4 Rivers Smokehouse… A lot of smoke, just a little fire

I’m starting a new quest… to find the best Barbeque in the Orlando area. I’ve already posted our review of Sonny’s and over the next several weeks, I’ll post reviews of several more Barbeque joints. Coming from the BBQ Capital of the World, North Carolina (Sorry KC, Texas, and Memphis, no body cooks Pig like my fellow Tarheels!!), I consider myself a connoisseur of Barbeque, especially Pork Barbeque. So, tonight will be second entry in our latest quest, 4 Rivers Smokehouse in Winter Garden. It’s a few miles northwest on Rt. 429 on W. Colonial Drive from Disney and the rest of the attractions. It’s actually pretty easy to get to, so the drive was only about 20 minutes.

Sometimes when you read a lot of reviews about a place it gets your hopes up and you form this really high set of expectations. That’s what happened to me with 4 Rivers Smokehouse. On Urbanspoon.com and several other sites, 4 Rivers is rated exceptionally high, if not the best place to eat here in Orlando. That’s really saying a lot considering all the great places to eat down here. So, we decided to go last evening and we left just a little later than I wanted to, which got us to the restaurant around 5;45 and there was already a line out the door and around the front of the building. I wasn’t aware, but 4 Rivers ordering process is cafeteria style, so you wait in line to walk up and place your order. That was probably one of the things I didn’t really appreciate about this experience, but I’ll get to all that in a minute.

I had reviewed the menu online prior to going, along with all the reviews, and understand their beef brisket is supposed to be incredible. But, for the purposes of our review, I decided I was going to try the pulled pork plate. My wife had a hard time choosing because the menu really is extensive, from the beef brisket to chicken, to sliced and pulled pork sandwiches, to the house made sausage. She ended up chosing the sausage sandwich. The line moved fairly quickly, but like I said above, this ordering process was extremely inefficient, and I think actually causes some problems for the place. As we made our way up to order, I noticed that the “plates” people were ordering weren’t on actual plates, just paper on a tray. So, if you order a “plate,” be prepared for it, and your sides, to not be on an actual plate. The process takes quite a while and they go ahead and “plate” your food as you’re standing in line, which then presents two huge problems; first, the food gets cold as it sits out from the warming dishes and second, which for me is the biggest problem, flies were landing on the food that had already been placed on the trays. The staff really were nice, but they weren’t paying attention and the folks in front of us had several flies land on their food. See, this process of ordering cafeteria style means that people are constantly holding the door open, allowing the flies in and with a majority of the foods out and in warming trays, they have plenty of opportunities to find the food. Luckily, no flies landed on my plate or my wife’s, so I wasn’t grossed out. The other issue the ordering process causes is that if you want to eat inside (yes, they have both indoor and outdoor seating, with the bulk of the seating outside in a covered porch area), you have to try and break through the line. It just causes a lot more work on the customer than getting a decent meal should. Once we ordered, we went outside to find a seat on one of the overly large picnic tables. Now, I understand they are trying to go for a Texas Smokehouse feel, but I’m going to tell you, come July and August when the nights aren’t as nice as last night and the temps get into the 90’s and humidity at 90%, I just wouldn’t find eating outside like that appealing (not to mention all the bugs down here in Florida, half of which are so large they can probably be picked up on radar at the airport).

So, for the food. As I said, the process allows for the food to get somewhat cold. My plate of food was lukewarm at best. Diving into the pulled pork, I found though it was pretty tasty. The smokey flavor came through just fine and the sauce 4 Rivers uses was pretty good. I had ordered cole slaw, fries (not flies), and fried pickles for my sides. They have a long list of sides, which did impress me. The cole slaw was really good and the fried pickles were good as well, but my fries were pretty cold, so I can’t say they were anything special at all. The meal came with a homemade biscuit, which I found to be really good, with sort of a cornbread taste, without being cornbread. My wife enjoyed her sausage sandwich quite a bit, but did ditch the bun after about 3/4 way through cause it was just so big. I heard several folks around us commenting about how good the brisket and ribs were, but they did comment on their meals being a little on the cold side.

Needless to say, I can’t give 4 Rivers such a ringing endorsement as saying it’s the best restaurant in Orlando. As for a Barbeque joint, well…. I’ve had better, especially back home in N.C. If they would change the ordering process and make it a sit down type restaurant so the food is hot when you get it and keeps the flies off, then I’d say they would improve the experience 100%. The food had definite potential, just wish the other things weren’t so distracting. We might go back sometime so I can check out that brisket, but it won’t be soon. Bottom line, there’s not as much fire as there is smoke at 4 Rivers.

Here is their website – http://4rsmokehouse.com/