Today we paid a visit to Smoked Kitchen and Tap in Crozet, VA. They’re not too far off of I-64 just west of Charlottesville or come in from the Blue Ridge Parkway and head east. We took a very scenic route and stayed off the Interstate. GPS lead us right there. Granted it took us a lot longer than if we had used I-95 and I-64 but that’s what we enjoy doing. This just turned into a nice Saturday drive. They are located on Library Ave. just off the main road in town.

The Restaurant and Staff:

The restaurant is located on a corner lot and on the ground floor of a three story building. It looks pretty cool from the outside and has a fair number of tables for you to enjoy outside dining as well.

Inside the dining room was kind of dark and a little loud for my taste. I don’t know how busy they had been, but once inside we noticed the dining room needed some cleaning. Looking through the doorway into the kitchen you could also see it needed attention as well. It looked as if they may have had a very busy lunch rush and didn’t have enough employees to keep up. I can’t really say.

We were greeted by a very friendly host and he sat us at a table where we had a perfect view of everything inside. Our waitress, Casey, was nice too but not attentive enough. She was slow getting to us to start with, for which she did apologize. She said she got carried away talking to someone at the bar. Unfortunately she didn’t check on us very often and she didn’t ask if we wanted dessert. She did offer us a refill to go which was nice but would have been better when I was trying to make my drink outlast my meal.

So let’s move on to our food selections.

Tammy’s Choices at Smoked Kitchen and Tap:

Tammy chose the Pick 2 Combo with Sliced Brisket and Smoked Turkey Breast. For sides she went with Slaw and Mac & Cheese. The mac & cheese was good, just not the best we’ve eaten. It didn’t really seem like it was homemade. The slaw was very good. Smoked Kitchen and Tap makes their slaw different from other places and it turned out really good. It also wasn’t as juicy as many other places which was good.

The Smoked Turkey was excellent. It had a really good smoke flavor and turned out nice and moist. The brisket was even better. Great smoke flavor, nice smoke ring and burnt edges too. All that adds up to some really good brisket.

The meals also come with corn bread which was pretty good too. It tasted like there was yellow cake mix added in it or something which made it different. However they make it works very well.

And My Choices at Smoked Kitchen and Tap:

I went with what else? The Pick 3 Combo with Pulled Pork, Smoked Jalapeno Cheddar Sausage and Ribs. For sides I went with Baked Beans & Sausage and Cheesy Bacon Potatoes. The beans were ok but not my favorite. They were just kind of plain to me. The cheesy bacon potatoes on the other hand were fantastic. How can you go wrong with those three ingredients? The potatoes were like shredded hash browns baked and cheesy. They were also crunchy around the outside. I loved them.

The sausage was pretty good, not too spicy. It was even better with their SC Mustard Sauce. They cooked the sausage to be nice and crisp on the outside also which is a nice touch. The ribs were excellent though I would prefer less sauce on them. But the sauce didn’t drown out the flavor. They were smoked really well and very tender. The pork was fantastic also. It had a really good smoke flavor, a nice smoke ring and some bark mixed in. The pork came across very good with or without sauce on it. I did use the pork to test the sauces too.

Sauces:

We did try a few of the homemade sauces at Smoked Kitchen and Tap. I used the SC Mustard Sauce with my sausage and it worked really well with it. The sauce had a slight hint of sweet to it. Next I tried the Carolina Firewater. It is a slightly hot Carolina Sauce, not too hot though. I went for the Spicy Red Sauce next. It is a thick red sauce with pepper, but still not too hot.

Lastly Tammy tried the Sweet VA Blackberry Sauce. She said it was awesome and different.

A Couple of Let Downs:

I did have a couple of let downs here at Smoked Kitchen and Tap. First I was disappointed in the lack of cleanliness. I know they had some customers that left a very large mess behind and in fairness to the staff a young man started cleaning that area as soon as they left. So yes, the customers are the ones making the mess in the dining room. The staff has to keep up with it.

But the staff gets the kitchen dirty and should never allow it to be seen from the dining room. Perhaps a swinging door there with a window would be a good touch. That way the employees can see each other coming through but no one can see the floor.

My other let down was that Casey gave my business cards to both the General Manager and one of the Owners. She told them we were there and would be writing a review on the restaurant. Neither of them bothered to come out to speak with us. I could understand them not coming out if they were really busy but there was not a crowd there when we left. This just wasn’t what I had expected from reading some of the reviews about them.

Final Thoughts:

So to wrap this all up I need to say that all of the smoked meats at Smoked Kitchen and Tap were excellent. A couple of the sides were outstanding and a couple were average. They do have other sides that I’d like to try. That’s why this is so difficult to write. Based solely on the food it would be simple, get there and try some. But a restaurant brings more responsibility than just serving good food. You have to consider the service, the cleanliness, and even the willingness to speak with a critic or reporter.

I will say that I had high expectations here. One of my readers recommended them to me. So we made the three hour ride to check them out. The long ride itself adds to the disappointment when managers or owners don’t want to even meet you.

Maybe they were having a bad day. We all have them I know. They had a couple of large groups but also had plenty of staff on hand. One large family trashed a corner of the dining room, the other family was very neat with their kids and picked up after themselves. I’ll just leave it at that. If passing near Crozet I might would try them again. Like I said the food was killer. Maybe some others will chime in and help us out here.

Now For Your Thoughts:

Well tell us about it. Have you been to Smoked Kitchen and Tap? How did your visit go? I will not try to lead you with questions, just drop some comments off and I’ll post them with this article for everyone to read.

What do you regulars think?

Certainly there is a good base of regulars. In a small town you have to have local support for a restaurant. So maybe some of them can help me out here. What makes Smoked Kitchen and Tap special to you? Why do you keep going back? What’s your favorites? Fill us in and help me out with the rest of this story. Get your comments in and I’ll post them as soon as possible.

I look forward to hearing from you.

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You can check out their website at: https://smokedkt.com/

You can also find them on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/smokedkitchenandtap/

 

Enjoy the ride, good eating and thanks for stopping by.