Kaiser’s Bar-B-Q and General Store

The brisket was amazing! The owner was so sweet, and I felt like I was having a picnic inside. Would definitely come back

On a whim I stopped into the red barn after seeing the $ 4.99 rib tip sign. I was glad I went in even before I sank my teeth into the delicious tips that I took to go. This a quirky joint with eclectic décor items for sale. I can’t wait to come back to experience the spectrum of offerings.

Shame on me for not reviewing this place years ago. We have been eating lunch here for as long as I can remember. The staff is always sweet. The place is clean and welcoming. I enjoy the eclectic location and atmosphere. The most important part is the food. Over the years we have tried most everything on the menu. It has never been short of fantastic. The sandwich options for lunch are fast and amazing, I recommend the pork or brisket. A late Friday lunch with a three meat plate, will make it hard to work the rest of the day. So full! Thank you Gregg for many great meals. This is what BBQ and customer service are all about.

I always judge bbq by their sliced brisket and sausage. If I had gotten the brisket that I’m seeing in the pictures I would have given this place more stars. The brisket I had was cut parallel to the grain. It had good flavor but was tough to cut and tough to chew. The jalapeño sausage and sides were excellent. Service was great but someone had a bad day on the meat slicer.

Best ribs I have had and the smoked chicken was great. Loved it… we eat here a few times a month for sure!
Hot Servers as well…

SLC has a few hit and mis BBQ joints but Kaiser’s is definitely a hit! Their meats were well seasoned and I could fast the smoke in every bite. I also liked their BBQ sauce which added a tart and sweet flavor to every bite. We tried their chicken, pork ribs, and brisket. My favorite hands down was the pork ribs. I usually don’t even like ribs, but Kaiser’s ribs were perfectly cooked and perfectly seasoned. They have weird, short hours Mon-​Wed, so I won’t be able to visit until later in the week, but its well worth the wage.

Great amazing BBQ hidden in downtown SLC! This is a must go to place! Lunch here for us Marines on our Marine Corps Birthday! Semper Fi!

When I need to scratch my BBQ itch, this is my «go-​to» place. This happens about 3 times a week (my office is within walking distance). Zero bullshit, just great food. You can smell it from the road.

Good was great and the atmosphere, a bbq dive, and I thought it a great meal. I would recommend this place to my friends

This was a nice little BBQ joint. I could probably end my review there. Was my mind blown? no. Did i enjoy the food? yes.
As always i ordered to 3 meat platter. The rib meat was good, the brisket was nice but i could have used more bark, and the pulled pork was lacking a little more flavor, some salt or pepper I dont know. Just a thought.
The sides: Cole slaw… eh… not my favorite it needs just a teeny bit more sweet and it would have a nice contrast with the crunch. The mac n cheese was really good, but you have to eat it in one sitting… it will just be oil if you reheat it. The beans were the best. there was a nice mix of spice with sweet and it went down easy… (insert inappropriate statement here).
THE VERDICT: Go and try it if you long for BBQ like i do. They give you two free pieces of white bread! I like the free stuff. If you aren’t a big bbq person this place probably isn’t for you. Also when I hear kaiser i just think of WWI and had some made PTSD. But delicious PTSD.

Sides were horrible. Mac and cheese was literally microwaved (as the owner told us). Meat and sauce were good.

I was overcharged for a pound of sausage, and the sides are store bought. I smoke meat, and this was more like an amateur 5^th grader cooking over a fire. I ordered prime rib, and expected prime rib what I got was more like rump roast, and I had to cut it myself. Never again!

What a little hidden gem of a bbq place. Very strange location, offering no windows so I was hesitant to even go in. The people inside made that feeling go away very quickly as they were super nice, and helped us select our food.
I had the two meat plate with pulled pork and brisket. Definitely enjoyed the way they prepared the brisket slices. They were thin almost like a bacon slice. The pulled pork was delicious and I really like their bbq sauce. The portions were huge so if you go with someone you might want to go for a 2 – 3 meat plate and try a few things. The mac and cheese was decent and I liked the baked beans. All in all a great spot. Will definitely be back again.
Service was top notch. They even have a strange general store next to it.

This is a decent barbecue joint tucked into a seedier part of town. The pulled pork sandwich was par for the course. My husband had the beef brisket and no complaints there either. My one qualm: if you run a barbecue place, you gotta make your own barbecue sauce. I always thought this was an unspoken rule. They have a nice selection of sauces to choose from, including sriracha, which kind of threw me, but not having their own left me seriously questioning their barbecue street cred.

This is a fun BBQ place. The food is on par with the other BBQ places in Utah. Except they offer a pickle bar and better sides! I wish they had better hours.

