Big Gilley's Smokehouse and Diner — Restaurant in Ashdown

After all the hype my sister and I finally decided to try this establishment since they recently moved to an old diner. When we walked in no one was eating just visiting which was nice and friendly. We were unsure if we should seat ourselves or wait to be seated so, we stood there a few before another customer said to seat ourselves. We walked to a table and sat down looked around waiting for what appeared to be the only waitress to bring a menu. She finally informed us our waitress would be with us shortly. I ended up pulling the menu up on my for us to browse and see if we wanted the special or what. Finally a young girl comes to our table to get our drink order when she returns still no menus and proceeds to ask what we want.. I asked can we have a menu please and a straw. Her response "Oh yeah. I'm always forgetting." She brings the menus back and says "There is no um what do you call brisket not the chopped we got that do you know what I'm trying to say? Oh and we don't have any chicken either. So do yall know what u want.?" I replied ma'am can you give us a few? She came back not 5 min later and asked if we were ready I said still looking can we please have our straws. Finally she came back so our food order was The big nasty with brisket and the 1/3 lb with pulled pork, okra and, Mac and cheese. The food can out promptly the 1/3 lb and tater looked amazing until the tater was close enough to actually see. There was maybe a teaspoon of chopped brisket the smoked queso was like water running down the plate witch left nothing but huge chunks of onions and peppers with no cheese. The shredded cheese on my potato never melted and I can say I was highly disappointed. My waitress never brought our food nor came back to ask how our meal was, see if we needed a refill nothing not a word. When trying to express our bad service the other waitress said "yeah she's not that good." So needless to say this was a horrible 1st visit and I wouldn't eat there or try it again. When leaving the restaurant we found our waitress reading a hot sauce bottle outside while 4 other employees were all outside smoking. So I guess that hot sauce bottle was more important than quality service and customer...

Almost missed it. The building looked empty from the outside but I came after lunch hours. I usually go to Naaman's when I'm in Texarkana but I decided to take a chance on a new spot. The place looks very well kept on the inside. The ladies at the counter were very friendly and insightful with the menu, informing me of the specials and their recommendations. I decided to go with the ribs, sliced brisket and the smoked wings (special of the day.) The ribs were cooked competition style (if you're looking for "fall off the bone" ribs, these aren't it.) They were seasoned well, smoked well and cooked just the way I like em. The brisket was very tender, juicy but could have used some salt. Added the sauce to them and it worked out. The smoked wings were smoked and seasoned to perfection. They suggested that I get "sauce on the side" and that was a great suggestion. Although the sauce was great, I enjoy a good seasoning on my BBQ where people don't rely solely on the smoke and sauce. I didn't order any sides, I wanted to get straight to the main entrees. Overall, I enjoyed everything and I've found another diamond in the rough. I...

This makes me sad to write because we LOVE the BBQ. This was our first visit to the new diner. No BBQ on Sunday which is ok we just didn't know. 🙂 We ordered an order of fried pickles which said in the menu they were pickle chips. When they were brought to us they were pickle spears. I would not have ordered them if I had known this knowing I don't like the spears. My husband and I both ordered chicken fried steak. The steak was like Sisco steak and wasn't good at all. My fries were over cooked. They asked if we wanted onion and we told them yes. They brought out MAYBE 2 slivers of onions in a bowl. 🤔 We had to ask for our toast that came with our meal, and it didn't come out until we were both done eating. The waitress came over 1 time to refill our drinks and check on us but we were already done eating. Just overall sad and not...