Cafe Telegraph Smoke Shack — Restaurant in Lemay

I stopped in on a Saturday afternoon around 2:30pm. I had a craving for some good smoked meat. I had never been here before but drive by all the time when I go to the Jefferson Barracks Park with my family. Today I had the chance and wanted to try the meat. First, I want to say that the staff is polite, kind and very friendly. They seem outgoing and ready to assist. I noticed they seem to have a great rapport with the regulars. The atmosphere was also A+, and unique, what a great location. The pricing of the food and drinks are fair and competitive when compared with other smokehouses and bars around town. While waiting for my carryout meat, I had a bloody mary which was a good price and pretty standard, although it was VERY spicy. Not sure if this was by accident or if this is normal but the mix was out of this world spicy. Nevertheless I consumed it all without fail, it presented itself well, especially with the 3 olives, and lime garnish. Now lastly, and I hate doing it, but I was not impressed by the meat I received. I am a smokehouse connoisseur. I love me some good quality smoked meats. Frequently when I drive by I smell the smoke from Cafe Telegraph and it has always smelled right. I order 1 pound of brisket, and 1 pound of pulled pork. The price of both were very competitive and fair. However, the quality of the finished product was not up to my expectations. I saw in a previous review the owner stated that the brisket was smoked for 1-2 hours. That may very well be the case, but the brisket has absolutely no natural smoke flavor that is discernable to my tastes. In addition it was overly reheated in an oven and gave an off taste of seasoning. This is not desirable in my opinion. I was hoping for fresh smoked brisket. I feel perhaps they maybe only smoke a couple days a week and then reheat it to order. The pulled pork was okay, but it reminded me of home cooked oven roasted pulled pork, it had zero smoke flavor. Both meats were edible, but not satisfying or enjoyable. Like I said, I hate leaving this type of review, but I feel that if the owners see where they are going wrong perhaps they can improve and smoke less meat, smoke it daily and make the meat more desirable to the masses. Folks will know to come early and get it while its available before it sells out. They have enough menu items that folks wont go hungry, no need to turn anyone away, but two day old "smoked" meat that is re-heated in the oven is a let down. I may come back for a second try but not for the smoked meat, maybe I'll try the fish. I ordered my food at 2:36, and it took 25 minutes to prepare 1 pound of pulled pork and 1 pound of brisket on a day and time when there was little no diners there at the time, which definitely tells me the product is being reheated. I was getting worried about it the longer I waited. Something didnt seem right. Nevertheless, I give them fair marks across the board in...

We went there yesterday around 12:10 got two sweet teas and put our order in with the waitress. Looked around and about 01:05 my order of grilled chicken wings came/ all flats were very tiny and hard. By the time the rest of our food came we were ready to go so we asked for to go trays. Our ribs were old and hard and looked like they were given to us due to someone cancelling THIER To Go Order. Then the waitress came to our table (after waiting a long time) and told us that They Might Not have anymore Cheesy Potatoes that we ordered with the ribs so we got French Fries and a salad instead of the cheesy potatoes. It's in the early part of the afternoon and they just opened @11am but you're out of cheesy potatoes for the day! We have been going to this restaurant for a while and Never Experienced our ribs( cause that's All we go THERE for)being old and hard ( a very poor quality of food)!! So we paid $67 00 for poor service and old food. I WAS NOT IMPRESSED WITH THIS AT ALL! SOMEONE NEEDS TO CONTACT ME ABOUT GETTING MY ORDER REDONE CORRECTLY BECAUSE I KNOW THAT THEY CAN DO BETTER. THATS WHY WE TRAVEL SO FAR FROM WHERE WE LIVE BECAUSE WE LOVE THIER RIBS AND CHEESY POTATOES . Sir, I truly understand that restaurants have good days and bad days. Seems like all of the Caucasian folks were Satisfied. I was watching while me n my wife were waiting for our food. I'm not making this a racist situation bc I got Good Rib Meals from your establishment before, I'm just trying to figure out besides OUR food being Poor Quality/ Old how did y'all run out of certain things and it was Early? When folks spend their money to eat WHAT THEY HAVE A TASTE FOR, THATS WHAT THEY WANT. We shouldn't come to your restaurant and Have to Order Something Else, WE LOVE YOUR RIBS so that's what We travel all the way from Swansea to get. I work hard for my money just like you and I know that if You and Your Family go out to eat Yal want to be Satisfied so Yal can come back. Thanks for...

One of the worst experiences I've had at a restaurant in a long time. Our server was horrible, she got multiple parts of our order wrong and she would disappear for 25 at a time. The place was not buys at all either so no idea what she was doing. I ordered a double bushwaker - she brought out tow drinks and not a double drink. When she finally came back to take our order after 20 minutes of waiting, I asked her if the soup of the day (chicken something) had noodles or rice in it, she had no idea and I wasn't about to wait for her to and try to ask. As a server she should know the details of the menu items and especially a special such as the soup of the day. I ordered a chicken philly no bread. not only did the sandwich come out with bread, it was not good. First, she should have never brought out the sandwich if she would have checked the order before bringing it to the table. Second, if it wasn't for the cheese sauce on the sandwich I would not have even wanted to eat the very bites I did have. There were supposed to be onions, which there wasn't. The chicken was supposed to be smoked, did not taste like it at all, plus a philly is supposed to be think finely sliced or chopped meat - the chicken was cubed and not desirable. Finally, the green peppers were huge chunky slices which were basically raw, they had not been sautéed or cooked at all. To top it all off, she never came back to check on how the food was, therefore I couldn't tell her my order was wrong, plus the food itself that I got was not good. We waited for 35 minutes after receiving our food and she was no where to be seen. I didn't realize I had to wait to try to pay for my food. We calculated how much our food would've been, minus my order bc I would not be paying for something so horrible and left cash on the table. We later tried calling and getting a manager and was refused the ability to...