So I’m still on my quest to find great, Texas-​style BBQ in SLC. Pat’s was okay, and R&R, to me, has better sides than meat. But I’d not yet tried my namesake, which stands as a red barn fortress of BBQ on 300W.
The short answer: It has the potential to be really good, but just wasn’t quite there on the day I ate.
Kaiser’s is situated in the aforementioned windowless red barn on 300 W, and it’s hard to figure out exactly where you can park. I just found a spot right on the busy road, and entered on a Saturday at nearly closing. I ordered the three meat combo, with sausage, ribs, and brisket, and sat among the quasi-​Western, quasi-​Country tchotchkes made of repurposed steel and springs.
The rib was solid. Nice hickory smoke flavor, no sauce needed.
The sausage was OK. It’s the «bologna» style, not soft-​packed (which I was expecting from a BBQ place that hearkens so much to central Texas ‘Q) but flavorful.
The brisket had so much promise. Look at the picture I posted — a lovely smoke ring, and a nice rub on the outside. But, like the other bbq places in town, it sat in a hotbox for hours, and got grey, rubbery, and completely lacking in flavor and texture. It was sad, really, that a finely smoked piece of meat ended up in such a state.
The sides aren’t worth it (though that doesn’t bother me much), and this nearly-​black, sticky sauce they served as «BBQ sauce» almost turned my stomach. I like KC-​style sweet BBQ ribs often, but I couldn’t imagine the sauce on any meat, much less the Texas-​style smoked meat.
The place is decorated with plates of grateful diners, most of which seem like they’re from local businesses who go there for lunch, when the meat is freshly out of the smoker. I think if I’d gone at 7 in the morning, this would be the best BBQ in SLC. And maybe the other options — pulled pork, baked potato, etc., are just better choices. But for brisket at 7:00 p.m. on a Saturday, sadly, not so much.

I do dumb things. I admit it. The dumb thing for this review was going here instead of R & R’s, but it had been a good long while since I’d been there and I’d seen a rash of glowing reviews and I’m a firm believer in second chances (to a degree), etc. etc. So, I popped in, checked out the art and so on, which I like a lot and made my way to the counter.
If there’s a more eclectic place for BBQ, I’ve never seen it. One thing that I dislike about this is the back door, so people can wander through the kitchen to get to the counter and then wander through it again and go down a flight of stairs and through a crammed basement to get to the bathroom, which is also stacked full of stuff. Fine, it’s like being in someone’s house, I get it. I can live with that, but people wandering through the kitchen kind of bothers me. There is also the über-​tackiness of a bunch of plates mounted to the wall with varying credentials of people «knowing» BBQ. I have my doubts as to the veracity of any such claims.
As to what I had, compared to last time… still expensive. The brisket this time was slightly rubbery and a bit bland, certainly nothing I’d care to repeat again. The ribs, while very large, were pretty moist, flavor was ok, not a lot of smoke, though. These were acceptable, but not much more. All of that came inexplicably wrapped in oversized white butcher paper. Didn’t get any pickles, unfortunately, but of the two sides, beets and green, both of those were quite good, one of the few highlights here. Both could have also used butter, though. I also tried some jalapeño poppers, which were the real star. A full jalapeño, moderate heat, stuffed with cream cheese, capped with sausage and a mushroom and wrapped in bacon and yes, it was as good as it sounds. The «rocket» version is coated in some sort of heat dust, but it the dust somewhat detracts. I’d rather it was cooked with it rather than sprinkled with a small mound of powder. The iced tea I’ll just call unfortunate and leave it at that. The BBQ sauce tasted suspiciously Bullseye-​ish. Plain white Wonder bread comes with, but I’d rather use that as a napkin than actually eat it ever.
They are not afraid of piling food on the plate and portions are nicely sized, but they should be for the cost. Eating here is by no means cheap. This has not been nor will it be in my BBQ rotation, but it is the kind of place people should experience at least once, just because it is so unique. As for repeat visits, mileage may vary for others, but I think I’m good on coming back ever.

Don’t let its shabby size and appearance fool you, my experience with them was amazing– no, so good that I’m surprised it isn’t illegal yet.
I ordered a combination of juicy pulled pork, baby back ribs, and slow cooked brisket. The warm BBQ sauce is so messy & delicious, and the portions are so big, that I had to take half of it home!
The two ladies who at the counter were really nice, and one of them mixed her «special sauce» for us to enjoy. I was simply torn between devouring my dish and listening to them tell me how the cook stays after hours to make sure the meats are perfect for tomorrow.

