Smoke House BBQ, Gainesville, GA

Smoke House BBQ located at  3205 Atlanta Highway in Gainesville, Georiga, has been serving BBQ to the Oakwood and Gainesville communities for over thirty years. They also have the unique honor of being the ONLY two-time first place winner in the annual Stone Mountain Park BBQ Cook-Off. Smoke House BBQ combines very well the BBQ Shack and sit down dining experience. Customers walk up on the front porch and place their order at one window and it is served from the next window. All orders are served in to-go packages, and those who choose to eat there may do so in a screened in dining area called the "Wood Shed" containing several large picnic tables under lighted ceiling fans next to the BBQ Shack.

They also sell reasonably priced customized tee-shirts.

As for our rating we give Smoke House BBQ an overall rating of:

4 – Excellent - (So good that you typically will not eat BBQ anywhere else.)

The breakdown was:

Meat:    5 To Die For  (So good that you would kill for it and be happy to eat it as your last meal while sitting in the electric chair). It is clear why Smoke House BBQ has taken first place twice in Stone Mountain's BBQ Cook-Off. The meat is shoulder meat and comes chopped but if you as they wil serve it to you pulled. It is so tender that it literally cannot be sliced. We had a BBQ plate with pulled pork. We recommend you ask for pulled pork unless you must eat chopped. The meat was amazing and was, in fact, so good that it did not need sauce at all. It was very tender and moist and had a wonderful subtle smoky flavor unlike some that tases like you are biting into a piece of charcoal. The portion, though not huge, was ample for the price and was very filling.

BBQ Sandwich: 5 To Die For (So good that you would kill for it and be happy to eat it as your last meal while sitting in the electric chair.) We got pulled meat on the sandwich as well. The bun was soft, warm, and moist. The sauce comes on the side, which is how we feel it should be since sauce should enhance the flavor of the meat, not cover it up.

BBQ Sauce: 2 Okay (You only have an hour for lunch and this is the only BBQ place close enough.) The sauce at Smoke House BBQ  is homemade, and it is vinegar based, thus very tangy. It also had quite a bit of pepper in it, giving it quite a kick. We felt that the meat was so good that the sauce actually detracted from the meat.  It should be used sparingly and in this amount complements the meat more than detracts from it.

Brunswick Stew: 4 Excellent (So good that you typically will not eat BBQ anywhere else.)

The Brunswick Stew was perfect; without complaint. It was hearty, tomato based, slightly thick but still runny with bits of meat and a subtle smoky flavor. The spice was just right warm with no harsh bites lurking later. You could make a meal of this alone.

Banana Pudding: 5 To Die For (So good that you would kill for it and be happy to eat it as your last meal while sitting in the electric chair). In a word, it was amazing. The size was good: big enough for us to share one and both feel satisfied. When we first opened the container (remember everything is packaged to go even if you choose to eat in the "Wood Shed"), it was pale almost white in color which is a contrast of the pale to bright yellows we have seen before. This is due to its being a custard, rather than the pudding based we ate as kids. Additionally, the vanilla wafers were mixed thoroughly throughout the pudding. This technique allowed the wafers to soak up the pudding so that it resembled more bread pudding than banana pudding and the pudding base had a wonderfully playful banana flavor...just a hint so you got a good tatse but it was not over powering and did not overshadow the slices of banan inside.

For more information you can visit their webpage :

http://smokehousebbqandcatering.com/default.html