The Smokin' Oak Rotisserie & Grill — Restaurant in Red Wing

When you walk in you are immediately greeted by the rotisserie with amazing smelling meat rolling above the wood fired flames and you know that you are about to sit down and enjoy some good food.

I must admit that I was a little put back by the interior of the restaurant itself. The walls are lit brighter than one would imagine a "Rotisserie & Grill" to be. And while they did install some sound deadening devices on the ceiling, they could have used more due to the general volume of the restaurant. Not exactly someplace that you want to go to if you are looking for a quiet restaurant.

Now at this time I was worried that with the atmosphere, what kind of food would I be receiving. My wife and I are not shy about eating and we rather enjoy our appetizers so we looked on the menu to see what we wanted before we got there. We ordered the Bull Bites, Smokin' Skins and the Smokin' Oak BBQ Nachos. All 3 arrived in an appropriate amount of time for appetizers. First thing that I saw that I HAD to try were the Bull Bites. Now, I have been in the food industry since I was 16 years old, and I have to tell you that I was astounded by those amazing juicy tender pieces of meat. Imagine if you would for a moment the juiciest, tenderest and best tasting steak of your life. It was that good...... plus some! Not sure about the ounce portion of it, but I would have to guess around 10 oz. A good size for the price. I can't say enough about those lovely meat morsels! I will surely go back for them (And I live 3 hours away!). The Skins were good and had excellent flavor with the outside of the potato itself being crispy but not burnt. Didn't taste at all like potatoes were leftovers from yesterday, but rather like ones that were fresh. I enjoyed them thoroughly. The nachos were used with corn tortillas, and while I was not too impressed with corn tortillas personally, my wife devoured them. Good flavor on the chicken. Practically dissappeared when placed in my mouth.

The staff was friendly and smiling. Not once did I see a person standing around. Hard workers!

While the food was great, the one thing that impressed me the most was the owner. I assumed that this gentleman that was helping out with tables and sweeping was a manager, however when he came over and chatted at our table we learned that he was was in fact the owner. Any owner that is as willing to help his servers by grabbing drinks for the customers and sweeping when it needs attention is a guy I would work for. With his excellent food, great attitude and willingness to be a working part of his restaurant, I see excellent things coming in the future for this restaurant!

Do yourself a favor...

We visited on a Friday evening. My husband had a hankering for fish fry, and I saw on the Smokin' Oak's Facebook page that they offered a deal on cod. We decided this was a good time to try out the restaurant.

First of all, you enter to a glorious view and the fragrance of ribs in a massive rotisserie. It's quite an appealing start! We were seated right away. The dining room is fairly basic with many old photographs of the Red Wing area. It's a pleasant enough vibe.

Service was good throughout our visit. They didn't have a printed drink menu, but the bar was quite close to us, so we both glanced there to check the taps; I also took a picture. My husband had a beer while I had a fantastic blueberry cider.

My husband was starving, so we started off with two sides. The cheese curds were hot and tasty, but not squeaky. We also ordered the bull bites, which came with a horseradish dip and teriyaki sauce. The teriyaki, unfortunately, was incredibly watery, but what we could taste had a nice flavor. The horseradish dip was tasty and we found it actually went great with the cheese curds!

Our entrees soon came out. My husband's fish fry came with fries as well as cups of slaw and beans. He is not a fan of slaw and beans, so he gave them to me to try. I had a small bit of both and I found them to be quite good. The beans were savory and thick, while the slaw had a good consistency--crunchy and not watery. He liked the fish and fries fine, but he didn't think they were the best ever.

I ordered the salmon salad, which came out without dressing. I asked the delivery guy about that, and he brought the cup out in about 30 seconds. The vegetables were nice and fresh. The salmon piece wasn't huge and it was on the verge of being overdone, but it was still good. The dressing was great.

As this was a date night, we had to get dessert. I was impressed when our server recited a diverse selection. I chose the caramel crunch cake. It turned out to be pretty good, dense with just the right amount of sweetness.

We want to come here again and try more of the menu, especially the...

The service here was 5/5. But the food was less than mediocre barbecue. The pulled pork had the texture of tuna from a can and tasted like it had just came out of the microwave. The only two options for sauce were regular and “hot”, both of which tasted like great value sauces. We optioned for the 2 dollar sweet potato fries, which were the best part of our meal, but came with no dipping sauce. I’m sure we could have asked but it would have been nice to just have as most places bring a sauce with your plate. The inside of this establishment looks rundown as walls are scarred from chairs and what looked like water damage was peeling the paint from the walls. May I suggest to anyone looking for a 80 dollar bill for three adults and a toddler, go to bay port barbecue or the tap room. Both are more reasonably priced and far better quality.

To respond to the owners reply: Since no part of my review was opinion based, it’s a far stretch to say that any part of it was rude or “non constructive”. As I said before, the service we got from our waiter was exceptional. The problem was with the quality vs price. The food we ordered was bland and soggy. Soggy and moist are two different things and is the difference between a 5 dollar barbecue and a 15 dollar barbecue. I have personally paid less money and received far better quality barbecue from other restaurants. And with how much you charge I would expect a less “run down” look. You addressed the water damage peeling paint from the walls and that’s understandable. But for the walls to be gouged from chairs doesn’t happen overnight. I would assume that to be from poor layout and a lack of care from both managers and owners. And seeing how even Taco Bell offers sauce as you order I find it hard to understand how you could assume people coming there for the first time would know that you had more than the two options on the table. Hopefully this reply helps clear up some of the criticism you mistook for rudeness earlier and gives you...