Blue Ember Smokehouse — Restaurant in Rogers

After seeing all of the reviews, unfortunately, I will be going a little against the grain it seems.

First off, I have to say that the staff was very nice, polite, and welcoming. The restaurant being new has a great appearance, is pleasant on the inside, and has high end smoker equipment that greets you as you enter. The BBQ smell is amazing!

My wife and I were the second table after they opened today. We both ordered the special ops, which appears to be their sampler item, and it consisted of pulled pork, one pork rib, beef brisket and your choice of sausage and one side for $14.99.

The pulled pork, unfortunately, was cold, which was surprising seeing as how we were the second table there after they opened. Besides being cold, it was also dry and lacking in barbecue flavor. It wasn't bad, it just lacked any type of individuality or identity. It was just plain.

The brisket that we received was very dry. However, it did have a decent flavor. To be fair, we asked for the lean cut. I will add though, we have had brisket at other BBQ places that served moist lean cuts, rather than dry.

The pork rib, of which there is only one small one, was very dry as well and also cold.

The Jalapeño/Pineapple sausage was fantastic and a great flavor profile. Definitely recommend!

The baked beans were average and tasted similar to most other BBQ joints. Would have been better if they were more specialized and a bigger serving.

The Mac n cheese was bland. It was basically just elbow noodles without any seasoning or really any cheese, which was disappointing.

My wife got the brisket twister as a side which ended up being a solitary small jalapeno popper that had some brisket in it. It was more a tease than a side.

My overall impression was that there wasn't much bang for the buck. The portion sizes were very small and would have been more worthwhile, had the barbecue in general been more standout. For example, you get one small pork rib, a small serving of pulled pork and two tiny slices of brisket with your plate. There definitely wasn't a generous serving of any single item on that plate, except maybe the sausage.

As a side note, the Handicapped parking is located on the side of the building and not closest to the entrance. For those with mobility concerns, take that into...

This was our first time at Blue Ember. We were excited to try a new BBQ place but it was a disappointment. First, the menu was all ala carte and there is no "2-meat plate" or anything like that. You choose each meat by weight, so if you want brisket and pulled pork, you have to buy each one separately. You can also get a sandwich or a baked potato with meat. Then you choose whatever side(s) you want (a good selection) and a drink option (no alcohol yet but coming soon). Between the 2 of us, we each had a pulled pork sandwich (brisket is twice as expensive as pork), plus sides consisting of potato salad, baked beans, and mac 'n cheese. The sandwich had a 1/3 lb portion of meat which was nice, but it was pretty dry. We had to add BBQ sauce to add moisture. Some of the meat was burned and was too tough to chew. The baked beans were great - very flavorful. The potato salad was mayo-based and extremely bland. The mac 'n cheese was the real letdown - it was beige, flavorless, and glue-ey rather than creamy. With a generous salt-n-pepper treatment, it was brought up to average. The staff was very friendly and helpful. The restaurant is clean but uninteresting, like a school cafeteria. I expected something modern with such a cool name. We spent $38 plus the requested tip at checkout (I hate tipping for counter service!) We thought this might be a cheaper option to Wright's BBQ but it wasn't much cheaper and it was a lot...

If you like great bbq, I would not recommend this place. For great bbq in Northwest Arkansas, there is only one Wright answer. All of the meats had little flavor, other than the chicken, which was very good. Brisket, turkey and pork were all dried out. Burnt ends were hard pieces of bacon drenched in sauce that barely made them edible. Mac n cheese and green beans were throw-away-able. Fried okra was fantastic though, some of the best I’ve had in a long time.

That being said, the sauce was good, the service was outstanding, and our to go order wasn’t missing anything. The place was clean, smelled like a bbq restaurant, and the staff were very nice. Would be a good place for...