Schrockbier old Smokehouse BBQ — Restaurant in Emporia

I wanted to try the new BBQ joint in town. Walked in and the place looked good and the server was friendly and great. I ordered a sweet tea and took a drink and I should have known better since I’ve had this same experience before. It was sour and not sweet at all.

I ordered the two meat and side plate with smoked brisket, smoked chicken, southern green beans, and smoked Mac and cheese. The brisket was flavorless, overcooked and dry. The chicken was extremely dry and flavorless. It was definitely frozen and had a thick dry crust where it sat on a grill for a while. I did see the dry rub they may have used but it did not come through at all. I tried both meats without their bbq sauce and I had to really add a lot of sauce to eat the brisket. I could not eat the chicken and I know it’s wasteful but I just could not.

The green beans were kind of cold and had flavor which was great. However they definitely didn’t need to add as much black pepper as they did. I will tell you this though the Mac and cheese the best part of my meal. They were actually hot and had a good Smokey cheesy flavor.

Maybe I went on a bad day idk but I won’t be going back. I’ve been to a lot of different bbq joints in different states and only one or two have been as bad as this experience. Every time it started with...

We ate at the new location, very tasty and filling! We got a #2 (brisket sandwich) with pineapple coleslaw #4 (brisket jalapeño melt) with onion rings, cheese curd appetizer, and blueberry lemon cobbler. The meat is flavorful, tender, and a bit dry--needs lots of sauce! The sauce tastes bad by itself but great on the meat. The jalapeño melt was great--a little spicy, strong jalapeno flavor, and a good smokiness. The sides were alright, nothing flashy, and went well with the sandwiches. The cobbler was great! Strong blueberry and lemon flavors, with a sort of lemon custard.

Service was prompt and polite.

The only issue we had was the cheese curd price: $9 for a small amount of cheese curds (the three of us had about 4 each), rather small, and tasty, but not $9 worth of tasty.

(The pictures don't do the food...

The menu was unorganized and difficult to navigate. Why does each number have two different items? I ordered the number 5, because the menu said that's what the wings are. Turns out a number 5 is also a smoked sandwich. Food was dry, the sauce did not taste like bbq sauce at all, and the person I was with got ribs that were cold. The Mac and cheese was very clearly microwaved and likely made the morning of.

When paying, the total was $36. I was paying for 2 wing baskets at $12 each, and 1 lemonade. Tell me how that adds up to $36. If there was a required gratuity, it was never mentioned.

We also got some of the "ghost" jerky. The only ghost here was the flavor, in the sense that it didn't actually exist. Also, it cost $6 and had 3 bite sized pieces.

At this point, being new isn't an excuse. This...