The Smokin' Oak Barbeque Restaurant, Bar & Catering

If you like BBQ and you in the area, you won’t want to miss this place.
Wedge, Brisket, jalapeño beans and collard greens. Good!!!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

When traveling through we always make it a point to stop here! Hands down the best BBQ and love the service and atmosphere. Don’t miss it!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Lipstick on my cup and didn't get an apology or anything. Just a story about how they have also had the same thing happen to them at another place. Terrible service. Our food was up in the pass and the server got on his phone and walked past our order went to the back like he needed to text someone then came back out and didn't bring our order. Someone else had to bring it because our service was so oblivious to our food in the pass. I do not recommend this place.

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 3

Service: 1

The food there was horrible it was too pink and it didn’t taste good, when I sat down for my meal there were flys everywhere it was disgusting, the service there it was okay the first lady that sat us down she was rude to the other customers next to us to describe the lady dark brown hair and short hair she had tattoos the second girl was really nice she gave me a free lemonade to go.

But overall it wasn’t good.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 1

Service: 3

Wanted to try this place out as it looked like a cool spot to try (looks are deceiving) and it was one of the worst bbq I have ever had. It was raw, undercooked and very bland. For the price, definitely not worth it. No seasoning, no flavor and very little bbq on the meat. Overall, would not recommend this place. To top it off, there was a very rude server who “greeted” us, short shoulder length hair and tattoos. Made it a big deal to give us seating to where we wanted as we did not want to sit by another family which would’ve been super crowded and uncomfortable. Will not be coming back here. If you have left a positive review, you must love very bland food. Lol being Hispanic, flavor is a must in my food.

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 1

Service: 2

This is a must stop driving through to Seattle. Great BBQ.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

I loved the food. The brisket, mac & cheese, and cole slaw were delicious. However, it took over 5 minutes for us to be greeted at the door so that we could ask for a table large enough for our group. Our server had an attitude and just wasn't friendly at all. Overall I will probably return and give it another shot just because the food is so good, but if the service doesn't improve I won't be returning.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 2

I don’t leave reviews often but as we enter a world where the only voice we have is where we spend our dollar, I feel compelled to share my experience so others have a choice as to where they spend theirs.
Personally I will not be coming back or spending any money at this establishment. I received uncomfortable, rude, and flat out poor service here this evening. It was hot, we heard they had an amazing place, so me and my partner decided to bring the dogs down to the patio for a beer after work. We were informed the patio was closed during the heat because they didn’t want to send servers outside, I responded that we had dogs and, assuming we weren’t allowed to bring them inside, we would be willing to order (our beers, no food) at the bar and buss our table so that no employee was required to step outside; but that I would happily go somewhere else with no fuss if that wasn’t okay. The bartender said it was fine but their attitude very much said “it was not fine”.. I repeated myself in saying “I won’t be offended to go somewhere else if us ordering at the bar is a problem” and again they verbally reassured me it was fine while their whole demeanor gave really off putting energy that they were annoyed with me, they slid a food menu my way and walked away. I stood there awkwardly because I wanted to order a drink, not food, and saw a few bartenders gossiping about the situation down the bar.
Let me preface by saying that I’ve been a bartender downtown for the past few years (and still am), I understand being overheated, overworked, under appreciated, and flat out burnt out.
At the end of the day the treatment I received was horrible, and honestly service industry worker to another: would you enjoy shitty service after busting your ass serving people all day? Because I sure don’t.
But it was a data point that I’m glad I got to take note of, we ended up trying out the new Breakside brewery and had Excellent beer and excellent service. I now know where I want to spend my time and money downtown post shift.
Maybe your experience will be different and I sure hope it is.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 5

Service: 1

Amazing beef ribs. The mac & cheese side not so, They should buy Stouffer's Mac & Cheese in bulk and put the Tillamook cheddar on top, or simple baked beans. That's the 5th star.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 4

Service: 5

Best place in town for beef ribs...🇺🇲👍👌

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Service is very slow and not that friendly.

I grew up in Texas. Some of the items on the menu are decent, but some are an insult to my upbringing.

The chicken tostada is surprisingly good.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 3

Service: 1

Having been a BBQ judge in Texas for over a decade, I have some pretty extensive BBQ background. Unfortunately, this place did not hit the mark. In all my years I've never experienced this much lack of S/P.

Visiting Vancouver and figured I'd give it a shot. Put it this way, they are charging more than what you'd pay for Franklin's and you're getting Famous Dave's quality.

The owner seems to complain about hurting local businesses, but they are quite literally ripping you people off with this quality.

They might be several generations old and from Texas but they shouldn't claim Texas if this is the quality they are putting out. You'll find even the lowest quality brisket in Texas will blow this place away.

Edit: Well, I just road tripped and tried Oregon BBQ company down in Albany, OR and they (and 99% of Texas) have figured out how to get more salt on the meat.

Franklin also has daily plates at a much better price. Possibly the raw meat is of the same quality but please never consider your brisket anywhere even remotely close to the same finished product. I promise you, you are further apart than you are similar.

Also consider your price per lb is $4 less than Franklin's and check the awards and accolades they have. We are talking literal World's apart in quality.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 2

Service: 3

We tried "The Smoke Stack" and "Brisket Birria Tacos" with sides of Coleslaw, "Jalapeno Pinto Beans" and "Mac & Cheese".

The Smoke Stack contains samples of brisket, spare ribs, pulled pork and sausage. The brisket as well as the pulled pork did not have much flavor. The sausage was fairly dry. The short rib was tender and had a decent taste. The brisket birria tacos tasted like they had cinnamon on them which made the taste different than I was expecting, I was not a fan.

The mac & cheese was pretty good.

I thought the coleslaw good. It had a prominent onion taste, which my wife did not care for.

The jalepeno pinto beans were my favorite side.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 3

Service: 4

After this evening, will never be returning. Arrived at 6pm, clearly management does not staff appropriately. Seemed like our server was serving half the restaurant. She didn't make it to our table until 6:30. Didn't get our food (which is pre cooked) until 7:30. Extremely over priced for what it was. Apparently they were out of sausage but we were not informed until after our food arrived with zero compensation even though we ordered the 4 meat combo. Our bill was almost 150 for 2 dinners and each had 2 drinks. Way over priced for over done and dry meat. I could have made better ribs at home and should have for the amount of time spent here.

Kid-friendliness: No kids menu

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 3

Service: 4

I wish I could tell you about the food, but we waited for 2 hours after getting a table. I get it, It wasn't supposed to be that busy on a Wednesday, but come on. It took 30 min before we ordered after being seated, and then we never had a server even check in with us until we got up to leave AN HOUR AND A HALF LATER. After the first 45 min it had really died down and still no service. I'm sure this was just a bad day, stuff gets crazy, people drop the ball, and there's not much you can do about it. But have a management team, have hospitality, have something to do damage control. It wasn't until we got up from our table and went to the bar to pay for drinks that someone talked to us. Suddenly our food was ready and coming out.... really? Was it? Why wouldn't you offer it to go if it was ready? I wouldn't want to let someone leave my establishment as unhappy as I was with that experience. This whole thing leads me to believe that no one there knows how to run a restaurant

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 1

Service: 1