Sagebrush BBQ & Grill — Restaurant in Grand Lake

Ah the phenomenon of a tourist restaurant with 3,000 reviews and 4.4 stars...

The staff were very nice, attentive, and chill. The location is cool and there's plenty of seating with nice views of the street. Outside seating is also nice. Draft beer list is good and the bar seems cool.

As far as BBQ is concerned I have to give an honest ranking and say that it was outright bad. It's not easy to have quality BBQ on demand and it's clear that technique, resource cost, or volume are really leading to bad output from whatever pit this place is running. Understandably it's not always possible to dedicate the time and $$ to make briskets for an unpredictable amount of tourists in a given day.

Having said that it's difficult to do this stuff "right," it's easy to tell when someone is doing it wrong (unfortunately).

Brisket and pulled pork both come out heavily sauced on a combo plate. This is a red flag immediately. Why drench your product in (albeit tasty) KC-ish style sauce when there is already sauce on the table for guests to use? To hide the color and flavor of the brisket. I won't get too nerdy about it but.. the brisket is gray and with pockets of un-rendered fat. Flavor is OK but there is no bark, and the mouthfeel is dry and tough. There's enough wrong here it's hard to pinpoint the "main" issue other than to say the kitchen knows what is coming out! Whoever is in charge of this menu knows what is coming out of the pit. Whoever is plating this stuff knows what is coming out. There's got to be consensus among several different folks (if not everyone working) that this plate is normal.

Beans were straight up room temperature, canned baked beans. That's sort of wild to do. At least try to add seasoning or something (or buy slightly better baked beans from sysco?).

Cornbread is sort of a throw away item in most places anyway, so kinda silly to review.. but this stuff is like drywall.

Boar sausage was fine, it was the only part of the combo plate that wasn't pre-sauced.

A few years ago maybe we would just say "yeah it's a tourist place, have an ice cream and go on with your day." but as costs have skyrocketed for restaurant operators, costs to consumers have also increased. If we're paying $100 for lunch for two people, then we just have to expect a bit more oomph on execution. It's a shame to have a good menu, good location, (seems like) good staff, and put out this quality food as standard.

Hopefully this review gives a chance for someone who is curious but not yet hangry to make an informed choice. Good...

Food/Taste/Flavor: 5/5 - Green Chili with Pork had quite a kick. The soup already cooled by the time we received the food so the cheese was more solidified. Definitely more of a sour profile, but we did enjoy the soup

Create your own platter with Pulled Pork, Brisket, Buffalo Meatloaf, and Wild Boar Sausage with mashed potatoes and gravy & sweet potato fries. The pulled pork was dry so you need a lot of barbecue sauce to help it along. The brisket was our favorite! Tender, juicy, and soft with a hint of seasoning, it can be eaten by itself or with sauce. The meatloaf was quite good with the marinara/ketchup sauce that almost reminds us of Italian meatballs. The sausage was a bit sweet and had split opinions

Ambience: N/A - ordered food to go. Very loud but still possible to hold conversation. Music is somewhat faint compared to clanking tableware and upbeat conversations. Lots of larger parties but also has bar option to sit solo. Warm, cozy, and homey yellow lighting which is dim compared to outside sunlight (however much sunlight there is at 7PM). The ceiling fans are running to keep air flow but it makes the light flicker constantly on your face. Lots of miscellaneous collection of license plates and memorabilia on the wall

Service: 5/5 - ordered to-go at the bar with only one server managing the phones and all pick up orders. Very polite and apologetic for the wait. The hostess and other waitresses are quick and happy to help if they see you standing around

Value for price: 5/5 - a bit on the pricier side but it's reasonable for the area and amount of...

I am not someone who typically blasts a business but this was possibly my worst overall dining experience in memory. Where to start? Everyone in our party (5) ordered different versions of BBQ plus 1 hamburger entree. We had 1 gluten free menu item ordered. 3 of the items came out "correct" with the exception of the gluten free entree did not come with the correct bread. One 2 meat combo came out with the wrong 2 meats so was sent back to fix AND the hamburger still had not come out with the rest of the food. 5+ minutes later, the hamburger came out...still no 2 meat meal or gluten free bread. Over the next 15 minutes, the waiter came back multiple times with no urgency to get my food (this is BBQ that should take 2 minutes to put on a plate). Finally, we spoke to the manager, Sue, who went to find the missing food. 5 minutes later, the correct meats came out with the wrong sides. We had to ask again, for the gluten free bread. By this point, everyone else was finished eating so I was left to eat by myself. The food was terrible, the brisket was half fat and the ribs were overcooked and mushy. The potato salad was warm. The only apology offered was a $10 gift card which took another 15 minutes to get once we asked for our check. To top it all off, the "corrected food" came out as we were paying our check, at least 30 minutes after we originally sent it back the first time. The food was not good and the...