Nexus Blue Smokehouse — Restaurant in Albuquerque

Edit: to acknowledge the owners response. All of this is very true, and I have plenty of evidence and confirmation. Please don’t continue to gaslight your employees who keep your business running while you and your family remain absent. It’s a shame how you run the place and treat your employees. Instead of being defensive maybe for once try and make things better, and listen to the people who work for you. Hear the complaints instead of letting anyone go who uses their voice.

Oh hey, me again. Just an addition to my prior review, exposing Nexus Blue. After letting go most of the staff, the owners became ghost to us. They refused to address any issues with paychecks, tip outs, and a lot of money that was rightfully earned was not paid. Even reaching out to the GM, has been a waste of time with no response. Furthermore, can we talk about how myself and another employee that was let go was assaulted by a manager, and had just made a report with the owners daughter the day before?. At “no worry to our job.” The next day, both of us were let go for “cultural differences.” Among most of the staff for literally no reason given to use. They decided to clean house of what held nexus together. Wondering why the hours changed? They’re barely holding their head above water due to being understaffed at their own fault. I have put my blood, (literal blood, that place is a death trap and that wall of cans at the bar is a safety issue because they’re all sharp) sweat and literal tears into that place and will only continue to be honest about nexus. Fresh food? Nah. Everything sits in a heating tray all day, essentially buffet style. Your food is cold? They’re just gonna nuke it and give it right back to you. Fried ribs? Expired ribs that they flash fry. A clean environment? No. The kitchen staff are mostly drunk anyways. The teas that are ordered so frequently? Have a kid with a large hole in the top, accumulating all of the dust from the restaurant all day. It isn’t changed at all from 10am to close. The soda machine is never cleaned, and started accumulating mold at the bottom. Your glasses? I’ve run them three times in that ancient dishwasher and lipstick stains, and other things are still on them. The silverware? Not sanitized, and when rolling silverware our hands are all up on the places you use to eat. A ton of nexus employees were sick with doctors notes and forced to work, some of us in coughing fits, lost voices, noticeably sick. Nexus is a miserable place to work, with only managerial abuse taking place. You could cover every shift and run that place yourself, and there will be a complaint coming from the owners. Not to mention, the owners making plans to kill the cats outside that most customers love. But don’t worry guys, I took your favorite cat home with me out of fear for his safety. Last but not least, nexus is notorious for this. Upon speaking to other workers, and former employees, turns out nexus has a history, a LEGAL history of not paying people what’s owed. Again, please eat somewhere else. The owner is definitely a man that everyone “knows” but doesn’t...

The experience here was about as far up and down as I've ever had. Some things were fantastic, others horrible. The service started out top notch and then ended completely horrible as well. For food we did a bit of everything. I ordered the Pork Burnt Ends Sandwich with Mac as my side. It was amazing! Burnt ends perfectly crunchy but meaty as well. The bun was a perfect style bun for this sandwich and the regular bbq sauce was the perfect addition. I would 100% go back for the sandwich. The mac was solid as well. Not amazing but good! We also got the 3 meat plate with 3 sides. We chose Brisket, Pork Ribs, and the beef burnt ends. For the sides we chose bbq beans, Cole Slaw, and Potato Salad. The Brisket is mediocre at best. It was a bit overcooked and dry, I'd try it again but if it's still the same I'd not re-order. The ribs were very good. Tender and flavorful! The Beef Burnt Ends were truly BURNT! They were horrid. Chewy and dry, would definitely never get those again. The bbq beans and coleslaw were both good! The potato salad is the same as you buy in the produce section at a grocery store. Not great and definitely not getting that again! The service was great to start. The waiter quickly greeted us, got us water and came back for our order. We got our food and the waiter checked on us again quickly after getting it, then we didn't see our waiter again for about 45 minutes. It was so odd how great the service was to start and how bad it ended. We needed water refills to wash down the char-coaled beef, burnt to a crisp, burnt ends, but that never came. Then, when we wanted to pay and leave they were making it impossible to do so. You'd think with it getting busier and busier towards the evening rush they'd want to flip tables quick, but our waiter had zero intentions of bringing us a check or boxes, so I went to ask someone else for the check. As I was talking to another employee saying I hadn't seen my waiter in ages and wanted the check, my waiter finally decided to remember he had a table waiting and came up to us. I said oh nice to see you again, can we please get our check..He brought it and a box quickly at that point but it's a bit annoying needing refills and having to try and waive a waiter down to no avail. And don't make it impossible for me to give you my money at the end of it all! Overall, I'll be back for the pork burnt ends for...

My wife and I tried "The Sampler", which feeds 2-3 people. There was easily enough food for a 4th person. It included 1/4 brisket (3 or 4 slices), 4 smoked ribs, 1/4 lb pulled pork, 1/4 burnt ends, 1/3 lb andouille sausage, and 1/2 smoked chicken. It also included 4 sides; we tried the collard greens, potato salad, cole slaw, and the fried pickles.

The Good: The burnt ends and the pulled pork were very good. My wife loved the burnt ends, and I would highly recommend them as well. The Scotch Ale was very good, and wasn't overly malty like some that I've had. I do recommend it. The potato salad was very good, slightly creamy and a nice mix of mayo and mustard. The fried pickles were made with high quality, wavy-cut pickles, and were very tasty. The cole slaw leaned a little too much to the vinegar side for me, but still good.

The Bad: The chicken had a nice smoke flavor to it. I'm not a fan of dried out white meat though, and this falls into that category. The brisket was a little on the dry side, and didn't have much of a smoke flavor to it.

And The Ugly: The ribs had a little pull to them, and a crunchy top. That said, they were way, waaayy, too salty. Even with an easy-to-drink beer, the ribs were still hard to eat. Now, I love Andouille sausage, but there was way too much red chile flakes in the recipe. There's spicy sausage, and then there is this sausage. Andouille is typically a little spicy, but this was overkill. As for the collard greens, they were also very spicy. My wife loves collard greens, but doesn't like spicy foods; and there was a lot of red chile flakes in them. I've never had collard greens like that, and I certainly don't recommend these to anyone.

Entertainment: We sat down the steps in the bar area, which has a nice-size stage for the size of the room. A local band called Turquoise Steel was playing some Rock-Blues, and they sounded great!

The Verdict: Nexus Brewery, on Pan American Freeway, makes the best Southern Fried Chicken I've had in New Mexico (I've been in Albuquerque all my 66 years). I think Nexus should stick to making fried chicken and waffles. There are many smokehouses that I would rather eat at than the Nexus...