Almost Famous Smokehouse & Grill — Restaurant in Arkansas

The good: The servers were friendly and pretty good at their jobs. I didn't have any major complaints there. They were also all pretty women, so if you're looking for pretty waitresses, this restaurant might suit you.

The boudin ball was good, as was its dipping sauce..... but the sauce was served cold. It would have been better warmed. The ball itself is quite rich in flavor and very oily. We split it and enjoyed it, but eating it by myself might have been a bit much. The thing sort of falls apart as you eat it, which can be frustrating.

The prices were decent.

The restaurant has indoor and outdoor seating areas, and a stage outdoors. We were there at 6:00 on a Friday evening, and there was a live guitar player. Pretty nice. Good blues music playing indoors too.

The bad: this will be a long list.

The food lacked flavor. It's cajun cuisine and barbecue. It should be bursting with flavor, but most of the dishes were a little bland, apart from the boudin ball and its sauce.

My pulled pork sandwich had a good texture, but very little flavor. It's smoked pork. It should be FULL of flavor. How did they manage to make it bland? It needed BBQ sauce to give it any kind of appeal. The toast was pretty much perfect, so there's that.

My wife's "big azz" burger had a terrific flavor, and a nice seared crust on the meat patty..... but once she reached the middle of the burger, it was bland. The flavor and seasoning are just on the outside. They also didn't bring her eating utensils. We had to ask for them. That's not weird when ordering a burger, except that they brought condiments in little cups. How would a person add mayo and ketchup to the burger without utensils?

There was bacon on the burger, and...... my wife couldn't taste it. It added zero flavor or texture. Why would anyone serve a bacon burger on which the bacon adds no enjoyment? How is it possible to make bacon bland?

Our BBQ baked beans were..... decent. We expect something better than decent from a place that specializes in BBQ.

Even the pickle spears were bland. How is that possible? They tasted like pickles, but... in the same way that skim milk tastes like milk. They were less pickle-y than most pickles. BBQ needs the sourness of pickle to offset the sweet and spicy flavors. My wife said that the middle of her pickle spear had more flavor than the first bite. Mine was bland all the way through.

I used lots of BBQ sauce to give my sandwich flavor. The sauce was decent. Again, a BBQ place should have sauce that is better than decent. If the meat is awesome and sauce is decent, that works. Or vice-versa. But bland meat and okay sauce add up to a mediocre experience. I tried both regular and spicy sauces.

A few critiques of the service: our waitress knew the specials. Great. She didn't know any prices. Like five specials, but no prices listed. She did have them written down, but it took her a long time to find the prices. It would be a simple matter to write the prices next to the dish names on the chalk board.

Our waitress put our utensils right on the table. That really isn't sanitary to my standards. Admittedly, I'm a bit phobic about germs. She also handled these things with her bare hands.... after she touched our menus.... that many people touch. Again, it might not bother some people, but it bothers me. Also, my wife got a metal knife and fork. I got plastic.

Why?

I strongly prefer metal. I don't know why they'd bring anyone plastic.

We probably wouldn't go back. There are LOTS of good dining...

We were greeted at the door by a rude waitress, who told us to wait until she could seat us somewhere. (Mind you, there were over 5 empty tables. And yes, I understand certain waitresses get certain tables. But it was only us and another party— I think they could figure out how to serve us.) The woman in the blue ball cap pointed to the table in the far corner and said, “Y’all can sit there.” I ran into a girl from college that I know and got hopeful that she would be our waitress, but the woman in the hat barked at her and said we weren’t her table.

Once we were sat and our drinks were served, we did not get spoken to for 15 minutes. The whole time, waitresses are running around left and right tending to other customers. They see us in the corner waiting and they chose to ignore us. Our waitress was standing at the counter talking, wiping down tables that were already clean, etc. During this time, we could hear the waitress in the blue hat gossiping about customers and other waitstaff. Finally, someone noticed me digging for my wallet to just pay for the drinks and leave and said to our waitress “hey I think Table 1 needs their order taken.” Our waitress said “I totally forgot about them.” after making eye contact with us several times.

I know how hectic it can be and I understand when a restaurant is overwhelmed, things can get pushed to the back burner—but we appeared to be her only table.

After our order was taken, we got to hear a customer complain about how cold their food was and how their food was prepared incorrectly. However, the owner overheard the conversation and rectified it, so I appreciated that a lot.

While waiting on our food, we could hear the waitstaff openly gossiping about the customer that complained. Loudly. In an otherwise silent dining room. Obnoxiously.

Our food was fine, nothing to write home about. My steak was cooked well, which I also appreciated.

I would have loved to come back and support a local restaurant, and sample more of their menu— but after our experience tonight, I’ll never be back. Maybe there’s a reason...

I really apologize for this rating because the owners are really nice people... but if I judge a place on its food, I will give an honest opinion.

Let me start off by saying this place does have a certain ambience which is nice to relax in and they have a good burger in which they serve the thick steak fries on the side.

My wife and I have tried coming here a couple of times to give the evening entrees a fair shot before making a determination on the food. The first time wasn't So good and opted for another shot at it. So, this last time in I decided to order a medium rib eye steak while my wife ordered the crawfish Alfredo special. First, the steak... The seasonings on the steak were possibly some sort of allspice mixture that I did not care for and the sear on the steak ranged from almost charred on one end to almost raw next to the bone (and I had the good meal).

Next is my wifes choice... the Alfredo was even worse. All that could be salvaged from her plate were the crawfish. Neither of us were able to eat the pasta and sauce. The cheese sauce reminded us of the fake orange cheese you squeeze out of a foil pack. When the waitress asked if we needed a to-do box, it's almost like she knew it was a rhetorical question before she asked it. And then there was the bill for the food we received. Holy chi-wallas-wingas, I've been to sonny Williams and have walked out with more change in my pocket.

The place often boasts of cajun type cuisine, but my wife and I both grew up on the Louisiana coast and I am going to have to disagree with this. And to be fair, i have not tried their gumbo, so who knows. Perhaps I'll drop off a bowl of my own and show them what the taste of home really is. In the meantime, stick with the burgers and...