Sierra Grill Smokehouse

I’m a bit of a BBQ-​snob, admittedly. I make great ribs, and back in the Bay Area there are lots of great BBQ joints. We’re new to the area and tried this place recently. Had some brisket, ribs and chicken. Although the food wasn’t bad, it just did not taste BBQ’d, or seasoned at all. The only flavor was in the sauce. Not sure if it was an off-​night.

The only things that I like here is their ranch, french fries, and cherry coke (they put cherries in it!). They also make a killer 5+ layer chocolate cake, but it has to be made by the right person, on the right day. Otherwise, I don’t like 75% their food, but service is good for the most part.

Great portions so much more than the new barbecue place in town and that place doesn’t even have a smoker. Good portions, good cocktails, Nice atmosphere. They might consider cleaning the bathroom a little better but like the place. One of the best places for barbecue in Auburn.

This place is in a nice location if you’re just traveling through town but I wouldn’t recommend it. It took me and my boyfriend atleast 10 minutes to get menus and drinks, then the waiter forgot my boyfriends beer which took another 10 minutes. Our food was pretty good but it took about 30 minutes for it to come out. Our waiter was super forgetful and easily distracted. Probably won’t be coming back.

They’re definitely a meat house but they do have salad and it’s your typical restaurant food with the specialty of smoking Meats

We went to Sierra Grill (on 49 by Les Schwab) yesterday and had an awesome meal. Hubby had BBQ ribs& brisket, and I had a loaded potato with Brisket and kids had burgers…$ 50 for all 4 of us and took home ½ of each meal for leftovers today! Great service and family owned!

Good prices. Decent portion sizes. Seated quickly. Took a while for the waitress to take our order. The food was OK. I’m not sure how they would win a Best of the Best award.

I see that a few reviews are less than positive. I am all about the food, flavors and consistency with the theme of food and service. For starters, our service was perfect friendly and engaging. This is a grill and smoke food establishment. The Caveman steak sandwich is excellent and I would gladly recommend to anyone who likes tender BBQ flavored hearty sandwich. I had three onion rings that were crunchy and nicely cooked.
Fish and Chips plate another home run.
Perfect place for relaxed and rustic appeal. I was visually impressed by the hoarse wagon mounted above me in the dining area…
Great place, easy 5 stars from this patron!

Food is great but our server was very rude and did not pay attention to us. Her name is Natasha. We tried to flag her down for waters and only until after finishing our lunch, when she brought our bill, could we ask her.

We had been seated in under 5 minutes after walking into the restaurant. Once we had been seated, we had waited and our waiter came and brought us waters, told us the specials and walk away. We had waited about ten minutes until he came back for our drink orders and by that time, we had been ready to order out food. After ordering, I watched the bartender blend a drink, pour it, put whip cream on it and then lick her fingers (to get the whip I’m assuming). She then proceeded to grab cherries and stick them into the drink. Absolutely disgusting. Once our salads arrived, I dug through mine and found that half of it was old, warm and brown. Their wine glass that they brought out had lip prints on the glass which I had caught luckily before they drank it. I had ordered a Medium Rare steak, however I received a Well Done steak and had to choke it down.
I am so disappointed in the service and the food here tonight. We usually love to come here, but after tonight I’m not sure if we will return.

We come here a lot. Always Sunday morning for breakfast. Even when it’s really busy we’ve always had good service. Today is my birthday, thought we’d come here for dinner. We sat at a table for 15 minutes. It wasn’t too busy but in all that time no one even acknowledged us. We went up to the hostess and explained we were leaving because we didn’t want to wait any longer. Someone, anyone could have come by and said «someone would be right with you». We’ll be back for breakfast on Sunday, where we are always helped in a timely manner. Even when they’re slammed, but won’t waste our time trying to get dinner. Especially on my birthday.

