Smokehouse 21

Absolute shit service, in fact disrespectful service. I was so unimpressed I emailed the owner and about the issue. No email back. Will never step foot in this place again.

Wait staff was friendly. The Mac and cheese tasted foul the three of us could only manage a bite. The brisket which in my opinion is a sign of a true bbq restaurant was unbelievably dry. I should not have to douse a brisket in bbq sauce plain and simple. The cornbread was grainy and very burnt and I could not taste the bacon which is sad, I love bacon.

Amazing and unique bbq. Too amazing to group in with other bbq places. Every dish is a meal. Great cocktails too. I give this one special kudos for being a destination restaurant.
I would make a trip to Portland just to come here.
You have to be here so it would be absurd for me to try to describe the amazing food although I will say it is some of the best smokehouse barbecue I had. The greens are the best I’ve had and the mac & cheese insane.
Super cool very down-​to-​earth absolute joy.

Read on thrillest about their mac and cheese and it didn’t disappoint. Waiter was super friendly as well.

My quest for the best barbecue in Portland led me to Smokehouse 21. I’m a big fan of the neighborhood, Portland’s Alphabet district and got distracted and delayed by the many alfresco dining opportunities and cocktail bars in the area. Stay focused, we’re here for barbecue. Next time though, I have got to find to find some lodging nearby.
But I digress. Barbecue. That means smoked brisket and pork ribs to me, beef ribs if I’m lucky. You’ll usually find some pulled pork and a sausage at most barbecue joints and it’s often pretty standard stuff. The menu at Smokehouse 21 was interesting, offering pork cheeks and burnt ends. Sadly, they were out of the burnt ends this time, but I’ll try again.
The deviled egg with a hunk of smoked sausage is a fine way to start, and goes well with a cold IPA. Pork cheeks were a new addition to my barbecue experience. I’ve had them braised, and served over pasta or polenta, but never smoked for barbecue as in this preparation. These oval, golf ball sized orbs of barbecued pig face picked up a lot of smoke and flavor in the cooking process, but also lost a bit of moisture, becoming slightly dry. The quality of the meat was great, very tender, properly seasoned and smoked, but it’s also a pretty small cut, so can lose some moisture during long slow cooking.
Pork ribs were a treat. These particular specimens were extra thick and juicy, with a rich smoky flavor. Again the quality of the meat was excellent as these had a good amount of marbling which kept them juicy and flavorful. Delicious. Brisket, sad to say was a little dried out. It was very tender and smoky, from long slow smoking, but like the cheeks it lost a lot of moisture between cooking and serving. I’m not one for sauce, preferring the meat to stand alone. Maybe the sauce would help, but it shouldn’t have to.
One thing they do at Smokehouse 21 is serve the meats with a sprinkling of finishing salt. I’m accustomed to seasoning in the rub, or adding salt and pepper before the meat is smoked, but not for finishing. It does add some flavor and interest, along with a toothsome crunch in that first bite or two, but after a few bites I had to brush it all off because it got to be just too salty, and took away from the flavor of the meat. With the brisket being a little on the dry side, the finishing salt didn’t help.
A side of mac and cheese, blue cheese that is, was outstanding and the collard greens were delicious. Served in large pieces these greens have been slow cooked in a sweet vinegary pot liquor with some shredded pork achieving a tender smoky flavor. You’ll eat these veggies.
Service was good, friendly and attentive. This is a small space, but there are a few tables outside. Cool vibe, good food, great neighborhood, Smokehouse 21 is definitely worth checking out. Hope they have some burnt ends for me next time.

Delish! Meat was way more tender than others have reported. I was craving ribs and this hit the spot. I tried the combo option which comes with choice of 3 meats and 2 sides. I had double ribs, burnt ends, mac and greens. If you want burnt ends (which are amaaaaazing) but don’t like heat make sure you request them to not sprinkle them with red pepper flake. I loved it but it was warm! Woo!
The Strawberry-​pepper tequila cocktail was a little meh. The service was fantastic. I’ll be back to try the Happy Hour sometime.
Cons: no beer on draught

The first time my wife and I came here, the food, drinks, and service were outstanding. The BBQ was succulent and tender, the sides were delicious, and we had thought we finally found a BBQ place that we could frequent.
The second time, the drinks and service was still outstanding. But all of the food was over-​salted. I have a salty tooth, I absolutely love salty food but even for me, this was too much. We had to stop eating halfway through.
It seems this place has a hit and miss and other folks are victims of oversalting as well. I’ll come back but I would be wary. If it’s oversalted, send it back and get them to remove the food off the tickets. It just indicates of a lack of consistency in the kitchen.

