Sawmill BBQ

The food is fantastic here at The Sawmill BBQ. The brisket is so tender, you can cut it with a butter knife. The staff was friendly and very attentive. The place was busy and the staff kept up with pace. It is also very clean. This place deserves a visit.

Great BBQ across the river from downtown, friendly staff and looks popular with locals as well, good brisket and pulls pork. The kids meal hamburger is huge, adult size.

Service is excellent, the people are very friendly and warm. I had the Turkey breast plate and my sister had the pulled pork sandwich, the food was very good & plentiful. I currently own four Weber grills and a smoker, it’s safe to say that I do my share of barbecuing. I am from Illinois and been all over enjoying BBQ. I’m not going to say that it’s the best barbecue I’ve ever had but it was definitely very good. I like the feel of the place and the way it is set up (lots of character). I would definitely stop in again whenever I’m in the area. Hostess was extremely friendly.

Coming from the city of Chicago and having my share of BBQ, this place has definitely the best I’ve tasted. We visited last year during everyone’s spring break. I thought I finished this review but never did… lol! They definitely deserve a shout out because we did visit them twice before we headed back home. Hands down the best fried pickles we’ve tasted. They also had BBQ nachos that were awesome sauce! If we are ever near Cahokia again, we will be there (-:

First visit as I am an out of towner. My fist BBQ joint in the area was Pappys which was outstanding. Came in at 2 pm only one other group here. The server was pleasant and checked on us regularly. Used a groupon and had no issues as some places are not always that easy to deal with. Ordered full slab of pork ribs with onion rings and slaw. Onion rings were great. Hot and not oily and seasoned well. Ribs were tender yet firm. Slaw was mayo based and good. There were three sauces and my favorite was hot. Now I can say this place was not in Pappys league but I thought it was better than many places I eat at in California for BBQ.

Amazing barbecue. Cute, homey atmosphere. Amazing service! Let me say that again… Amazing service. !
I ordered the brisket platter with the fried pickles and cold slaw. HUge amount of food! Quality of meat was exceptional. Sooooo worth the price. Tasty! And the fried pickles! Perfection. Spears insteads of chips! The light coating was crunchy as was the pickle.
Highly recommend!

The service was great.
The restaurant was decorated very cute. Very much in theme to what the restaurant was serving.
The BBQ was okay. I say this because the brisket was really dry. Taste very good but the dryness took away from the flavor. The sauces were fair, hot sauce had a mild heat, sweet had good flavor, mustard tasted just like yellow mustard :(. The onion rings were good, my husband loved the mushrooms with horseradish. I did try my husbands pulled pork sandwich and it was really good.

This is one of my top bbq joints around town, its one of the closer ones to my house instead of going all the way downtown and they really have good BBQ! I went here for lunch and ended up getting a whole 3 meat combo with two sides and a sweet tea for about $ 20, I had a groupon so that was cool, I like that they give good deals! I got the smoked turkey, pulled pork, and ribs! gotta try the ribs everywhere I go. They all come out dry with no sauce added first so you can pick between the 4 choices of sauces they had, which were, regular, sweet, hot, and a mustard. My top choice of course is the sweet, and you can always add in a little regular or hot to it to make it not as sweet. I tried the mustard but it wasn’t one of my favorite mustard based bbq sauces and I typically enjoy them. The turkey and pulled pork were both really good, and the meat was juicy and tender! as for the ribs they were pretty good, a little too dry for me and there wasn’t much meat at all on the them, I ended up finishing them all without feeling stuffed (6 bones) so that was a little dissapointing, but they were overall a-​ok!
I would definitly come back and this wasn’t my first time here so if you are in the area and want some good bbq stop on in at the sawmill, you won’t regret it :)

I have waited to write until I could report for a group because, honestly, this is the kind of place I love! It is a BBQ joint that has recently added dining space. 4 of us had lunch last Wednesday and everyone left happy. I am a smoked turkey fan and the Sawmill has very good product. My friends got the pulled pork and chicken with beans, potato salad, slaw and sweet potato fries as sides. The sides are all very good but the sweet potato fries are amazingly good. I have tried to make these at home but I have not yet succeeded.
Others have objected to the prices here but I find them about average for this kind of food. With que of this quality that means this is a bargain. I like the sandwich with 2 sides for lunch but I leave wishing I had ordered more so that I could duck out with a doggy bag. You just have to try this place because looking at it from the roadside you will probably not give it the chance it deserves.

I previously posted a 5-​star review for the BBQ, and I stand by that wholeheartedly. Their BBQ remains the best in St. Louis and beyond. I was slightly less impressed with the Breakfast Buffet. There was a decent variety of the staples, including some great bacon and Cinnamon French Toast, but It just seems a bit dull compared to their regular menu. Perhaps they could liven it up with some Baked Beans or Chili Con Carne, which many people consider standard breakfast items now, or even some Beef Brisket to make it more interesting. Those things are a matter of taste, though. My real complaint about the Buffet is that you have to use these tiny styrofoam plates and cups, which not only creates a ton of unnecessary waste, but also cheapens the whole experience. Overall, the breakfast food wasn’t bad, but I’ll stick to the BBQ from now on.

Clean establishment, very friendly service and well done interior. Unfortunately the BBQ seemed average. Everything else was done so well I was hoping for a bit more from the food. I will try it again… maybe I hit it on a bad day…

Honesty, not sure why all the rave reviews. It’s good and the servings are generous but I had the beef brisket plate with baked beans and wasnt really impressed. My wife had the nachos and they were surprisingly good… so I’d recommend them. the chairs were uncomfortable and I was ready to leave five minutes into my meal, but great service sounds.

