text: I have been wondering how long it would be until I had the chance to write a review in this sort of situation namely where the reviewers have averaged stars but where I personally found the experience to be something completely and utterly different from their experiences and worthy of a very significant deviation I have written restaurant reviews and only given out stars on two occasionsnnTime to give out nnMy party included myself my wife and our year old girl We came up from North Phoenix and arrived at Frontiertown on Saturday night at about pm After briefly walking around the town we entered the smokehouse and were politely told to seat ourselves wherever we would like I would say the restaurant was only at capacity at the time the Pourhouse side seemed much busier and rowdier Clearly this is a place usually filled with Cave Creek localsnnOur waitress I failed to get her name was a friendly young lady with shorter dark hair and a tattoo on her right shoulder I suspect that if you get her as a waitress you are going to be very pleasedshe is friendly attentive and quite knowledgeable about the restaurant and its offerings and she has an excellent tableside manner nnWe orderednnthe smokehouse platter essentially a four meat platter with two sides for two peoplenPulled Pork sandwich with onion rings for the yonOne salad bar trip for two adultsnCave Creek Smoked Porter beer in a mason jar for menA couple of glasses of house wine for the wife nnThe platter meats surpassed my expectations given previous reviews I had set my expectations pretty low but was very pleasantly surprised by the brisket pulled pork and beef ribs The only thing that seemed ordinary on the platter was the pork ribs and even they were not bad at all Portions are generous I would say this would satisfy two fairly hungry large men If I were to pick a standout it would probably be the brisket For me and the wife agreed it was perfectlighttomoderate smoky taste lovely char on the tips and NOT served swimming in sauce sauce was served on the side All four meats were especially tender and quite juicyvery well done folksinthekitchen nnMy year old really had no hope of finishing her sandwich due to the excellent portion size Her onion rings seemed freshly cut and breaded we agreed they were actually quite fantastic nnThe salad bar does seem to be a fairly consistent hit with other reviewers and I would agree It is not particularly fancy but has a very pleasing array of protein and vegetable components and I found them ALL to be fresh and tasty The dressing bins were messy due to use over the recent hours but they were not unsanitary and dressings were accordingly easily managed The soup of the day was actually extraordinary and clearly made from scratch Indeed as I was pulling a fresh bay leaf or two from my bowl of Chicken Fadelle I took the time to closely inspect the soup ingredients and structure and I was truly taken with the craft and care that went into the simple but superbly seasoned soup Again well donennThe beer list for a craft brew fan like me was somewhat limited but I found it sufficient I came for the food and if I REALLY need some craft brew I can walk a bit west to Big Earls nnService consistently excellent throughout the night As we were finishing our meal a lady emerged from the kitchen apparently to give a complimentary sundae to another patron for a birthdayyeah I could definitely believe that folks would find this place to be worthy of a birthday meal or any other special occasion for that matternnAnyhow in conclusion I have tried just about every BBQ joint in North Phoenix from Lovejoys when it existed Satisfied Frog on Bell Toms in Tempe Hammered HogNotorious PIG Thee Pitts Again Stacys and so forth For me the Smokehouse routed them all from decor to service to food to location We will be back for sure I am pleased to go against the grain on this review and vote with significant deviation from the crowd