The Smokin’ Ox Premium BBQ

Nice little bbq spot. I always like to get the brisket. The sides are delicious too and lots of sauce options. Staff is friendly and service is always quick.

Went to Smokin Ox in Winter Haven for lunch. Wife had brisket sandwich I had the Ribs. both were delicious. I ordered the half slab but they were so meaty I couldn't eat all of them and took some home. The home made bbq sauce was also very good. I have to say that this is the best bbq I have had in Florida. I have been to Blackburns, Sonny's, and a few others and none of them hold a candle to Smokin Ox!!!!

Welcome to another Family Food Adventure review!!!This time BBQ at the SMOKING OX in downtown Winter Haven.Do you Want great BBQ, without having to go far from our area, this is the place!!!In comparison to our favorite brisket/BBQ place Mission BBQ in Lakeland. We will say we don't need to make that 40 min trip any longer.Wow these meats are yum just the way they are OR if your a sauce nut like me they have 4 different sauces to choose from. Take your taste buds on a trip and try all 4, I did and I do not regret it. From the Original BBQ to the honey BBQ, then on to the Mustard BBQ and ending with the HOT BBQ, they were all tasty, I kept eating every one until each small pile were gone then finished off with the Sweet for the rest of my meal mixing in a swirl of Mustard BBQ here and there couldn't get enough what a great balance in the Mustard sauce!!!A great price for a family of 5, for 67$ we received 5 drinks, a 1/2 lb of lean brisket w/2pieces of Texas toast, 2 brisket sandwiches on buttery brioche toasted buns , 1 Chopped pork sandwich (same bun as brisket), 1 kids 2 rib meal, comes with side and drink, and a fully loaded FAT FRIES, WOW THOSE FRIES!!!Every meat was enjoyed by all 5 of us, from young to well us, the parents, lol!!!The meat was tender and the portions were perfect for the prices, not so small your like where's the meat for 9$, like some other places around. Each sandwich had a nice little pile where the buns were separated enough that you could see the meat piled nicely in between the buns.The brisket was fall apart tender on the lean portion I received, there were 6 slices about 1/4" thickness each one with a nice end piece.The brisket on the sandwiches for the teen and young adult was a great value @ 9$. For them it was a bit fatty, but they are use to lean meat, I tried it and it was not too fatty in my opinion for a non lean brisket. They will also change it to lean meat on the sand which with no up charge if you ask, I made sure to ask for the teen and young adult child in our family for next time as we are a lean brisket eating Family!!!The pork was juicy and piled high so much my wife had some droppings to eat besides the sandwich, lol. What a great value sandwich @ 7$, it's well worth it!!!The kids 2 Rib meal for 7$ was a great deal for our 9yr old, she loved it and got her full!!!The only constructive criticism she had to say is that the 5 cheese Mac & cheese was a bit watery and she didn't enjoy the texture.There could be a couple reasons for this in my opinion after 15yrs in the industry. The watery taste could be from the Mac n cheese sitting in the plastic to go container they are portioned out in, could kinda tell they are pre made for service times. As they sit more water can come out of the pasta overtime, a little heat up before serving would take care of it, but not in the microwave!!! For the texture it could be from the un-melted shredded cheese as when I tried it that's all I could really taste texture wise that's takes it away from a nicely melted Mac & cheese that we all adore!!! Maybe a one off we will try it again and update review, try it for yourself!!!The Fries WOW WOW WOW, everyone loved these fries so much two of the kids said they just wanted that next time for their meal.For 12$ you get a whole serving, again with a nice high pile of pork, diced jalapeños (on side or over the top) and melted cheese, (they should add this cheese to the Mac stir and serve, just a thought it would heat and meld the dish together more before serving without greatly increasing the food cost!!!) you can also get the cheese on the side and do it yourself!!!You can add whatever sauce or just eat the way it comes both ways we're a mouth full of tastiness!!!We will def be going back to try the Tacos and other sides if we can get past the Fries, YUM!!!If your near or far, I would give this place a try to see if it contends with your favorite BBQ PLACE IT WON US OVER FOR SURE!!!

Good food, good service, friendly staff. Pricey for BBQ. The smoked sausage is delicious and the spicy bbq sauce is wonderful. The slaw is meh, in my opinion, and the smoked turkey salad is just alright. It's overpriced. It needs a sweet element to balance the flavors - dried cranberries, grapes, etc. (I ended up adding my own). Overall I love the smoked sausage and spicy sauce, and will keep going back just for that.