Amazing. We ate here for dinner and for breakfast. The breakfast is incredible. All you can eat buffet with thick bacon and the best French toast and syrup. Excellent tea too. The nachos were definitely the star of our dinner. They sound weird but are sooo good. The ribs excellent, and you can see thick smoke rings on everything. Whoever gave this a 1 star is crazy.

Great BBQ & Ribs. Great service. Wish we lived a few states closer.

Friendly service and delicious food. We had the St Louis specialty, barbecued pork steak. Since we never had it before, we cannot say whether it is «right», but we are sure that it was delicious. Loved the corn nuggets, too. And the homemade potato chips were fresh, crisp, and abundant. We arrived two minutes before closing, so they were out of the sweet potato fries, so we are betting those would have been great, too. A little out of the way, but worth the trip. It was only about a 15 minute drive from the south side of St. Louis near Jefferson Barracks.

Monday lunch
Service was nice.
Inside looked like an old «sawmill» with old farm equipment on walls and ceiling. Lots of wood. Just from the looks of the place my expectations went up.
Ribs –good smokey flavor, tender, cut for you.
Turkey, brisket, pork — all kinda bland and dry, nothing memorable. Smothered them in the two sauces on table.
The sides of green beans, potato salad, baked beans, and cole slaw tasted all prepackaged. Ok but not home made
Hot and sweet sauces — both were very good. Hot was spicy but not overwhelming the sweet had hint of pepper.
Go for the ribs.

I drove past this place for quite a while. It is at the entrance of a RV park, which always deterred me. I quit eating fast food, unless there is no other option. Cahokia has nothing but fast food for the most part. I finally gave it a try, what a hit!
This place is better than Bandana’s and Pappy’s (which did not impress me). The baked beans are delicious. Pulled pork has just the right amount of smoke, and is still moist.
The staff is extremely nice and they run all over refilling drinks.

Sawmill is kind of a quintessential BBQ joint. The ambience here is just about perfect, with screened in «porch» corrugated tin walls, lots of antique items around the walls (even an antique iron holding the RFT’s down just outside the door. By appearance, it’s not more than a couple of years old and they really did a good job of suiting the décor to the food. I was kind of expecting an old run-​down shack with screen doors falling off hinges and flys buzzing around, so I was pleasantly surprised. It sits in the front of a pretty nice RV park that I didn’t know existed. Then again, Cahokia AIN’T my stompin’ grounds.
This is clearly a family-​owned place. We went for a Saturday lunch and arrived before noon. It’s counter service, then they bring the food out to you. Prices are pretty standard, in fact, they are almost exactly the same as Pappy’s, which was kind of surprising, since Cahokia is way way way below Midtown if we’re ranking trendiness. Way.
Apologies to the mayor of Cahokia.
If you’re a BBQ fan, I think you’ll like it. We had pulled pork and ribs, with sweet potato fries, cole slaw, green beans and fried pickles as sides. The sides menu had some tough choices, including homemade chips, corn nuggets and mac and cheese bites. Not sure what those last two were, but there is definitely some creativity in the kitchen. They use a very generous amount of rub on the ribs and it was tasty, although pretty salty. If you have high blood pressure, you will definitely want to give the ribs a pass. The ribs I was served were not too meaty, so the rub overwhelmed the meat. They were also quite smoky, so you may or may not have a preference (I preferred a little less). Here’s the thing, though: A guy I presume was the dad/​owner/​pitmaster brought us three ribs of much higher quality because he said he felt bad about sending those ribs out. That was pretty nice, since they really weren’t that bad — certainly too good to throw out. The pulled pork was excellent.
The menu also included brisket, turkey, chicken, pork steaks (weekends only), brats, salads, nachos… pretty big. We’ll definitely be back to try a few of these. This would be a great stop before a Grizzlies game. Cahhokia is not our stompin’ grounds, like I said, but we’ll definitely come over to Sawmill to stomp again.

Not as cheap as advertised but good food and worth visiting if you are in the area.

After a lovely morning at the Botanical Gardens, we decided to cross the Missouri State Line for some pulled pork, beef brisket, and smoked turkey at Sawmill BBQ. Pulling into a small gravel parking lot behind the cute clapboard structure, we became ravenous as we caught the aroma of caramelized smoke rolling from the side porch where the meats were being prepared. We piled in the door and quickly examined the bright chalkboard, finally choosing pulled pork sandwiches, a combo platter, corn fritters, baked beans, sweet potato fries, mac and cheese fritters, and tall glasses of sweet tea. We opted for seating on the screened porch, and sampled the sauces on the table.
There were three house sauces available for drenching our smoked goodies: a sweet sauce redolent of sage and black pepper, a hot sauce with a sweet vinegary bite, and a mustardy yellow sauce. Based on the selection of sauces, we contemplated the idea that Sawmill was a crossroads barbecue place, with Carolina, Memphis, and Kansas City influences clearly clamoring for space at the table. We preferred the hot sauce, as the sweet sauce’s flavors were unbalanced, the burnt floral flavors of the sage too pronounced. Our baskets were soon brought to the table, and we savored the chewy black edges of the pulled pork penetrated with smoke, the tender beef brisket, and the turkey breast, also enjoying the pillowy crunch of the fries and the sweetness of the corn fritters.
The spunky ladies who took our order continually filled our glasses with strongly brewed sweet tea, and their genuine kindness alone would be enough to make us visit again. Too bad the beer didn’t also come with free refills! The porch leant itself to lingering, with its comfortable bar chairs and light breezes. While Sawmill did not serve the best barbecue I have ever tasted, they provided a filling, comforting lunch in a casual, congenial setting. Thanks to everyone for making our smoked visit memorable.