Why don’t they get it. Until A large chain comes in like Lucilles. There going to get our business we have no options. Went for breakfast today worst ever had steak and eggs thinking maybe they can get it close to right horrible even the waitress mentioned the cooks where hungover. One star for the location

Since I’m new to Unilocal,I feel like I deserve to rate places that I’ve been to within the past few months. Sierra Grill Smokehouse is a subpar eatery. The sad thing about it was that the chicken I ordered did not even taste like it was smoked or barbecued. It tasted like baked chicken with BBQ sauce on it. So disappointed Nice establishment but not so good food.

Unilocal needs NEGATIVE STARS!



1) Waitress set a HOT plate with fresh out of the fryer french fries in front of my 3 year old toddler telling him it was hot! INEXCUSABLE! Nothing says I don’t care like trying to BURN a toddler.
2) BLAND mushroom burger, no seasoning at all to the meat or bun or mushrooms. Not even the Swiss cheese had much flavor, just a pathetic overcooked burger done better anywhere else in town. When it’s all grey, the meat is either overcooked to hide it’s bad meat or a cook who could care less about the quality of product being served. The waitress asked my husband the temperature he wanted the burger and he ordered it medium. No pink was found beyond the tomato slice. My husband asked if the mushroom burger had a beef patty or was it just a portabella cap (every place is different and the last mushroom burger he ordered in California was just the portebella cap, no meat so he was just asking since the menu offers no description) and she was utterly annoyed with him.
3) Charging $ 2.59 for a 6 ounce cup milk. I knew it was going to be a bad idea to stay and eat when the waitress tossed 3 menus in the middle of the table and asked if we wanted anything to drink. Um, gee, Mind if I crack the menu to answer that or how about a little effort like «hi, I’m soinso and I’ll be your waitress, may I start you off with lemonade or iced tea or perhaps something from our full service bar? We all so feature Coke products.» I actually had to ask her what all they offered since the menu says softdrinks. I wondered if she was just new but nope, she was greeting the repeat customers by name and joking around with them.
4) A waitress who does nothing more than the bare minimum seems to be all they hire. I asked how the pulled pork on the children’s slider was prepared and she answered smoked. Gee, that’s helpful to know at a smokehouse, but I went on to ask if the smoked pulled pork was spice rubbed or served smothered in a bbq sauce and if so is it sweet or spiced as in hot since it’s for my 3 year old. Nothing says I don’t want a tip than no salesmenship. No descriptions in the menu and no description offered by the waitress when asked, nothing at all, just smoked. … and he hated it, refused to eat it or the fries. He eats pulled pork at Dickey’s and at Dobson’s bbq without any issues. I had the same pulled pork on my fully loaded baked potato and it’s not good AT ALL. No taste beyond the one note of over sweetened sauce and overly burnt bits of the pork, no smoke, no spices.
5) The $ 9.99 Loaded baked potato is a huge let down as it was not a soft baked potato meaning it needed more time baking and the bottom was burnt. The overly salted top skin wasn’t crisp or enjoyable. A baked potato is fork tender and does NOT require a steak knife, not that my issued dull no teeth bladed knife should be called such — useless. Apparently not here since its standard issue nonsense. This should be priced below $ 5 as is. GROSS!
AND 6) Security cameras pointed at a wall (yes, it is pointed at a wall just 5 inches away) and not at the wine case or the entry door to the back parkinglot or even at the ROOM. Just another example of how things are done here at the Sierra Grill Smokehouse. The waitstaff didn’t care about it when it was mentioned to both of them. Disgraceful.

Renee is a great server. This sampler plate for 22 $ is more then enough for two people to share. Yummy yummy. Would come back. Similar to Cattleman’s décor with better prices. Auburn and Colfax is my home town turf and our server is COlfax High School alumni.

It’s a step above dennys. For being a smoke house the pork ribs were mediocre. Went there for lunch with my girlfriend and she got an on letter that was bland and the cheese wasn’t even melted all the way through. Service was ok other than when they forgot to refill my water and bring condiments to the table.
For a $ 20 lunch it’s better than dennys but that’s about it.

