518 Smokehouse — Restaurant in Peak

If you're looking for a slightly less expensive venue than Chophouse of Chapin, this isn't it. Prepare yourself for that and you'll enjoy your time. This place is brand new. The menu says "Established March 2024". So there are lots of growing pains. If you're looking for the BBQ version of Buffalo Wild Wings, with an open atmosphere, outdoor seating, and cool robots, this is right up your alley. I can't say my time was pleasurable. First, I made a 6:30pm reservation for a Sunday evening. We had to wait an additional 45 minutes just to get seated. Then another 10 to 15 minutes until we saw our server. I may as well have just walked in with no reservation and said, "I'd like a reservation for a 45 minute wait, please." Yelp reservations will do you no good. The servers are young - and obviously learning. They need better training. Our server didn't bring our waters we initially asked for until we were ready for the check. He only ever asked if we needed anything when he was passing by another table. Take the time to stop at your tables and address your patrons, not just ask something in passing. I get things are busy, but either hire more people or train your staff better. The food is decent. Again, don't look for Chophouse quality. It has more of a sports bar feel, so expect Buffalo Wild Wing food, only in BBQ form. The Gouda Mac& cheese is good. Their "signature" baked beans tasted like, well, ordinary baked beans. They came in small cast iron platters. Why not throw them in a fire oven to get that REAL baked bean allure? We had the 2-meat platter. The burnt ends were pretty good. The right amount of char. The coleslaw seemed fresh. They top it off with a roll. The same roll you'd get with your 2-piece snack from Zesto's. Why not batch out some signature corn bread and set yourselves apart? The roll just seemed like a filler piece. Finally, dessert. We ordered ours to go. They give you a good amount of food, so we ended up taking leftovers. My wife ordered cobbler with this petite scoop of ice cream. We actually chuckled. What really got me was the banana pudding I ordered. It didn't come in a small container that you normally get everywhere else. No. It came in a quart size plastic container. The same one the wonton soup comes in. The same one the deli scoops your potato salad in at the grocery store. Really? You didn't have any other single serve styro-containers? Again, growing pains. The atmosphere is pleasant. It's open. The bar serves as a nice separator between the inside and outdoor deck seating. The decor is nice and while the robots seemed cool, they really feel out of place. Not one person mentioned anything about the significance of the robots. It's like they were just there. And obviously weren't a time saver because we waited a while for our food. If I were a server, I'd give each robot a name. Say something about it. Call it my peasant. Anything to draw attention to the cool factor. Instead, it was like every restaurant has these and it's no big deal. Which makes them seem out of place. The bill. The food prices really aren't bad. Our two, 2-meat dinners, 1 518 Mule, 1 espresso martini (which my wife said was absolutely delicious), and 2 desserts was about $80. Now the fun part. The tip. I have NEVER been to a restaurant that defaulted a 30% tip. Yeah, you read that right. 30%. If I had a $100 meal that's set by the venue based on their costs and overhead, for $30 more, my server better be singing. The robot better be making my drink like Tom Cruise in Cocktail. The robots better be performing a River Dance or something. 30%!? We didn't even get our water until the meal was over. I know how hard that young server was trying. Poor guy fumbled over his words. It was like a lamb playing a beer wench to a bunch of lions. I felt bad for him, so I tipped a respectable 20%. Overall, I'm sure I'll be back. Not for a date night, but a "hey, let's go grab a beer" type of visit. Work out the growing pains, train your staff better, and don't make your patrons wait 45 minutes on top of making a...

Went for the first-time last night on a date with my wife. Being a brand-new restaurant with everything being built from the ground up including menu, location, building, layout, decor etc. I went in with some doubts, I was expecting some hiccups in service, quality etc. but was extremely pleased with the overall experience. The owners have done a great job at ensuring they have all the boxes checked to deliver a great experience. Positives….. The venue is fantastic! First impressions remind me of a smaller scale "Sierra Nevada" brewery restaurant. It has that feeling. They have done an incredible job of developing an atmosphere and from the looks of it they have LOTS of room to expand. Summertime is going to be great if they can capitalize on property. They have some incredible outdoor areas and plenty of potential for live entertainment, events, etc. The decor, seating, arrangement etc. are on point, kudos to their design team! Service. My wife and I went in with a "benefit of the doubt" attitude. We expected service hiccups, potential delays, etc.. Hey, it's a new location, so it was going to be ok. However, the service was fantastic. Our server was fast and courteous and awesome (Joy). The order was correct and fast and she kept the beer coming. Food. Was very good (especially for a new opening). I ordered the burnt ends, chopped brisket, smoked mac n cheese and beans. I was impressed by all. I am generally a smoked meat snob however the brisket was on point and cooked perfectly. The food quality can only go up from here and get even better. We started with the pulled pork nachos. The plate is huge and full of flavor. The nachos could be a meal by itself.