First time and completely open.
The brisket and pork were not as interesting as we were hoping for but the burnt ends were like delicious smoked treats, and they were the highlight of our meal. The zip in spice and caramelization of the meat were the right combination.
The sides-​the greens didn’t have the flavor that I’m accustomed to growing up in VA but decent.
We will return and double down on the burnt ends.

This is a 3.5 star review, but not 4 stars. Smokehouse does some things really well, and other stuff could use some work. We had Smokehouse on a Sunday night. To share, my family ordered: brisket, ribs, a pulled pork sandwich, beans, mac n cheese, and the molasses corn bread. We had to get it to go, so I can’t comment on the dining in experience.
The brisket looked burnt, but it was surprisingly tender. I think maybe they finish it on a grill or douse it in sauce that gives it a darker appearance than typical, because it looked much darker than typical. Either way, it was good, and had a nice bark to it. Plus, they left some of the fat on the meat, which I prefer.
The ribs were a Jekyll and Hyde situation. The ribs which were cooked really well were very tender, had a nice pull from the bone, weren’t burned, yet had a slight crunch to them from the liberal application of the dry rub. However, not every rib we received was like this. We had some, at least a third of our order, which were much drier, or nearly burnt on the outside. Additionally, the rub didn’t appear to be applied evenly, which meant some spots were too salty and others didn’t have enough flavor. But, when the ribs were a hit, they were certainly a hit.
I had a couple of bites of the pulled pork sandwich and really liked it. The brioche bun had a slight sweetness to it and stood up well to the sandwich. The pork was juicy and had a slight smokiness to them. I liked the pickled onions and could have used more on the sandwich. They also provided a crunch in an otherwise soft sandwich.
The beans were a miss, and I think a case of adding too many ingredients to one dish. The beans also include: brown sugar (fine), molasses (great), meat «bits» (very commonly used), and cornbread crumbs (why?). I think the cornbread was supposed to provide a crispy topping, like you see on a good mac n cheese. But, it ended up sinking into the beans, making a mushy mess that wasn’t discernible as a side dish of beans. There was way too many non-​bean items in the side dish of beans.
The mac n cheese, on the other hand, was very good. It had the crunchy, cheesy top that you (or, at least I) want in a mac n cheese. It was very cheesy but also seasoned well. The macaroni had a bite to it, and it wasn’t a clumpy mess. Absolutely would order this dish again.
Which brings us to the bacon molasses cornbread. This was basically a dessert with a couple of large chunks of bacon in it. I’m not saying I didn’t like it, it had a great molasses flavor and bacon with anything sweet is usually good. But, it was too sweet. It was certainly unique, I’ll give Smokehouse that.
I would give Smokehouse another shot, but there are certainly some items I wouldn’t care to order again.

My wife and I share a combo plate that include 3 kind of meat and 2 sides, the pork ribs are very delicious. The services and environment are five stars.

Probably the worst barbecue I’ve ever had. We were very hungry last night and felt like using delivery and saw this place. There were a nice set of options so we went for it. We tried nearly every bbq item they have and were severely disappointed.
Every item, from the Mac n cheese to the ribs to the sausage, all of it was so overly salty that it was barely edible. The brisket, one of my fav dishes, was more like jerky and the chicken was so over smoked, you couldn’t taste anything else. The pulled pork was bland and dry and the ribs had not much to them but salt. All in all a sad excuse for bbq and we will never eat this again.

I haven’t been to this location in awhile… normally I go to the newer one across the bridge. My friend and I wanted to do a quick snack so we just ordered the sampler platter with a side of the hot links (last week). The mac and cheese and pickled veggies were delicious, however the brisket was super dry. Maybe it was just a bad day?

First time stop in. We split a combo platter. Pork cheek, brisket and smoked trout with sides of greens and mac n cheese. The smoked trout was amazing! The bbq pork cheek was awesome. The brisket was good but a bit salty.
While the greens were nice and tender, a great flavor, but a bit sweet. The mac n cheese was good.
All in all, great bbq. I’d be glad to stop in again any time.

Nice small cozy place. As I walked in, a gentlemen with a big brisket was walking by and about to put it in the smoker. This made me realize that this place is legit, but I was wrong. The brisket I had was an a la carte, and it was drier than the Sahara. Not only was it dry, but It was not tender. I had to bite into it and use some force to pull on it to get a piece. A «pull test» on this brisket would’ve been horrendous. On the bright side, I think the brisket would make a great tow rope; at 5 $ per ¼ pound, that’s not bad for a tow rope.
They probably don’t use a legit smoker.
Coleslaw was excellent though, but let’s face it; it’s coleslaw – very hard to screw up.
I’ll still have to go back, and give them a 2^nd chance.
PIckled okra: way too over bearing with bitterness and vineger; take it down a notch.

