The Pit Smoker — Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City

This was a bit of a letdown. Not because they changed their menu, so I couldn't exactly have what I wanted, rather the taste of the food I had. I would have tried the signature dishes (beef ribs, tomahawk, etc.), but I was alone, and those are up to I think 1.4million dong and/or a half kg of meat - good to share and I'm sure they taste great.

I wanted a beef burrito, but for some reason, they couldn't make it because it's no longer on the menu... only smoked chicken burritos (139K/$5.50). The tortilla wrap used wasn't a good flour tortilla. It was more of a bánh xèo tortilla. The chicken was pretty average tasting, not great, slow cooked, pulled chicken.

The smoked pulled pork nachos (199K/$7.85) looked like uncooked meat, but I think it was just the sauce. Which, it was smothered in (I think) fish sauce - perhaps Vietnamese people like it (and I understand this is Vietnam)... it just didn't taste good. The pork was ok, almost too stringy. The cheddar or American cheese singles should have been nacho cheese or a Tex-Mex cheese (I understand those may not be common or inexpensive here). I would have preferred steak chunks or ground beef, even chicken for the nachos.

The Oreo & Vanilla milkshake wasn't bad (79K/$3.10).

Surprisingly, no service fee or VAT.

Overall, I think the quality is ok, just the taste wasn't for me. They have 30% off beef on Tuesdays, and Wednesdays are another special deal (I think it was burritos or something). Free lemonade for ordering phở (which looks good actually)...

It doesn't stand out from anything. Food was to the point of a 4.9/10 okay. Acceptable but to call this smoked Texan brisket is just arrogant in my opinion. You do know we are in Viet right. I get that you're trying to bring the food culture but the brisket felt very underwhelming, probably on par with some of the local beef. Seasoning isn't nice and asking for sauces cost extra money like what? 🙄

It's a nice place to try something like American food in Vietnam but please don't take it like as if this is how Texan smoked brisket tastes like, it's better than this even though it has a higher price, it's definitely better than whatever I just ate in this restaurant.

Service was okay, but please be nice to the bodyguard outside, guy's just here to protect customers bikes and valued items, dude has to sit outside under a hot sun and you couldn't have seated him more properly somewhere else? Get him inside, there's a window which you can observe as well or maybe buy an umbrella stand.

Atmosphere wise, mid, most seating can only have 2-4 people. This place aims to look fancy than trying to look friendly like an average Texas...

The taste profile is pretty authentic. But there are a few isssues

Tuesday night rush (they offer discount on tuesday) but as far as I can tell there was only 2 floor staff, leading to pretty slow serving time

We ordered 300g beef brisket, 1 cheese sausage, 1 fries, 1 mac n cheese and 1 cookies shake

If not mention then it's fine.

The beef has the right taste but is drier then we would have liked (probably due to slow serving time)

The mac n cheese had a little too few mac then we would have liked (cannot tell for how authentic that is)

The worst is the shake, dear lord

It came out less of a shake but more melted ice blended, nearing room temperature. A shake is supposed to be thick and cold not whatever that was.

Another knitpick is that on the menu bottled water is labled "still water"

Overall is worth if you want to try American style beef but will not impress any native. just don't...