Chisholm Trail Smokehouse — Restaurant in Cleburne

To the owner and all of the wonderful staff,

You all are doing a wonderful job under the pressure of opening a new restaurant, with the chaos of large crowds, technology failures, and trying to please everyone when they all cannot be pleased. Stevie Wonder can see that the owner and staff are going out of their way to give outstanding customer service. It is obvious that the owner spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on this revived restaurant. I live in the San Antonio area and come to Cleburne a couple of days a week for work. I look forward to eating here because the food is awesome! I like to order the half pound of ribs (which are tender and the meat falls off the bones) and a half pound of the country sausage. The brisket sandwich is flavorful and I'll add the country sausage to it with barbecue sauce and onions. I'm sharing the extra food with my colleagues. I'm also a very generous tipper, tipping 100% of the bill. I also just covered all of my food, with the paper towels on the table, to protect it from the flies.

To these mean and low self-esteemed Jethros leaving these awful, unfair reviews on this brand new restaurant......it's shameful:

FLIES LOVE EVERYTHING AND THEY ESPECIALLY WILL INVITE THEMSELVES TO A BARBECUE WITH LOTS OF SMOKE. JUST COVER UP YOUR FOOD WITH THE ROLL OF PAPER TOWELS ON THE TABLE!

FOR THE PEOPLE THAT THINK THE FOOD IS OVERPRICED....GO TO A DOLLAR MENU FOOD ESTABLISHMENT, LIKE MCDONALD'S OR BURKER KING, WHERE YOU ALL CAN HAVE IT YOUR WAY! WE ARE LIVING IN INFLATIONARY TIMES AND I'M SURE THAT YOU ALL DON'T COMPLAIN AND WRITE BAD REVIEWS ABOUT THE COST OF FOOD AT HEB OR WALMART! GO PRICE A BRISKET AT HEB AND TELL HOW MUCH IT COSTS ON YOUR NEXT REVIEW. I DON'T BUY WALMART MEATS. BETTER YET....STAY HOME AND COOK YOUR OWN DAMN FOOD!

FOR THE PEOPLE THAT THINK THIS FOOD IS BLAND.....YOU ALL MIGHT WANT TO DO A COVID SELF-TEST. TWO SYMPTOMS OF COVID IS NO SENSE OF TASTE OR SMELL. Y'ALLS TASTE BUDS ARE SHOT TO HELL! THE FLIES HAVE BETTER TASTE BUDS!

THERE'S REALLY NOWHERE THAT YOU CAN EAT GOOD QUALITY FOOD FOR UNDER $15.00-$20.00 PER PERSON. HAVE YOU ALL BEEN TO THE MOVIES LATELY? YOU ALL THINK THIS FOOD IS HIGH? Y'ALL SOUND LIKE CHAMPAIGN TASTE ON BEER BUDGET TYPES OF BROKE PEOPLE. RUTH CHRIS' IS ALA CARTE TOO!

EARTH TO MARS.....IT'S A GOOD THING WHEN A RESTAURANT RUNS OUT OF FOOD. THIS IS A GREAT SIGN THAT THE FOOD IS FRESH.....IT'S GOOD.....THE EARLY BIRD GETS THE WORM..... AND CHISOLM TRAIL SMOKEHOUSE IS NOT SERVING DAY OLD FOOD! YOU ALL REALLY SOUND DUMB!

TO THE FOODIE CRITICS.....I'M LAUGHING OUT LOUD, JULIA CHILD WANNABES! Y'ALL ALSO GET A CHILD PLEASE! AGAIN, STAY HOME AND COOK YOUR OWN DAMN FOOD!

LASTLY....IF YOU ALL DIDN'T LIKE THE FOOD, THE PRICES, WANT TO GNAW ON RIBS INSTEAD OF THEM FALLING OFF THE BONES, THE FLIES, THE FACT THAT EVERYTHING IS GONE WHEN YOU GET THERE, THE SERVICE (WHICH YOU HAVE TO BE ABUSING CHEMICALS BECAUSE IT IS FIVE-STAR SERVICE IN MY OPINION), OR THINK YOU'RE A FOODIE....JUST DON'T COME BACK! THERE'S NO NEED FOR YOU ALL TO PUT YOUR DOLLAR'S WORTH OF TWO CENTS COMMENTS ON HERE! KICK ROCKS, LEAVE SKID MARKS, BECAUSE THE DOOR CAN HIT YOU ALL WHERE THE GOOD LORD SPLIT YOU ALL!!!

