Hardwood Smokehouse

We were on our way back home from Orlando and found this place on Unilocal.It did not disappoint. Very clean, friendly staff, and an excellent brisket sandwich. The bun was buttery and lightly toasted. The meat was juicy and tender, and they have a good variety of sauces. Sides were yummy, too. My husband and I both ate for $ 20. Worth the stop — glad we stopped there instead of spending the same amount on fast food.

delicious!!! Went here based on Unilocal reviews and I’m so glad I did-​what a great little spot. The pulled pork and hoe joes were SO good. I’ve eaten here and Sonnys BBQ, and my boyfriend and I agree that this place is definitely better. I could eat here at least once a week. It’s never that crowded and the food is consistently good

Best smoked meats I’ve ever had, and A+ service from this owner operated restaurant. Will definitely come back every time I come to Ocala.

This is my first visit! You walk in and order at the counter, so if is your first time, read fast.. people are waiting. The staff was friendly and attentive. I ordered the beef brisket dinner, included 2 sides and bread. The beef was a good portion, chopped, tender, but had too many chunks of fat! The coleslaw was very fresh, had a piece of apple in it. The baked sweet potato was cooked perfectly. The cornbread was a corn pancake, not a lot of flavor, but ok. The sauces were hot-​no, mustard– no, Railene’s-tried it– meh! Sweet– truly not much flavor and thin.
This is a strip mall setting, but nice décor. Nice smoke smell when I walked in.
Given that sauce is a big part of bbq, while the staff was noce, it was clean, sides were good… I would not go back because the sauces did not impress me!

The best BBQ in town. The ribs were so tasty & tender, & the brisket was amazing. Everything was delicious & the service was excellent. Their restrooms were very clean & there was an amazing BBQ smell even in there. Will go back fist chance we get.

We went here for New Year’s Eve. Good food and plenty of it, good service and a very reasonable price. We will be back.

Two words, hoe cakes. –Chris Harlan
This place is amazing. BBQ is on point, would definitely recommend for anyone looking for a local BBQ place in Ocala. DONT GOTO SONNYS. Go here, k, thank you.

Delicious burger cooked to a perfect medium rare. Coleslaw tasted strange but the corn nuggets were great.

Had the brisket dinner and was excellent! The baked beans are full of different types of beans and tasty. The corn-​bread cake was unique and enjoyed it as well. Customer service was excellent! Will definitely return!

The pulled pork and ribs were right on the mark. The corn bread was a pleasant suprise as well. The other sides were not so great. The mac and cheese and green beans were not good (definitely not homemade).

This is good BBQ! The meat is tender and tasty. The sauces are good and they have 4 varieties to try. The prices are reasonable and the décor is nice. The ribs are fall off the bone delicious – we ordered the St. Louis style. We haven’t tried dessert here but they do offer it. It is definitely worth a try if you can branch out and try new places for BBQ.

They have really gone downhill last 3 times I went I had cold food served to me (each time) I haven’t been back since … there are plenty of new options on the sw side of town I suggest that you give them a try

Enjoyed this place! here with 5 family members plus me about two weeks ago.
Quick service and not a long wait at all for the food. Beers if you like but we all had iced tea.
Very nice cole slaw with apple slices in it. A nice twist. the group of us enjoyed hoe cake,
ribs, pulled pork, smoked turkey, baked beans, mac and cheese and green beans.
The only item that was average was the mac and cheese. everything else was top notch.
Go and enjoy! they had no problem handing our group.

Stopped in on a Saturday afternoon… was dead as a door nail but the food was ready and so were we! Brisket was tender, juicy and flavored perfectly, as was the pulled pork. St Loui-​style ribs were awesome and the best meat we sampled by far. Chicken was just ok – wouldn’t go out of my way eat it but it was fine. Cornbread pancake was good and a creative touch. Okra was okra. Green beans were really good, just a little kick to keep things interesting. All the sauces were good: spicy wasn’t that spicy but mustard based one had more than enough mustard and was just ok.
Really good Florida BBQ. ‘Nuff said.