Unilocal says, «Two and a Half!» I say, «Three and a Half!» I was quite skeptical due to the low ratings. Although the ratings are low, my Unilocal friends had above average ratings, that’s always a good sign!
Fact of the matter is, you tend to trust and follow the reviews of Unilocal friends and majority of the time, they’re right. This was one of those times! I was a bit skeptical due to the low ratings, but I’m glad I trusted my fellow Unilocal friends.
We sat at a table in the bar. We were greeted and served immediately by Renee, friendly bartender. We ordered a brisket lunch and St Louis ribs lunch. Both lunches came with a side and corn bread. I ordered Mac n’cheese with my brisket and hubs got the garlic mashed potatoes with his ribs.
The food came out quickly and I will say that the brisket was, On Point! Tender slices with little fat, just the way I like it. St Louis ribs, were better than the baby backs we order at the big chain BBQ places! The sauce was sweet and tangy, delish! The meat dishes were really good, but the sides needed some work. Mac n’Cheese and the garlic mashed potatoes were pretty much average, and so was the cornbread.
Service could have been better, with Renee being both bartender and server, it was difficult to ask her for sauce, certain utensils (challenging to cut brisket w/​butter knife), and water. She had quite a number of patrons, so we didn’t want to bother. That was our own fault for not getting her attention. Although she was busy, she was quite friendly. Would be nice if they had someone helping her, since she was both behind the bar and waiting tables in the bar.
Overall, we’ll definitely come back if we’re in the area. After all, how many places do you know of offers HH seven days a week, from 2 – 6?! We didn’t partake in it this time, but we’ll definitely keep this place in mind!

The Smokehouse is so much better than their other Auburn location. The food, service, full bar, juke box, etc. all have the other place beat. If you want better service, sit in the regular restaurant part, not the bar area.
I liked my pulled pork and mac n’ cheese, and my brothers go nuts for their giant salads with your choice of meat on top.
The people who run the place are super nice and the food never disappoints. There’s arcade games, a pool table, and the aforementioned juke box to keep you busy, and their bar selection is large and accomodating. Try the Angry Balls!

Stopped in here for lunch after a work meeting with the team the other day. Overall very good food. The BBQ is above average but not quite up to par with some of the more professional smokehouses, but they give you pretty good size portions. Come hungry!
The staff was very friendly and attentive, given they were not incredibly busy at 2pm when we were there. They did allow us to still order the lunch menu, which technically stops at 2.
The time to get our food was average, probably took a little longer than I would have expected. The décor is a little dated but clean.
Overall I will be back for another visit and try some of their other BBQ options.

Stopped in for lunch, I had been here a while back when they first opened and literally got in an out after eating in 30 minutes; I was pressed for time and ran over here for a bite to eat with friends; the service crowds has picked up A LOT since my last visit. I could tell when I pulled up that the parking lot was practically full right at noon on a payday Friday… the parking lot is a lot bigger than it looks, so I found a spot in the back.
We were seated quickly and had our orders taken timely. But then we sat and sat…30 minutes later we got our orders. The holdup may have been from the lunch crowd… I had to have my order bagged to go and let the waitress know and she was speedy in her return with my box and a side of ranch.
My friends stayed to enjoy their meal, and everything that they ordered looked really yummy! My son had ordered a hamburger off the kids menu and it was HUGE! It looked like an adult size and only cost a little more than $ 5 served with fries.
I had a veggie burger plus jalapeños…another Unilocaler had photographed theirs and the visual was stuck in my head I just had to try it. I’m not a vegetarian, and I WAS at a BBQ place… so maybe that’s the problem, but the burger was presented well, it too was large in portion and smelled fantastic! But the flavor was lacking, it actually didn’t really taste like anything… the burger itself was super mushy, they add mushrooms and those are mushy (typical) even the added jalapenos were mushy… the burger comes with «Swiss cheese» just so you know… this is the kind of Swiss cheese that resembles processed fake Kraft cheese squares… it virtually has no flavor and is just a melted blob of mush… NOT what I thought…
To their defense I didn’t get to ask my friends how their meals turned out, but they did look yummy… the service was slow, not overly friendly but nice. The beer battered fries were spot on! I have had their Cesar salad with chicken in the past and that has been excellent… but overall… meh…Think I’ll give it another shot and order something else next time.