Although it’s fairly pricey, I believe this was the best BBQ I’ve had in Utah– so you get what you pay for. SO, if you are sick of having the same average & boring BBQ like Famous Dave’s, then treat your buddies & family to Utah’s best kept secret smoked grill. Mmmm!

2^nd visit here. Had to downgrade my vote based on the chopped brisket sandwich I received. Pretty much tasted like it had been sauced up then put in a crock pot for three days, stale and tough. Couldnt finish it. Now on to the good. The pulled pork sandwich we got at the same time was probably the best I have ever had. Large chunks of melt in your mouth deliciousness that was so good it didn’t even need sauce. The quality of the sides has also improved in the last couple of years. Good no frills BBQ joint.

Great food… had to come back to back days… sausage are the best in Utah. Being from Texas I know…

Kaisers hit the otto von bisMARCK!
I’ve been to most of SLCs Q joints over the years, but never before have I seen one with a stuffed Armadillo holding a bottle of Big Red soda (that’s Fanta for most of us). And never have any of the others served up a house-​made sausage that comes close to Kaisers. I also enjoyed high quality brisket sliced ultra thin, and I washed down that Big Red sugar bomb with some fresh brewed tea. Perhaps my favorite thing about Kaisers is something so bafflingly simple I can’t believe I’ve never thought of it. They give you HEATED BBQ sauce with your order. In all my carnivorous years no one has ever shown me this saucy consideration. Sehr gut!

Not that there is any competition, but Kaiser’s is the best Barbecue in Salt Lake City. At least as far as I’ve tried and I think I have hit most of them…
I also appreciate the fresh BREWED ice tea. Any restaurant that serves «ice tea» from a machine loses a star automatically.

Let’s get this out of the way — I’d definitely defer to the judgement of Adam G, Kate C, and Monica T about Kaiser’s. The Texas runs deep in this triumvirate, and their reviews are so very well thought out and thorough that it almost seems like a blasphemy to add my own words.
So let me write this not as a Texan (which I am not) nor as a BBQ professional. How about from the perspective of an enthusiastic Utahn and a BBQ enthusiast.
As a Utahn, I’m pleased as pickles to have a funky little place like Kaiser’s here in the Beehive. It’s truly one-​of-​a-​kind. It’s in a neighborhood I really love (not the most polished ‘hood, but definitely a nabe with character) and is so eclectic you can’t help but feel like you’ve really stepped into something unique.
The building is located right on 300 West and you can’t miss it; bright red building with stuff tacked onto it. What kind of stuff? I dunno. Metal stuff. Random stuff. There isn’t much parking but you make do by parking on 300 West or American Ave. Once again, these aren’t the flashiest streets with the warmest or fuzziest feelings, but there are much worse places to be alone in the dark in SLC.
Approaching from American Ave you’ll see a whole host of metal sculptures. Why? I dunno. It doesn’t matter. They’re like a big oxidated patina on the building. Charming, even.
Enter and you’ll see a hodge-​podge of decorations, including plates with praise and well-​wishes scribbled upon them. The floor is uneven, the bathroom is in the basement amongst storage (watch your head!) and there’s a darkish side dining area with terrible (wonderful!) gas-​station quality shirts for sale. This side addition actually used to be a butcher shop or meat packaging facility, and you can still see the rails on the ceiling where the slabs used to hang from. Now that’s personality.
As a BBQ enthusiast, I’m stoked on the quality of the food. I ordered a brisket and sausage combo and was pleased with them both. You spend a buck or two here, but I actually was very pleasantly surprised with the quantity of food that I got. You get a couple of sides and cornbread and I was stuffed when I left. Pro tip: consider the molasses cornbread. It’s got a darker and richer flavor.
Brisket has a nice smoke ring and was dense without being tough. I’ve been on digging on sausage from BBQ places lately, and I was very pleased with Kaiser’s. As a man who suffers from WMS (Wussy Mouth Syndrome) I chose the non-​jalapeño version and it had just enough burn to notice. Perfect. It was also a full, large sausage so again, bonus points for being lots of food for the price tag. The owners told me they shut down for several weeks each year to haul loads of wood from Texas for the ‘cue and to get more metal for the yard. Legit.
The only beef I had with the place was lack of fountain drink. I was crazy thirsty this day, so a tall lemonade that I could hit up a few times would have been choice. They do have tea, but that just ain’t my jam. However, they do have sodas by the can, and among them are some pretty obscure brands. I had a non-​carbonated grape-​ish soda and can’t for the life of me remember the name of it. I’ll just have to go back and check. Big bonus for having random sodas; they redeem the lack of fountain.
This isn’t the flashiest or most famous BBQ in town, but it’s the real deal. And where else will you be able to buy brisket, bad t-​shirts, and bodacious yard art?