Just left there a few minutes ago. My family loves BBQ and on our way back home my son said he wanted BBQ. So I went online and found this establishment.
It was clean inside and the staff was very helpful and nice. I got the Redneck Taco with Green Beans and Mac and Cheese which was awesome. My son got the baby back ribs and he said they were «epic». We loved the sauce «Railyn’s Red Mild» so much that we had to buy it and take it home to use when we cookout and very impressed that it only cost $ 5. My husband got a burger and he said it was very good.
My son requests that when we are in Ocala that this becomes our «go-​to».

Great BBQ, great people!
Stopped in just before closing to try out some BBQ while in Florida. They were more than willing to accommodate me even though I was coming in just before closing. I tried the Devyn’s Sampler — which was great. I got the Mac’n’Cheese side which was like home, and the slaw was very good (sweet style).
I’d head back again if I make it back to Ocala again.

This place was really good for barbecue and atmosphere. It’s really beautiful inside, the wood they smoke their meat with is stacked right there where you walk in and you can smell it once you step inside. It looks really clean and the staff is super attentive and nice.
I ordered the Royal burger with the sausage and egg on it. It was awesome. The bun was a bit dry but it was really really good. The burgers are half pound and I didn’t finish mine. Got to taste the brisket too and it was really great. Not dry at all. The Mac n cheese on the other hand was. I’ll definitely order the baked beans instead because those were the best part of the whole meal. You can see the meat in them and it had a small kick to it. Super good. Will come back when passing through again.

Pretty bad ribs and chicken — good cole slaw. Hoe cake was almost good.
Ribs and chicken had an off –taste like if you used a tire instead of hickory to smoke the meat. Ribs were tender but needed a ton of sauce to make them edible.
The cole slaw was sweet, had thin slices of Apple and was wonderful.
The baked beans were too sweet, tomato-​y runny mess.yuck.
The hoe cake was good but had the taste of everything that had been fixed on the grill. No butter to be found. My mom makes them a lot better.
Overall a great big disappointment.

I really, really wanted to find that this BBQ joint was as good as all the Unilocal reviews, but came away disappointed at lunch today.
I had the half-​rack St. Louis ribs with baked sweet potato, baked beans and corn pancake. My date had the pulled pork sandwich with fries. The 6 ribs looked pretty good, but had such a soft texture (maybe way too much tenderizer in the prep?) that I wondered if these were not ribs, but Spam. I think good ‘cue has to be chewed off the bone and then has to be chewed (it’s meat, right?). I was hoping to get a good scent of smoke, but that didn’t come through at all – how does that not happen with 12 hours of smoking?
I liked the sweet potato (but was put off by the cinnamon margarine that was on the side), thought the beans should be thicker and more flavorful, while the corn cake was more like a pancake made with some cornmeal (blah). If you’ve had a real corn cake made with whole-​kernel corn and onions, you’d be as disappointed as I was that it wasn’t a little piece of heaven. My date liked her meal
Okay, so maybe the problem was that it was lunch and the good cook wasn’t working? I’ll give it another shot at dinner and hope for the best. Great ‘cue is possible and Ocala needs some!

First impressions make all the difference.
Unfortunately when you first enter, you see the cashier w/​a blank wall in back of her. No photos, no menu board at all. You must take a take out menu and stand there reading the extensive list while you’re standing at the front door. Maybe if there were less items you wouldn’t have to stand there so long.
It’s a semi self serve so once you pay and fill your beverage you take a seat and someone will bring your food out to you. Except for condiments, the table are void of anything… no tents or utensils. It was a bit uncomfortable to look around and see employees sitting at many of the other tables conversing or eating.
As w/​all the other BBQ joints, you have your choice of sweet, mild or hot sauce. Be fore warned that the sweet is not a southern sweet but rather a Carolina sweet. It’ll leave a vinegary after bite. The food was good but nothing any different from any other bar b cue restaurant. In fact, the pork sandwich was okay but the brisket was partially raw. The prices were just a wee bit high compared to others.
A plus is that the employees knew their menu items pretty well.
Current health inspection: 0-​high priority, 1-​intermidate & 0-​basic violations.