Get here early or don’t come at all. We came for dinner on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. and they were already out of both types of brisket and the pulled pork (the items my husband and I were most eager to try). We heard the server tell another table that they got hit hard around Christmas and were waiting on a delivery to come in. However, they’ve been open for several years now, so I can’t understand why they didn’t foresee a busy holiday season. In addition to that, I wish they would have had some sort of notification on the menu alerting patrons to the items they were out of. We had already looked at the menu for 5 minutes and made up our minds about what we wanted, when the server had to come and shatter our BBQ dreams.
My husband ordered the hot links and said they were tasty and tender. I opted to order sides instead of a full meal because I didn’t want to spend the extra money on meat I didn’t really want. I had the vegetable of the day (brussels sprouts) which were great, the macaroni and cheese which was pretty good and the baked beans which were a huge disappointment. Life hack: if you find the beans as meh as I did, add some of the mustard BBQ sauce to zest them up a bit. I ordered a gin and tonic to drink and the tonic water was almost completely flat.
The service was pretty slow considering how many tables are in this tiny place. Our server was friendly enough, though she didn’t write down my order for the vegetable of the day (which my husband heard me order), so I had to wait another 10 minutes for that dish to be made.
I’ll give it another try if I’m hungry and in the neighborhood again.

Giving this place a 5 out of 5 stars for its service right away. I came in almost 5 minutes before it was closing on an extremely rainy day and was soaking wet, but not only did the people not give me attitude, they let me grab some food to go, offered me some water while I waited, and one worker even talked to me a bit while they were cleaning up.
That being said, the food was also delicious! I don’t remember what I ordered exactly, but it was hilarious that the workers apparently guessed almost to the letter exactly what I would order. I guess they have a few very popular items and that’s what new guests always start with.
Again, a ⁵⁄₅ BBQ place in an area you really wouldn’t expect to find a BBQ restaurant haha. I’d definitely recommend grabbing some dinner here before heading out for the night to explore the bars up and down this street.

YES YES YES! I want to live inside this place just to smell the smells of smoked meats. So yummy.
Ever since there was a Unilocal event here awhile back, I’ve been wanting to try this place. I finally got around to it! Here’s what my BF and I ordered:
–Pulled Pork Sandwich
–Hot Link Sandwich
–Mac & Cheese
–Brussel Sprouts (YOU WANT THIS)
–Molasses, Bacon corn muffin
–Old Fashioned (Smoked bitters?! YES!) & Beer to drink
Everything was mouthwateringly delicious. I would go back and order the combo plate to share. You get 3 meats and 2 sides for around $ 23. The people behind us ordered it and we kept eyeing them. The side of beans looked really good so I’d like to try that, too. And the Happy Hour looks fantastic!
One final note: YOU GUISE. The BBQ sauce they make is ridiculously good. Just the normal BBQ sauce. I liked the mustard and hot one, too. But dude… I could swim in a vat of that sauce. And you can purchase it by itself to take home, too!
If you’re a BBQ fan, you need to check this place out for sure.

I brought a friend here for dinner who was visiting from out of town given that it had been bookmarked for a while, is walking distance from my place, and we both love meat! What a cute little concept and place. It’s diner style, which I loved. It feels like somewhere Kevin Spacey’s character on House of Cards would eat (i.e., the ribs place that he goes). This whiskey girl loved the signature drink, which was a signature old fashioned with BBQ bitters. How good does that sound? The sides stole the show — mac & cheese, braised greens and pickled veggies. I got the pulled pork, which was also delicious. Definitely come here to satisfy a BBQ craving and have some delicious drinks without the frills!

This is a small little restaurant with a matching small door. Keep your eyes open or you will miss it!
My brother and I were staying in Portland and struggling to find a restaurant to eat but we are glad we found this place.
We ordered the BBQ combo and sausage sandwich. The beef brisket and spare ribs were super bomb. Nice and juicy. This place does a rub roast and you can add the bbq sauce afterwards. The BBQ sauce they have on deck is delicious. They have the traditional bbq, sweet and spicy. I am a fan of the sweet.
The sides that were served with the BBQ was pretty good as well. I devoured the cole slaw almost immediately. The cole slaw didnt taste like it was mayo based. But bomb nonetheless.
Overall: Will return when in the area.

Rarely do I feel compelled to write a review before I’ve even left the restaurant, but this was SO GOOD I can’t stand to wait another moment.
I had the steelhead with greens and the special 2 beet salad, washed down with a Tieton Cider Works Rambling Route. Every bite was amazing and it was 100% exactly what I needed after mediocre food out of town on a recent trip.
Happy to hear the menu is very GF friendly (meat and veggies!) and I am very excited to come back and try everything else they have to offer as soon as humanly possible.
Server was also kind and professional. The music is a little weird, some kind of old Cali surfer vibe, but I can dig it. Pretty calm on a weekday during lunch time.