Shug’s Smokehouse Grill & Tavern

Well I am visiting my mom in good old Hartsville, South Carolina and I wanted to go to Shug’s. Check them out online at http://www.shugssmokehouse.com/. My mom doesn’t like this place because when they first opened they would give you roasted peanuts and you either piled the shells on the table or threw them on the floor. This did not rest well with my moms sensibilities. So, I don’t get to eat there often. But this time I had the evening free and could eat at all the restaurants that my mom doesn’t usually like to go to. Shug’s location was also very convenient to where I was at and where I was going.

I have read a couple of reviews of this restaurant and have wanted to give the ribs a try. Luckily for me they had a rib and pulled pork combo, so I was able to get it all. I also ordered the sautéed asparagus and a baked potato. Recently I have had some really exceptional grilled asparagus and thought that maybe these would be wonderful. I was wonderfully wrong. They weren’t bad though. The baked potato was actually really good and really hot.

I tried the pulled pork first. It had a really sweet, and slightly mustard taste. After eating a little more I was convinced that it also had a slight vinegar taste too. It did not have any apparent sauce on it but it was tasty enough without it. The drawback, for me at least, was the lack of a smoky taste. The meat did not have any of that smoke induced redness in it at all. By the time I finished the meat I was kind of tired of the taste and added some of the sauce from the ribs.

The ribs had a dry rub followed with a mopping of wet sauce that was cooked to a glaze. Sticky sticky sticky. The sauce was very sweet. I believe that part of the dry rub is brown sugar. It was very good way to start off the ribs. The meat was tender enough but was not falling off the bone. It too did not have a smoky taste nor was the meat infused with the smoky redness. By the time I got to the end of the rack though the sweetness had almost made me tired of eating the ribs.

I would not recommend the ribs or bbq from Shug’s “Smokehouse”. I am not sure why smokehouse is in the name. Stick with the steak.