Tried out the pork sandwich and taco, brisket taco, Mac and cheese, ribs and beans. All not bad at all. Service was good. I'd consider coming back if in the neighborhood.

Hmmmm, slight nausea and the shits. Dirty hands or dirty food, not sure which one but something definitely not exactly clean here. Probably the chopped pork sandwich if I had to blame something I ate here, probably not the turnip greens or corn casserole. Thats assuming it wasn't dirty hands, id course. All of this by the way, perfectly fine going down, but later that night and most of the next day was low level Florida Man Revenge on my GI. Nothing debilitating, but certainly felt like ass and little appetite for 24 hours. An extra star for not having vomiting and fever.

My neighbor raved about this place so I decided to give them a try this evening. The interior of this location is quite nice. It feels very homey, clean, and it's spacious.I ordered the St. Louis Ribs with the Fat Fries for myself. Chopped Brisket Sandwich with banana pudding for my husband. The 2pc Rib kids meal for my son. Here's where the problem began. I want to preface this by saying that I do NOT like to police attitudes as workers are humans who sometimes have bad days. I fully understand that. I lost my voice after a celebration and also had on a mask so I couldn't speak very loudly. The person who was taking my order (Ashley, I believe. double nose piercing with lavender hair patch) wasn't the most patient because of how low I was speaking. I was trying to ask questions but I didn't like the energy I was being presented with so I got the basics.I ordered my food to go and got my food within about 10-15 minutes. I've ate a lot of BBQ. And I truly do mean A LOT. This was subpar at best. The brisket, the pork on the fries, and the ribs were bland. The BBQ sauce brought it somewhat to life but the meat was bland and the ribs were not tender. The turnip greens were by the far the worst I've had but my son who is thankfully not a picky eater ate it all.Here's what I liked:- the brioche bun. Top tier and toasted perfectly.- the fries and the cheese sauce.- the banana was delicious.- the variety of sauces is great.Unfortunately, the star of the show was very disappointing and I was very sad by that. I will probably come back just for the pudding and the fries (without the meat) but I wouldn't recommend this place.

We have been looking for some really good BBQ that we have been missing since we moved to the area. Have tried a few places, but nowhere really hit the marks, that is until we came here. The meat was all delicious, the sides were some of the best, and the price was pretty fair for all the food we walked away with. This is our new go-to after our first experience here.

The place used to be great. Don't know what happened but it's awful now. The brisket looked like it was from last week. The other meats were horrible as well. Ordered loaded potato salad which is usually fantastic and the bacon in it was barely cooked. Go back to being a food truck.

I've lived in Florida for about 6 years now, and have been trying different BBQ places, looking for a really good one. I've found some okay ones that I occasionally go back to. I was in Winter Haven running some errands and noticed a bunch of BBQ places as I drove around, so decided to pick one for lunch. Smokin' OX was nearby and I decided to go there. The interior was nice and clean, nice views out the windows, good layout, order at the counter and have a seat. The menu was pretty simple, which I like, too many items and then nothing is your specialty. And pretty simple pricing too, sides and drinks all the same price. The food came out and looked good. I had a 1/2 rack of ribs, green beans and potato wedges. The meal came with 2 pieces of garlic bread. Very reasonable portions. There were 4 sauces on the table to choose from. My favorite was the Sweet, the Original a close 2nd. The Hot was good, but a little too hot for me. Too much heat to me can cover up the flavor of the meat itself. This is one of the first places where I could have eaten the ribs by themselves with no sauce, they were that good, and tender. I could just scrape the meat off the bones. The green beans were very flavorful and excellent. The garlic bread was even good, some places you barely taste the garlic flavor, but this was just right. Even the potato wedges were excellent, they were sliced a little thinner than most places, and they started to curl and were crispy, somewhere between the thick wedges most places serve and chips. Very, very good. And to repeat myself, the ribs were awesome. Later someone came out, either the chef, manager, owner, not sure, but she walked around checking on how people were doing, knew some customers. Overall, great service, from ordering, checking up on things, etc. So, this is the place for BBQ for me. I will be back. I'd highly recommend it also. Only one thing, I'd recommend providing a couple wet-naps when you bring out an order.