Stanley James Smokehouse — Restaurant in Lawrence

I never really know about these star ratings, but I will try my best to explain. The food was ok. I originally gave it three stars, but I decided that a more accurate rating would have been 4. More on that below. It wasn't bad at all, but it could have been so much better with just a minimum amount of effort and expense. The sauces are all excellent! Traditional Kansas City style sauces in regular, sweet and spicy. Each one is a classic. But BBQ should be able to stand on its own without sauce. Also, fair disclosure here. I am a KCBS Certified Master BBQ judge. I have tasted thousands of samples of BBQ. The meat here is a couple of cuts above the average retail BBQ. All that being said, the prices were relatively reasonable. The people who work here are awesome! Very positive attitudes and willing to help. The atmosphere is the best in a retail gas station I've ever seen. Very creative and very clean! But it's still a gas station. No escaping that. Updating this because my wife absolutely loved it. She put the spicy bbq sauce on the pulled pork and heated it up. I also ate the rest of the half rack of ribs. I was really impressed with how well the fat was rendered and the perfect (perfect!) trimming in the St. Louis style they were. Clearly, someone worked really hard on them. The tenderness of the ribs, brisket and pulled pork was perfect. So, reconsidering my first cut at a review, I have raised my rating to a solid 4 for the food. I will definitely be back for more in the...

Have had pulled pork a few times in previous years. Not terrible but also not worth writing home about. Decided to try their burger. Worst burger I have had in Lawrence. I’m not going to waste food or make a scene so I ate what I could and took leftovers that will either need reworked or given to my dogs. I asked about their sauces because I saw a burger sauce on the menu and was told all sauces were out, burger sauce was not. Gave the others a try, as I usually got it to go and used my own sauce. They were equally horrible. While I’m over there I hear them say drop 4 patties and hear the cook: “FOUR?!?! D*MN!!!!!! Why the commentary on anyone’s order? You offer all these “Big Daddy” options but two double cheeseburgers is apparently shocking. Fries LOOK cooked but were mashed potato consistency inside. Definitely the least amount of cooked to be served. Decided it was all so bad we would grab a couple single ribs to go, the last thing we wanted to try from them, figuring it would be our last trip. Last indeed, taste is much better but they are tiny for the price so they won’t entice a future visit. Facility was a mess and they were not busy. Tables looked to be clear but not actually cleaned. Will never go back. Lots of local BBQ in town, but I would still recommend any fast food...

The manager is so rude to me all i get is a potato with nothing on it with a serving of shredded cheese daily because i work at first student and its right next to it but today things changed my potato was old yet again as this being the 3rd time it has happened i asked for a new one and the manager said "im never making your potato ever again, im sick of having to remake it" me being baffled asked for a refund and he slammed the money on the counter with rudeness and i took it and left. the thing is i have been trained on food safety and im autistic so when something isn't the way i ask and pay for it or the way its supposed to be i get very frustrated and ask for the place to fix there mistake its proper human etiquette to be nice if you mess up a costumers order and politely fix it. this place has so much wrong with it and i hate that they took over the original zarco. also sorry for my grammatical errors and i hope people will stop coming to this horrible place also i want to say that some of the employees i love because they were so nice to me but the manager just went way...