I’ve heard folks who’ve worked in the restaurant biz say the biggest kiss of death to a place is opening up in the location of a previously failed restaurant. If “location, location, location” is the universal business mantra, a location that has failed is going to be a huge barrier to overcome for a new place.
Oscar’s Smokehouse is the third tenant, by my count, of the building they occupy on Arapahoe just east of Quebec. The first, a tasty steakhouse, closed due to corporate problems, as I recall. The succesor, a southwestern-themed restaurant, was there for a number of years, but didn’t wow us the couple of times we visited. Alas, Oscar’s is unlikely to be “third time the charm.”
| Overall |  | ||
| Food | | Service |  |
| Ambience |  | Prices | |
Food: As the name implies, Oscar’s is a BBQ/Meat kind of place. There’s a menu page of steaks and ribs, another page of fish, another page of game meats.
Alas, the follow-through is mediocre. My New York Strip Steak was merely okay, not very flavorful at all. Margie said the ribs were quite good (and Kitten ate her kids ribs).
The sides were so-so — Kitten didn’t care for the saffron rice she usually enjoys, the steak fries were just a hair short of soggy, the side veggies were bland, and the special “Oscar butter” for the (tasty) bread needed salt.
Each table has a trio of BBQ sauces — a spicy Texas, a sweet St Louis, and a mustard-pepper South Carolina. The sauces were a necessity for the steak and the veggies.
It’s not that the food was bad or anything. It just wasn’t … much to write home about.
Service: Our server … didn’t speak the language very well. He didn’t understand my order for a margarita at first, and then didn’t get it right (no salt). I suspect the drink returned without salt was simply poured into a new glass (it had a slight salty tang to it).
(There’s a wine list in the menu, but no mention of other drinks. I’d seen margaritas listed on the chalkboard for the 3-6pm Happy Hour.)
The food came up quickly, though, plates were cleared in a timely fashion and our check appeared likewise.
Ambience: Here’s where the place shines. It’s a small but well-laid-out building. The dining room used to have a very nifty ceiling that cycled through daylight, into sunset, and then a fiber-optic starry sky, back to dawn. That’s no longer in action, though, replaced by the flags of the 50 states. Overall, though, the interior is quite nice (if mostly inherited from previous incarnations of the site).
There’s regularly live music in the attached bar. There was a sub playing tonight, but he did a very nice job with various country-western pop tunes.
There are a few false notes. The exterior signs can’t decide if it’s a “Saloon and Grill” or “Saloon and Grille,” and on some signs the name Oscar is huge vs Smokehouse, on others its reverse. Similarly, the menu has some odd typography, grammar errors, and capitalization quirks. It’s the same sort of oddities that show up in the web page design (which includes misaligned text and a misspelling of the city the restaurant resides in).
Prices: The prices are a scosh high for the quality of the food. Dinner for the three of us — two adults, one child, with one margarita for myself, no wine, no dessert, no dinner salads — came to about $70. That’s about $20 too much.
Overall: Though the place shows well from the inside, and is in a good location (Arapahoe between I-25 and Quebec is something of a restaurant row), there are enough little glitches — the food among them — to make it likely that Oscar’s Smokehouse will not be long for this world. The small crowd on a Saturday night at 7 p.m. seemed to confirm this. A shame, because with a bit of work, the place could be a real contender.
First impressions, though, are make-or-break in the restaurant biz. On that basis, I expect to (sadly) see another name over the door at that address far too soon.
Oscar’s Smokehouse, 7285 E. Arapahoe, Centennial, CO 80112