Keep doing what you all are doing Chisolm Trail Smokehouse! Open your expensive, garage door types of windows back up if you all want to. People who can afford to eat your delicious food will keep coming back. Do not worry about the ten percent of people that you all will never be able to please. Keep worrying the ninety percent of us that will keep coming back. Stay up....meaning keep your heads up.....stick your chests out....and keep cooking your fine, high quality, satisfactory,...

My wife, daughter, and I decide we needed some bbq in our life specifically RIBS. So with my wife working in Cleburne we decided to try out Chisholm Trail Smokehouse, although we've heard mixed reviews. Upon arrival we were greeted by the hostess and sat quickly, the place was about half full. Waitress came introduced herself and took drink orders. The employees are very friendly and attentive. Looking around the place it had a good vibe atmosphere and the place looks good. They have a bar, and a patio with cornhole boards could be a nice place to have drinks with friends or coworkers.

MEATS... Full rack of ribs $13, 3 meat plate $25 (jalapeno cheddar sausage, brisket lean, and burnt ends), and 2 meat plate $20 (brisket lean, and burnt ends). Each meal on their portions of meat (1 piece of jalapeno cheddar sausage, 2 slices of brisket, and 3 chunks of burnt ends) and the same for the brisket and burnt ends on the 2 meat plate too. Now the texture and taste is a different story, because had it been good bbq I wouldnt have complain about the amount of meat I got (Quality trumps Quantity all day if its right). The burnt ends were served soaking in a sauce and they were soft and soggy to the touch, not a single sign of crispy texture arpund the edges and thats the signature to burnt ends. Had 3 chunks and 2 out of my 3 were more fat than anything (soggy fat yuck). The brisket was dry and no flavor (as mentioned in previous reviews bbq was the best thing for those). The Jalapeño Sausage wasn't bad at all great flavor. Finally the RIBS the reason we even decided to get bbq, WOW SO DISAPPOINTED. Yes they had the flavor dont get me wrong, but it was as if they were reheated leftovers... soft, cold, and no real smoked crispy texture on the skin, kinda like the burnt ends. The worst thing about all that was the meat was served lukewarm (not hot at all).

SIDES... Baked Potatoe Salad- Amazing MacNCheese- Amazing Hobo Beans- Good Elote in a cup- Not good at all. Just tasted nasty like canned corn barely strained with everything throw on it to make it Elote.

CUSTOMER SERVICE 10/10 FOOD 3/10 Who knows maybe we caught'em on a bad day where they were getting rid of the oldr meat while cooking up a batch to get ready for the weekend, IDK. Would be willing to do another review if they were to show me it isnt normally like this, but definitely not spending my money there again. So this would souly be on the owner 🤔😏.

Also the reviews option doesn't give you an accurate price range to select as I see most people select the $10-$20pp, but its more...

I'm not big on writing reviews, but I am a huge foodie. Literally and figuratively. If the owner/manager reads this, please take this as constructive criticism, not just a hateful customer. But yeah, this was horrible. I sincerely hope it was an off night or something, because I didn't even finish my meal, it was that bad. They were out of turkey and any snausage, so I tried the ribs, the girlfriend got the brisket potato. I wanted a sampler plate to try different items, but nope....

Everything was way over cooked and had zero flavor. The ribs I had were very strange. They each fell off the bone in a gelatinous blob of meat and gristle, devoid of any flavor and had an "airy" texture to them. Not like biting into a hunk of meat like a caveman should, but like biting into a light croissant bread. Not the texture I was expecting from something I just paid $13 for. I really can't think of a rib I've ever had that had that texture.

The girlfriend couldn't tell if it was pork or brisket she got on her potato. This girl doesn't complain about anything, but even she said it was horrible. 90% of the mystery meat in her potato was a tasteless blob of fat. It's like the person in charge of flavorings had the day off or something. (You had ONE job!!) The potato was so over cooked, it was even burned on the inside. She ended up scraping off all the meat/fat and only eating half the tater.

I don't know what the format is there, but I had to get my own drinks from the bar. Don't know if there was someone that was suppose to be "serving" us, but I ended up just going to the bar to get my own drinks after waiting so long. Looking at my receipt, I was charged for a soft drink that neither of us ordered.

Not to leave this on a bad note, the poblano Mac n Cheese was very good. Dare I say, it was actually the only thing that had any flavor, really. So kudos on that! As well, it looked like the people outside were having fun, so the atmosphere was pretty nice. Again, not trying to be hateful in here. This is coming from a 300+ lb guy that loves to cook and trying to give an honest, personal review. The meats on tonight's menu, truly tasteless and some of the most unpalatable BBQ I've ever had. Flavor, texture, aroma...everything. I do genuinely wish the best for this place and it's proprietor, but I don't think...