Taino Smokehouse — Restaurant in Middletown

If you're looking for a nice BBQ/Southern Comfort dinner, you should try this place.

I had the distinct pleasure of dining here yesterday (4/24/2013). The dining room was packed and there was a steady stream of people coming in an out. That's always promising to see, so when we heard we'd have to wait a bit before getting a seat I was okay with it. While waiting, I got a brief tour of the property and plans to create a great outdoor eating environment. Also while waiting, a waitress came and grabbed our orders for when a table was ready (we told them we were under a time crunch).

Inside was clean, airy and very friendly. The humongous TV hanging up with the Sox game on was a huge bonus in my book.

Sure enough, shortly after a table opened up and we sat down, there was a plate of meat in front of me. I ordered the half pound beef brisket in house sauce with the orange mac-and-cheese (they have two kinds). My dining partner had a pulled chicken sandwich w/ house made potato chips and the same mac-and-cheese. Without a doubt, this was the best brisket I've ever had (and I went to an outdoor wedding in Amarillo, TX once). Tender, lean and scrumptious. Just the right amount of sauce on the top. The sauce was a nice surprise. Most places think that any meat sauce needs to begin with sugar. Not in this case. It was tangy, spicy and just delicious. I meant to buy a jar to bring home but forgot.

After a few bites of meat, I tried the mac-and-cheese and just wanted to take a nap. Pure, 100% American comfort food. A nice cheese base, not a little cheese and lots of breadcrumbs like so many places offer. It had a very complimentary smokey undertone to it and I was fully prepared to start licking the bottom of the crock it was served in.

Dinner conversation focused on how we were enjoying our mean and a good point was made... the pulled chicken sandwich was not swimming in BBQ sauce. There was a nice amount, but the sandwich wasn't a mess to eat. Additionally, with the house sauce in jars on the table, the customer could customize to their hearts desire.

I have every intention of returning here to try the other things on their menu.

Just a couple of comments - and I will remind the readers that we were under time constraints and the staff were trying to accommodate us.

My brisket came out a couple minutes before everything else. Normally, this is the sign of a new wait staff; but it could also have been them trying to make sure I got my food. Also, the mac-and-cheese wasn't piping. It wasn't cold, just could have spent a few more minutes in the oven. Neither...

Brisket here = overcooked and tough! (Edit: I've since spoken to others who had very good things to say, but this is my honest review of my first visit. Planning on giving them one more chance when I'm next in town, will update if I go) I don't usually leave bad reviews, but we just had a very disappointing first visit. Great first impression since they have a really nice outdoor seating area under cool vine covered trellises. Could smell the aroma of the smoker, so I was looking forward to sampling the brisket at a legit BBQ place. That's something I have not yet tried to make on my smaller home smoker due to the effort involved in cooking the beef "low and slow" while it bathes in smokey goodness for up to 16 hours. First thing I noticed when the plate arrived was that, though there was the expected pink smoke ring around the edges, the long slices of the "flat" portion looked grey and dry. A closer look showed that they were also sliced along the grain rather than across it. This is an inexcusable basic mistake, since it results in 8" long strings of muscle that you have to chew though. My suspicions were confirmed when I tried a bite. It was chewy, way overcooked, and without any hint of juiciness. Then I also realized I could not taste any smoke flavor, nor any hint of seasoning, not even a simple salt and pepper rub, which can be great by itself. The 3 or 4 small chunks of the "point" muscle, which is by nature fattier than the flat, were tender and juicy enough, but coated in so much salt that they were unpleasant to eat after a couple of bites. My wife had the smoked Thai coconut curry wings and declared them "nothing special". The jalapeno cole slaw had a few green and orange slivers in it, but basically just tasted like shredded cabbage without any dressing. The small Texas chili side was the only dish with any smoke flavor, and was the best tasting thing we had. We also got two pieces of corn bread. They were okay but overpriced at $2 a piece extra for two little mini muffins. I really wanted this place to be a great find. It might be fine for a burger and a beer, and I'm sure whoever runs it are nice people, but you can't call yourself a smokehouse if you're not able to serve a hallway decent slice of brisket that doesn't taste and feel like it was cooked in a microwave. The two stars are for the courtyard and the...

Some of the best bbq meat! Friendly and helpful staff. Not to crazy about the sides tho. They need to work on them a bit. We tried the pulled pork dinner and for the 2 sides chose chilli and mac n cheese. The chilli was so spicy we could not eat it. It looked good with a fresh jalapeño slice on top when we took the cover off. I am not even taking a star away for that because I know chilli is personal. Everyone has their own preferences but just know if you are looking for some real, homemade spicy chilli (nothing like Wendy's) then this is your place! Now the Mac n cheese. Come on guys is all I have to say. I'm not complaining totally. We ate it. But it tasted like Velveeta with large pasta shells, smoked paprika, and some pepper. You have to work on that cheese sauce. Panera Bread mac n cheese was better. I think you need to go undercover and check out some other places. There has got to be better sides available to make that will not sacrifice time away from the meat. Now their meat is mouthwatering, shear perfection. I also got the brisket dinner. You can cut that with the plastic fork they gave! Not overly fatty. Great smoke flavor with a hint of bbq sauce over the top. The pulled pork was one for the record books. Shredded but not pulverized. You could see it was pulled pork and it still had some chunks of pork in it establishing what it was. It was not drowning in sauce either. Alot of places make that mistake. Im always suspicious of over sauced pulled pork but yours was fantastic you really let your hard work come to the forefront and it is delicious. We also tried your baked beans side. This was good. Some of the beans were a little under cooked tho. They were hard. But your sauce and flavor was spot on. We travel around to many bbq places. Heck we go out of our way for good bbq. We absolutely loved your bbq egg rolls!! They are magical. Pulled chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, and red peppers with this dill ranch dip. OMG! Most places offer some type of eggroll. They are either drowning in sauce or way over cooked. Not yours. Once again we saw your flavors come through nicely. We are getting these again for sure. We will be back but will concentrate more on your meat by getting sandwiches or just buying your meat and baked beans until you up your mac n cheese game....