Low and Slow Smokehouse — Restaurant in Lakeland

Let me preface this by saying...I dont do reviews...bad or otherwise. I'm usually disappointed when I eat out so I just always expect it to be a "meh" experience. Welllll butter my butt and call me a biscuit because boyyyy let me tell you, Low and Slow truly turned me upside down and gave me an entirely different experience. The only negative thing I have to say is that I can't rate them higher. Last night, my honey and I decided to gamble on this place and we hit the dang jackpot! It was so good that we ordered take out tonight! When you walk in the door, the first thing that hits you (and boy howdy does it ever hit you!) is the SMELL!! Most bbq joints smell like heavy bitter dirty smoke (IMO) and I instantly get a headache...and this says alot coming from a girl (and husband) that bbqs...not here...I dont know how else to describe it but warm, smokey, and balanced lol...my mouth watered instantly! The second thing you notice is the cozy, clean, uncluttered, old school southern atmosphere. Everyone greets you and you instantly feel welcome.Last night when we dined in house, our server...a cute little smiley girl (I believe her name was Summer?) who truly just radiated honest "welcome, how can I help you energy". She literally set the tone for the rest of the visit. We had the taco trio, pork belly burnt ends, green beans, mashed taters, and peach cobbler! OH MY STARS!!! Everything was amazing, right down to the unsweet tea w/ lime. Our little server was prompt...we never had to ask for a thing! She checked on us often and her service was fast, kind, and efficient. The icing on last night's cake was the pitmaster, KO I believe is what they call him. My husband and I smoke on a Lang and my husband is big into competition bbq...this gentleman took my husband into the back and showed him the pits, talked to him about their process (and his personal process at home). He literally talked shop and cook with us like we were old buddies. It was so freaking awesome. My honey walked out grinning like the cat that got the cream! So tonight, we just wanted more so we decided to uber. I guess something glitches because the uber app wasn't showing everything. I called and spoke to the manager Stacey (sorry if it is spelled wrong) and WOW..AGAIN..lights out service!!! She did everything she could to figure out how to help me and get me what I wanted! I've never met these folk a day in my life and they've left me feeling like we're friends! Tonight we got 1 lb of pork belly burnt ends, tater salad, shrimp n grits, and a LOADED pulled pork baked tater! I swan! Literally the best things ever. It's hard for me to eat out and be disappointed when I know the food that comes out of our kitchen is top notch...I finally have someone I'll gladly give my money to and eat their food!! The portions are HUGE and the price is reasonable (we paid 56$ tonight for allllll this!! WHOA NELLY!!)!! I'm sorry for such a long review, I just wanted to make sure I covered everything!

Yall! Don't walk....RUN!!! 100/10 recommend!!!!

I would post pictures but I don't know where to post them lol...I told ya, reviewing ain't my thing.

With all our BBQ...

So as a BBQ lover and the self appointed king of food in central Florida, I couldn't wait for this place to open and now I'm just embarrassed with myself that I was so excited.

Looking at the menu prices online, we naively assumed the food would be above and beyond what lakeland has to offer and boy were we wrong. I'm a brisket guy, so if course that's what I ordered, knowing I was about to taste something unlike I'd had before, but when it arrived it was just...

... every other brisket I've ever had, only more sad looking and for some reason it costs 5 dollars more here.

We shared the fries with pulled pork, mostly because our server told us in a very unsure way that they cut their fries in-house. Well I'm not sure if they actually do cut these crinkle fries in the kitchen, but I do know that they could save money by just using the frozen ones because I there was no discernable difference because they were cooked to hell, imagine potato croutons.

My wife had steak, as usual and said it was OK. It wasn't overpriced comparatively to other places so we'll call that a win.

My biggest complaint (I know, you thought you'd seen it up top) was my kid's meals. Mac and cheese and fries. Can't mess that up, right? Wrong. Their Mac and cheese is spicy, but nobody, not the menu, not your server, nobody even mentions that, and it's on the kid's menu. Personally, I liked it, but kid's tend have a natural aversion to the feeling of fire in their mouths.

Maybe we'll try again in the future, we'll see. It seems like this place opened a bit too soon. Nobody working really seemed to know what was going on with anything, the place looks and feels more like a warehouse inside than a restaurant, maybe the outside seating area feels different but I don't know.

Overall we were just sad when we left. There are plenty of other BBQ places in town that have their stuff together and don't charge premium prices for mediocre food, heck, Jimbo's may be ugly but it's a quarter mile from there and...

Here's the rundown. Walked in....hostess didn't say a word or greet us ....she gathered menus and silverware and said what I could make out as 2 words and that being "this way"..........we sat and she just made a weird kind of humming sound.....no words.....I believe she was scared of people and didn't know how to speak to them in a professional manner so instead just made noise and walked away. It was very very weird and awkward. Server was very nice and bubbly and tried hard to clearly inform us about the food and any questions we had. We met the very very kind owner talked a bit to him about their business so far. He was pleasant.

Food pricing was a bit high in my opinion. Unfortunately the food was NOT good. We ordered a sampler....as to try most of the meats.

Ribs. Decent flavor. Very fatty. Little meat.

Brisket. Extremely dry. Hardly any flavor. Worst Brisket I've ever had.

Sausage. Decent but tasted like the sausage I could pick up in package from grocery store. Nothing special about it at all.

Chicken. Decently moist. Nothing special.

Pulled pork. Decent flavor. Overly dry.

Cornbread. Good flavor with butter and honey.

Fries. We only got half fries...the other half of our fries consisted of those little broken pieces from the bottom of the frying basket. Decent flavor.

Coleslaw. Absolutely terrible. Tasted like watery mayo with finely chopped cabbage in it. It was NOT good.

Mac n Cheese. Well that was honestly the best thing we tried it was good and had a good flavor. I would eat it again.

So to sum it up.....there are many other better options for BBQ here in the lakeland area. With a lot better quality food and at lower pricing. I do not do reviews very often but I was so disappointed in this BBQ I wanted to share my experience and save some people from wasting their money. If they want to make it I think they really need to work on their recipes...