SmokeTown Blues — Restaurant in Valparaiso

Okay, so.... I hated to do this but I had a 5 star review on Smoketown posted one year ago and I had to delete it because google wouldn't let me create a new review. This place quickly became a family favorite and we thoroughly enjoyed each time we visited.

Here we are now- exactly one year later and we have nothing good to say about it and that makes me sad. We waited 30 minutes or so to be seated and that's okay because it's always been worth the wait. There's now an awkwardly placed giant window where you wait. The window is somewhat intrusive to those eating as the line forms just on the other side of it.

We finally get seated and are brought our drinks only to be informed shortly after they are out of brisket (the reason we came and waited) I feel like they could have let us know as we waited so we would not have wasted our time. We also found out they no longer have the smoked sausage on their menu either- another reason we came.

I finally decide to order the smoked chicken breast. Thankfully, I asked the waitress if the chicken was sliced smoked chicken or pulled.... she replied pulled. The menu did not specify so I'm really glad I asked. Not a fan of pulled meats. I finally decided upon the 1/2 lb. bacon cheeseburger with everything (no bun) and the fries as a side- I was getting really hungry and it sounded so good at this point. I asked the waitress if the bacon could be made crispy because I don't like flabby bacon. She said it's made first thing in the morning and she couldn't promise crispy bacon but that she would throw it in the microwave herself if she had to. : ( I reluctantly said that would be fine. In the meantime, my fiancé ordered a couple beers and I strategically placed the empty bottles at the edge of the table for her to take as she passed by. She even brought a third beer and we finally sat all the bottles on the floor by the wall to get them out of the way. Our food finally came and she brought me a burger with 2 super thin patties (like generic pieces of mystery meat) unseasoned and grey in color, smothered in cheese. I asked where the lettuce, tomato and onion were and she said she didn't know I wanted it.. by the time she comes back with it I've decided I absolutely DO NOT want the burger. Burger King could do a better job on delivering a tasty burger- I feel like they need to remove burgers altogether because it was that bad!!! I did sample the meat and it was bland and tasted like a frozen patty. YUK! The fries were bland and tasteless-basic, at best. My sons and fiancé both ordered the full slab of ribs. My fiance's ribs were far more tender than our sons- He is 13 and immediately noticed the difference just by looking at it. We had also ordered the onion twigs as an app..... the food on one plate was hot and crispy while the other was NOT! At one point, I asked the waitress for some napkins and she REALLY did bring back two!!!! There were 4 of us..... 3 of us had ribs! This girl had no listening skills. She failed on all the levels!

I decided on the chili and cornbread which is probably the only thing there that didn't change. It was phenomenal, as always. I write this review in all brutal honesty because Smoketown is NOT a cheap place to eat. We've been glad to pay the higher price for CONSISTENT quality. Sadly, looks like this place can no longer be counted upon to be consistently satisfying. I feel like they sacrificed all the tasty things this restaurant once was simply to add a bakery- taking the focus off of amazing smoked meats. Unfortunately, we won't be back! The search continues for amazing BBQ...

Not one to be negative and write bad reviews but cannot express a deeper sense of disappointment than my experience at Smoketown Blues Barbecue. Got the three meat platter and not one piece was either flavorful or moist. Half rack rib was so over cooked it made the turkey in “Christmas Vacation” look appetizing. Overcooked is too nice a description. The Brisket was arid dry as was the pulled pork. The two bbq sauces were ok but couldn’t save the day or meat. Baked beans were best part of underwhelming meal but coleslaw lacked flavor. The pork mac and cheese had dried pork over what looked like box mac and cheese. The only saving grace was a kind and attentive waitress and a flavorful sangria. Sad to be so negative as I was looking forward to trying this restaurant for a while. I had seen other reviews expressing same concerns of overcooked dry food but wanted to try for myself. Sadly they were right. Hopefully the restaurant will try to correct their cooking methods and get it right. Really want to see locally owned places succeed but they have to put some effort into presenting good food on a regular basis. Everyone has an off night which is excusable but the reviews, which I confirmed tonight, are quite true that poor dry food quality seems to be the norm. Sad to say especially when it is supposed to be a specialty type...

So I was there last year for the first time and it was awesome. Then they were having issues, whatever. So a little while ago I took 2 friends from out of town after bragging about this place and we go to order, and it was like they only had half of the stuff we wanted. So I apologized to my friends and we left. What a joke, I was embarrassed.

So like 3 months later, last night April 26, Saturday night, dinner time, So my family came in from upper Illinois and I told them about this place and they wanted to go, cool. So we got there, ordered drinks and reminiscing. Turns out it was my nephews birthday, awsome. So after we were there and waiting on our food, she comes back out and say that they don't have enough ribs. Now for maybe 2 hours before we got there I called this place 7 times, 7. I was going to place the order over the phone but no one ever answered the phone, we would have eaten there.. When I told the guy with the earings this. He was like, gee I guess we didn't hear it. YOU THINK. No communication in this place and the second time I have egg on my face with this place. So again we left and I will never go back. 7 times and you could even get something to go....