wanted to order a nice drink to go with my meal. Instead I was aggressively talked down to and...