AT JL Smokehouse — Restaurant in Phoenix

When you drive up to JL Smokehouse, at first look, the place does like much but you drive around back to park and the smell hits you and you know you have come to the right place! I stayed in my car for a minute or two just to take in the smell of the wood smoker before I had to put on my mask to the walk around front. I walked in and was pleasantly surprised to see they were open for dining in. A very pleasant young lady took our order, she is JL’s daughter. My wife each got the “on the fence meal” which had 3 meats and two sides. My wife ordered brisket, ribs and pork belly with colored greens & cabbage as her sides. I had brisket, ribs and chicken with colored greens and potato salad. All the meats were crispy on the outside and moist & flavored inside. My wife’s favorite was the pork belly followed by the ribs. My favorite was the ribs followed by my taste of my wife’s pork belly. Now do not get me wrong the brisket and chicken were wonderful but the ribs and pork belly were in their own league. I have never had better colored greens any better, they were flavored big pieces of ham. When you go, get the option to get multiple meats. I will be back sometime. It is a 35 minute drive from our house, but well worth it. You cannot go wrong with the 4 meats that we tried. The two guys on the other side of the room really liked their cooked sausages. I also had a chance to talk JL and he is a very friendly down to earth guy. He said he has been smoking meat for 20 years. You can tell he loves what he does, he must if you are smoking meat in mid-summer in Phoenix. ....We decided to drive and take some close friends with us, we live in Buckeye, a friend got fried catfish. At first a little bummed that she did try the BBQ, but after tasting a piece of her catfish, I glad she ordered it was the best catfish that I have ever had. He uses his father’s recipe. I was bummed that they were sold out of colored greens. When I was walking around back to my car, JL saw me and asked me if I got my colored greens. I said they were done yet, he said “drive truck over here and I bring you old some, they should be done”. He brought them out to me and said “on the house”. When you get food and service as good as this, it is worth the drive. I met JL for the first time 4 weeks ago, but he treats me like an old friend. I will be back again on Saturday for you fish fry. (He has added fish on Friday’s and...

Food was good! It’s the workers that lack focus and Responsibility and great customer service skills! The workers really should be following step by step rules and osha compliance! All the workers look confused even the white guy that cooks and cuts the meat! Confused! and when food runs low it should always be a back up plan! How does your business close at 8pm and you run out of food at 2pm? I don’t get that! This business needs a back up plan! Especially because the business is always extremely busy! I came in and spent 60. Dollars on food I was so happy about! I purchased the biggest meal on their menu. The pit master combo with 4 sides! I added a extra side! A large potato salad and hot water cornbread! I asked one of the workers was there any other sides sold out because I overheard her tell another customer that they were sold out of the peach cobbler! She said no we have everything! I literally waited 45min- to a hour with my toddler daughter for my food...and For them to tell me The potato salad and mac & cheese was sold out after I waited that long in the waiting room for my food me watching the light skin worker with the top pony tail resale sides not checking to see what orders was purchased already prior to other people re coming in to buy sides when I was their before them and she tells me you can pick any other side! BEANS AND GREENS! Really? How rude! and she was so focused on the man that came through saluting the business and telling another customer about up charges on double meats! And she had the nerve to have a attitude literally I could of spend haft of what I spent with you guys at famous Dave’s! Me trying my best to support black businesses and trying not to make it a negative but this is why! And they gave...

First off… let me start by saying I’ve had this food a handful of times prior, and the food was always great. HOWEVER, on this occasion, the food was not up to health standard as it gave both me, and a colleague an extremely bad stomach ache, with multiple trips to the restroom after consuming only this food. As of 9/12/23 google stated that this business updated their hours “1 week ago” so accordingly, we place an order on a MONDAY… one hour later while pulling up to their location, we immediately see that the gates are closed and it is clearly not open, well damn, we’re SOL. No biggie though, we were emailed the next morning and notified that we were accidentally allowed to still place orders online while they were closed because they didn’t “change the computer”. But hey no biggie!! we weren’t charged in the end, although it was a bit of an ire that we spent time driving to the location and they were closed… So come TUESDAY the very next day, we place an order once again, and per usual receive our food….To spare whoever is reading this both time and imagery, let me just say that you would not have enjoyed being the cleaners of the restrooms at our place of work after we BOTH had to take multiple trips to the restroom… no idea if it was the meat we got (hot links, pulled pork, brisket, or the Mac n cheese, but lord help whoever ate it this day as well) I sincerely hope this was a one time thing, but just be mindful about this food of choice,...