Meyer's Elgin Smokehouse — Restaurant in Elgin

My wife and I have never been more disappointed in "barbecue" than when we ate here. We were hankerin' for some good barbecue and stopped in to visit an old-time favorite. Unfortunately, the present owners are more concerned with production and profit, just like every chain food joint in the country. To qualify what you are about to read, if it had been one or two things that we experienced on our visit, I wouldn't have even written this review.

We ordered a two meat plate advertised for $15, a medium peach cobbler, 2 drinks and a small potato salad. We chose brisket and a 1/4 chicken as our meats and green beans and cream corn for our sides. (We usually share a plate when we go out because we order the same things, and we had a long car ride ahead of us).

I put my card in the reader, and before I realized the total, the payment was processed- the bill came to $32. I questioned why the $15 meat plate and an extra side was so expensive, but the worker simply handed me the receipt. Now, I realize that I should have gotten the total before putting my card in, and THAT is on me.... I was expecting a $25 total after figuring the cost for the "extras" that I ordered. They charged us $2.50 extra for choosing brisket as one of our meats (which was not specified on the screen that we ordered from), they charged us $6 for two 16 oz drinks, and the small potato salad and medium peach cobbler was another $7 ish.

Anyway, my wife and I sat down to eat our meal and our jaws just dropped when we tasted the food. It was NOTHING like we both remembered. The sweet tea was barely sweetened brown water, the green beans were sour and tasted like they came from a can, the cream corn was runny without hardly a seasoning, the peach cobbler tasted like breaded peaches drenched in "fruit cocktail syrup", the brisket that we paid extra for had no bark and was dry, and the chicken skin was rubbery and the chicken was dry. The barbecue sauce was watered down so much it wouldn't stick to the meat, and the bottled "spicy pepper" sauce on the table tasted like peppered vinegar.

The only redeeming part of the meal was the bottomless pickle and onion bar and the atmosphere of the restaurant. It was comfortable and the place LOOKED like a good BBQ place.

Restaurant food quality has been steadily declining for profit ever since Covid, and it is barely even worth enjoying a meal "out", anymore. To be honest, it's more worth it to have to prep, cook, and wash the dishes afterwards than to...

My family and I are in the process of moving to Elgin. Coming down 290, there's a huge sign with a brisket burger dripping with sauce. Caption on the billboard reads, "Please, dont lick the sign!" At that point, after we finished laughing about the billboard, we knew we had to give the place a shot.

The family wasnt with me, but I was in Austin for work and decided to make the drive into Elgin to check on our house that's being built and of course, to give Meyer's the good ole fashion college try.

Ladies and gentlemen, the place certainly does not disappoint!

Sausage was cripy on the outside, and juicy on the inside. Great taste that certainly hit the spot. Then the brisket was just calling out my name.

I tore into it with great expectation. The BBQ sauce hit my tongue and it was a bit sweet, but tangy all at the same time. I knew this was gonna be a treat, but the great stuff was still to come.

The brisket slide through the teeth like butter on a piece of bread. It had fantastic color and just as tender as you could imagine.

I moved onto the sides: mac and cheese with mashed potatoes. Good ole country comfort food. The cheese on the mac dripped from each noodle and carried over to each bite. Good consistency and lightly salted just as you'd expect a good mac and cheese to be. The mashed potatoes were light and fluffy, but just as smooth as butter. They use real potatoes cause you can tell the difference between fake and real taters (no comments from the peanut gallery! you know who you are!).

Man, with the grub so far delicious, I still had dessert to give a whirl. I'm a big peach or cherry cobbler kinda guy, so I dug my spoon into my helping of syrup smothered goodness. Oh my, my, my, my, MY! This was excellent peach cobbler. Peaches were sweet with just the right amount of crust throughout the small bowl I got.

To tell you the truth, this meal was missing 2 very important things. One, a good piece of bread. They use good ole fashion white bread here. Not bad with a delicious BBQ dinner, but nothing like a fresh loaf out of the oven piece of bread like another BBQ place has that I've visited in Keller, TX.

The other thing that was missing... my family. This would have been the greatest dinner in the world had they been with me. Definitely, next time though.

Enjoy everyone......

First visit to Myers, even though we live in the area. Customer service was good, bathroom was very clean which is a big plus, atmosphere is nice.

Now for the food:

BRISKET:

I'm a huge brisket lover and the brisket at Meyers was disappointing. The small portion was more bark than meat and the bark was too peppery for me. I didn't care for the flavor or texture of the small amount of meat that I had either.

SAUSAGE :

I HATE HATE HATE sausage! I had my granddaughter with me and since they don't offer child plates I got a two meat plate and let her pick something, which of course was SAUSAGE, Ugh. They gave us two decent sized links, actually much bigger than I expected, and I tried some of it and surprisingly I LOVED IT!

GREEN BEANS:

My husband loves green beans and Myers provided plain unseasoned bland green beans, so he was less than thrilled.

CREAMED CORN :

Excellent side item, taste and texture was amazing to me!

PINTO BEANS :

The pinto beans were different than what I'm accustomed to from a BBQ restaurant. Not bad, they were good, maybe a little bit bland but I enjoyed them.

MACARONI AND CHEESE :

This was a side for my granddaughter so I didn't try it. I can say that it passed the four year old child test because she ate it :)

MENU:

As mentioned above there were no choices for a small child which I would have preferred to see.

When asking the cashier whether they had any chicken legs she replied no. When my husband received his plate with chicken it had a thigh/leg on it. It would have been nice if the employee said that they sell a thigh leg portion so I could have had the option to order the chicken which I know she likes. A little upsell would have been appreciated when trying to find a child's dinner.

Overall the establishment is nice, clean and friendly. The food left me underwhelmed and we likely won't eat there again, unless we want sausage, which is kinda a huge thing given my hate...