5983 S. Transit Road, Lockport, NY
Web: One Eyed Jack's Smokehouse Grill and Restaurant
Phone: 716.438.5414
Rating:
[learn more]Pros:
A local smokehouse with an affordable menu of barbecued and smoked dishes, a handful of good desserts, and nice tableside barbecue sauces.
Cons:
Desserts aside, food quality is only occasionally above decent, with some of the signature dishes - notably including the pulled pork - falling into 'bad' territory. The "do it yourself" approach to saucing certain items makes a poor and only semi-correctable first impression.
See More Restaurant Reviews For:
Barbecue Lockport Ribs
"Even by our lowered local standards, the smoked and barbecued dishes we've tried here here aren't very good - we've had better at even local chain restaurants."
After we visited One Eyed Jack's in Lockport last year, we began our partial, rating-less review by noting that while we love smoked and barbecued meats, Western New York "doesn't play in the big leagues when it comes to barbecue, and the local players tend to be only decent by absolute standards." Since then, we've eaten a lot of local barbecue, and while there have been standouts - Dinosaur in Rochester, Kentucky Greg's here - there are also been lots of forgettable meals. Oinktoberfest was perhaps the closest Western New York has come in recent months to offering a wide variety of options - unfortunately, this fall festival only lasted a few days.
One Eyed Jack's has a slight edge on the deliberately semi-greasy, folksy Kentucky Greg's in looks; located next to a bait and tackle shop, it is billed as a smokehouse grill, with a nice-sized, converted house-styled dining area divided into rooms with seating for roughly 80 people. While not exactly upscale, it's a little cleaner. But there's no doubt that Greg's has better food, even though their menus are similar. Jack's offers a short list of fairly typical barbecue fare - ribs, brisket, and pulled pork are supposed to be the specialties. The quality of the items we've tried across our visits is in the same general category as Fat Bob's, Smokey Bones, and the now-defunct Montana's: at best, we'd call them "okay" -- if you order the right things -- but some of the things we've tried have been on the fine edge of "bad."
The okay items started with some Bar-B-Q Chicken Wings, served $9 for a dozen, which as noted on the menu have actually been barbecued rather than deep fried and then coated in barbecue sauce. Curious as to how they'd taste, we ordered half with the Honey Garlic sauce and half with the "Buffalo Hot" sauce. Both arrived meaty, reasonably glazed and properly cooked, but underwhelming in flavor; we preferred the honey garlic version, which was more sweet than garlicky, and indistinctive on whatever else was mixed in; the Buffalo Hot was neither hot nor especially Buffalonian in flavor.
We were similarly fine with the ribs, which are served in 1/3 rack ($11.50), 1/2 rack ($14.50), and full rack ($20) sizes along with your choice of garlic bread and two sides; on the plate we ordered, we found that the sides dominated more of the plate than the ribs. It's also worth noting that cornbread is not usually amongst the side choices, though a similar, stuffing-like version called "corn bake" was offered on one of our visits. We ordered the ribs with sticky bourbon sauce, and found them to be less than memorable in flavor or texture, other than that they were dry. On one visit, we found the included garlic bread nice, and we were fine with the french fries we picked as a side, but neither was anything to write home about; on another visit, the toast was too light in flavor, and the fries really bland.
We've had mixed experiences with the beef brisket sandwich ($8), served on a kaiser roll, and were actually somewhat depressed by the "Classic BBQ" Beef Brisket and Pulled Pork Combo ($12), which we ordered on our most recent visit. On one occasion, we thought the brisket - also offered in a non-sandwich version for $11 - was good, but on our most recent visit, it was very close to dry, extremely light on flavor, and really not something we'd ever order again. The pulled pork was worse, served so dried out that it seemed incapable of fully bonding with the sauces Jack's leaves on the table.
It should be mentioned at this point that One Eyed Jack's leaves patrons to do most of the work in flavoring their own food. Baskets on each table contain barbecue, hot barbecue, and Frank's hot sauces, so when a plate arrives bone dry, you have the ability to partially fix it by squeezing out a sauce of your choice and stirring everything up in hopes that it works. The brisket sandwich and brisket side of the combo we ordered were both made almost passable with the two tasty barbecue sauces, but the pulled pork continued to feel way too dry in our mouths; it was mostly the sauce and not the meat that kept us going.
Other side dishes were generally alright. Baked beans were okay, and the aforementioned special side of "corn bake" tasted like an attempt at cornbread gone wrong, served - apparently as intended by the restaurant - in spooned-out, soft clumps rather than as slices of a loaf. It was sweet, with obvious bits of corn inside, and a lot more moist than anything else on our plates; we almost enjoyed it, but didn't really feel like finishing it, either.
The highlight of the meal was dessert, which we ordered more out of curiosity than any expectation that we'd be getting anything special. Of the four choices, one of us picked the Peanut Butter Pie ($4.50) - a sugary-sweet, dense freezer version that was small, but looked and tasted very good - another got the Pecan Pie ($4.50), which was larger, warm and goopy with molasses, and fine, while several people at the table ordered the Key Lime Pie ($4.25). One described it and the other desserts as mediocre; others liked but didn't love it.
In any case, we don't see ourselves going back to One Eyed Jack's any time soon. Even by our lowered local standards, the smoked and barbecued dishes we've tried here here aren't very good - we've had better at even local chain restaurants, say nothing of some of the ones available outside of Western New York. If you're looking for a relatively inexpensive barbecued meal, this place is alright, but you can definitely do better locally, and a lot better if you're willing to drive a little to Dinosaur.