Negatives…. Beer. They really could do for a larger selection of locally crafted draft beers. Not that it was bad but I'd love to see them have a greater variety of local craft brews available. Don't get me wrong, they have a decent selection BUT there is room for improvement. (More IPAs please) 😊 Silly robot delivery system. So, it may have seemed like a good idea but for this place, it doesn't work. For some of the tables they had a "robot" cart system that brought food with a server following along to take it off the cart. On two occasions I witnessed patron frustration. Once, it stopped at a table because it said the pathway was blocked. It was stuck because an older gentleman had his chair too far out in the isle so after some moving around the older man had to get up and move out of the way which meant him moving away from his table. This should not happen, and his entire party was frustrated. On another occasion the robot showed up with food to a table and there was no server following which left the party sitting there awkwardly trying to determine if they should start plating themselves or wait. Again, I don't believe the bot is a fit for this location and needs to go. It's going to cause frustration and hinder an eater’s experience and, well.. it just doesn’t fit in with the stylings and atmosphere. Bathrooms. This is, I believe, the only design flaw I saw. The restrooms are awkward. Both the Men’s and Women’s restrooms had your normal entry door but upon entering you then are presented with another full-sized door that takes into one of two private privies’. It’s just odd.. My wife felt vulnerable because if someone was to break into that secondary door there would be no one to know unlike in traditional restrooms with stalls etc. I like the idea of a private privy, but they should each have their own door to the main restaurant and not be a room within a room.

Final thoughts: Outside those small negatives, the positives GREATLY outweigh, we will be returning for another date night. I can see this place becoming our new “go to” especially given that our prior haunt was recently closed. Excited to see how the owners capitalize on this property and venue and looking forward to trying even more menu items. Highly...

Welp, buckle up this is long... Not as long as it should be because I was only halfway through when I exceeded the character limit so a lot was removed. I didn't expect to care to review this place but as long as I have anticipated it while watching it being built, the SPECTACULAR AWFULNESS merits a warning. I neglected to take pictures because I was NOT planning on reviewing 518 good or bad.

My expectation for a place called a SMOKEHOUSE and where it sits all by itself on U.S. 76 was a full BBQ pit experience. Pulling in there doesn't seem to be a pit or stacks of wood anywhere. Maybe they are back there but I am fairly confident they are not. We'll see why when it comes to the food.

Walking in you find what aesthetically appears to want to be a dining experience a cut above Longhorn Steakhouse but somewhere below a place like Ruth's Chris or Terra. The tables and chairs do not match the food being served on aluminum cookie sheet trays with red/white checkered paper for easy clean up.

On to the food though....

The food is so blatantly, obviously frozen and quick reheat offerings that it was just comical how much money has probably gone into the land and building and NONE of it went into the food.

With an oven, a microwave, and a Sam's/Costco membership you could recreate the entire menu.

We started with the Texas Twinkies which appeared to be the only item that was made in house. Lacked flavor and the jalapenos were too large and thick and not properly cooked through. Dusting some BBQ rub on the outside of them might mitigate the lack of flavor.

House, vinegar, and mustard based sauces on the table so we asked for Competition, Lava Lips, and Southern "Seoul" to try. I immediately went for the Lava Lips thinking it would be spicy. It smelled of ketchup and sugar and tasted like a flavorless Polynesian sauce with absolutely NO heat at all. The Competition smelled and tasted like ketchup and grape jelly. The Southern "Seoul" was the most flavorful but by the end of the meal the conclusion we came to was that it was most likely store-bought just like the rest of the menu.

We ordered a Pick 2 and Pick 3 for a wide sample- Smoked Sausage, Pork Belly Burnt Ends, 1/4 Rack of Ribs, Pork Chop, and Chopped Brisket. We subbed in Kicked Up Waffle Fries and 518 Corn Ribs(another items possibly made in house unlike everything else) to sample more sides.

Expectations were probably too high but chops were thin like Waffle House instead of a thick cowboy chop you might expect from a SMOKEHOUSE and they tasted like ham. The brisket was slightly overcooked but it had WAY too much pepper and the fact that it was chopped makes me believe it is served that way to hide the possibility it isn't smoked on a pit onsite. Sausage had to be Roger Wood split in half. Pork belly tasted so much like plastic it had to come in bags designed to be boiled or microwaved. Ribs overcooked by a mile. The waffle fries were obviously Member's Mark, or similar, frozen. The Baked Beans had to be from a can and not even Bush's level. Smoked Gouda Mac and Cheese was tasty but no confidence it isn't premade/reheated in a large aluminum pan from restaurant supply vs made in house.

The entire operation, especially the outdoor seating, appears aesthetically to want to be a big event catering thing vs a true smokehouse hoping that they can pass off poor quality food offerings to large enough groups who will think the quality matches how many people are being served at once and marvel at that but it is definitely not worth your time for an individual lunch or dinner date.

Save your money and time, buy everything mentioned here from Sam's or Costco, and enjoy your meal in the comfort of your own home.

I don't give this place very long unless they massively overhaul the cooking and kitchen aspect. Again, my expectations might have been too high but this place SPECTACULARLY...