Frontier BBQ & Smokehouse (Western)

Frontier BBQ & Smokehouse is located in downtown Niagara Falls at 6519 Stanley Ave. Frontier has a large wood-paneled interior and had plenty of customers; we went for weekend dinner; there is no lunch menu although there is a very reasonably priced breakfast buffet which we haven't tried yet. AYCD pop is available for $3.25.

Chicken fingers were all right but a bit dry, as were the tater tots. Beef brisket has nice wood smoke mix, and was very tender, but very fatty, although that's okay as the fat can be left aside and another helping gathered. The gravy was very good. Mashed potatoes were well-seasoned but a touch lumpy. Southern fried chicken was good, although I would have had more seasoning in the breading and there was one note in the flavour that did not belong, also the exterior was dry though the inside was moist. Bacon wrapped meatloaf was delicious and I loved it, because, well.. bacon. Mishy love the mashed sweet potato. There is a custom potato station with baked potatoes and numerous toppings. I chose bacon (of course) blue cheese and cheddar, and it was delicious. Farmer sausage was very good but I liked Hank Daddy's custom sausages better.

Super-sweet baked beans were indeed very sweet, but they were quite good even with the excessive sweetness which I usually don't like. Sauteed mushrooms were good but I would have added a little more savory seasoning. Pulled pork was excellent, well seasoned in a tangy sauce. Mishy loved the macaroni and cheese, saying it was cheesy and creamy and simple. She also liked the barbecue chicken, saying it was one of the better offerings here; I also liked it although it had an odd flavor that I could not place, which I think was due to one of the woods used in the smoking process. Brisket hash was excellent, smokey and with plenty of savor although there was a bit too much salt. Chili was very good while seasoned with plenty of cumin, but (again) there was also a strange flavor that I could not identify in it that threw it off. Mishy said that some of the bread was stale. The one available soup was cream of mushroom, and it was awful... there was something wrong with it; I don't know whether it was burnt or very stale but it tasted very musty and unappealing. The sliders are like tiny hamburgers and were delicious, the patty was very good. Baby back ribs were okay, but they did not taste like they had been smoked.

For dessert, rice coconut pudding was delicious and one of the better offerings, somewhat making up for the shortcomings of the dinner. Apple crumble was also delicious with plenty of seasoning. Butter tart bars were also good, but slightly stale. Nanaimo bars also very good, and appear to be made on premises. Chocolate chocolate cake was also quite good, full of rich bitter chocolate notes. Banana bread was also quite good, moist and not too sweet. That is all of the desserts that there were, there were no ice creams or puddings. Beware the "TIF" tourist fee on the bill, it is optional and can be refused which I did. Weekend dinner was $34.95. While this is an AYCE meat establishment in which this price range should be expected and many items were good, we weren't too impressed with some of the stale items and strange flavours to be found.

Rating: 6.5/10