Smokehouse Barbecue - Kansas City, MO - Zona Rosa — Restaurant in Kansas City

My dad always said, "There's no such thing as bad barbecue, just some better than others." Smokehouse BBQ is the perfect example.

The staff was absolutely amazing, we were seated quickly, our waitress was awesome, the food came out quick, and a very nice higher scale interior fitting with the shopping center it sits inside.

The first problem with this barbecue restaurant is everything comes smothered in the house sauce. You may like it, I did not. But you're immediately cutting your market if you don't give them a choice of what sauce to put it in. Just automatically serve it dry and they can wet it themselves.

Brisket Typical of any large-scale restaurant. It did retain some juiciness but there was almost no smoke ring visible and if it wasn't sliced razor thin it would have been chewy. And of course since it was sliced so thin if there was any bark to it, it didn't make it to the table.

Pulled Pork The pork itself does not have much flavor. But it was juicy and tinder. If you get this dry and put a different sauce on it, it'll be ok.

Sausage The sausage was by far the best thing on my plate. Although it had no spice and was not sweet it was very savory and had a good smoke flavor. My only issue is that it was also sliced razor thin which maybe didn't get the satisfaction of the snap when you bite into it.

Sides Frys... Average, boring, who cares?... Barbecue Beans... If you're not going to small home-style BBQ, you're not going to get good beans. But these beans are by far the best of the rest. Fairly sweet, a good amount of savory, a thick sauce that's not soupy like some of the competitors, and probably more pork in the beans than you'll get from any other mainstream restaurant.

I also like to add that they have a great idea and give you Texas toast with your meal so you can make a sandwich out of whatever meets you get. The problem is no matter how big of a meal you only get one total slice of Texas toast cut in half. And it's also only very lightly toasted, most people would prefer crispier and also they put zero seasoning on it, not even butter. At least rub it on a dirty grill before you bring it out.

Overall it's the same experience as a Famous Dave's or even the other big-name Kansas City barbecue joints that are trash if you ever had redneck family BBQ. Prices on par for the area and the ambiance if you think you're going to go in and get $12 barbecue it's not going to...

Our first visit to this location was not exactly the best dining experience. It started with a rude greeting from a childish and rude host, and ended with smaller than normal portions.

In between, the server was pleasant enough and friendly, as was the manager. The food was good too, but it did little to make up for the other two points. The first might have been forgotten about, had the portions not been significantly small than the N Oak locations.

It all started when we were asked to wait to be seated by the hostess, who with multiple seating options behind her, stood and dutifully organized a few pamphlets at the host desk.

10 minutes into the wait, observing the empty tables available, we inquired about the delay and the abundantly available seating.

We were informed that she could not seat our party of 5 at a table meant for 4; that is, in spite of the fact that in two different places in the room, two tables for four were right next to each other. We pointed this out to her.

She told us that she would have to move the tables together and with an attitude, informed us that it had only been 9 minutes anyway.

She returned to organizing the same 4 pamphlets she had been when we arrived.

After 15 minutes, she led the 5 of us to a corner table barely suitable for 3 people.

She tossed the menus down and sashayed triumphantly back to her post to continue organizing the pamphlets that suddenly somehow became disorganized again.

We requested a Manager. She set it straight and moved us to appropriate seating, which put us at the table(s) we originally identified as suitable.

All was well there, until our meals arrived. All of the portions were half what they usually are at the N Oak location, including the sides dishes. I am not sure if that was follow-up for the earlier rude behavior, but do not intend to take another opportunity to find out. There are plenty of other better BBQ spots in Kansas City, where the meal is equitable to the price charged, and the staff not...

Placed on online delivery order (delivery provided by DoorDash) tonight while stuck in a nearby KCMO hotel. Spent $74.50 on a combo sampler platter and dessert for 2. Meal was supposed to include 3 meats (pork ribs, 1/4 of a bone-in chicken, and a choice of a 3rd meat (we chose beef brisket), 2 baked potatoes (4.95 each if purchased separately), salad for 2, and 2 desserts. Order arrived within the time DoorDash estimated and was still fairly warm. Upon opening the sack, we discovered the chicken and the baked potatoes missing from the order. There were no eating utensils, plates, or napikins (delivery address was a hotel room; someone would have been thoughtful enough to include them). We immediately called the restaurant to inquire about the missing food items. Staff was rude and refused to make it right unless we were willing to drive to the restaurant to pick up the missing items. (We ordered online delivery. If picking up a meal in person was an option, we would not have waited for an hour for a delivery.) As for a refund of the missing items, the staff refused since the order was place through DoorDash. This error was NOT DoorDash's problem. They are NOT the ones who packaged the order. (Yes, maybe had they verified they were picking up a correct order, we might not have had missing items. But they are just delivery people and should NOT be held responsible for wrongly packaged orders.) We did contact DoorDash for a refund. They only offered a $12.12 refund. Not even close to the amount spent on the missing food items. (Yes, we reported our dissatisfaction on the refund to DoorDash as well.) While the food was acceptable though over-priced for the quality (at least what we did receive), customer service was severely lacking. They will not be our KC BBQ place of choice...