Mystery Diner: Station One Smokehouse delivers tender meats and sides with flavor and spice

I finally had the good fortunate of ordering some food from Station One Smokehouse in Plainfield – nearly two years to the date of its opening.

Station One Smokehouse, which is located in Plainfield’s former firehouse, serves Texas style barbecue. I’ve heard lots of opinions on the different styles of barbecue and what makes one better than the other.

For me, it was a matter of trying a variety of food, sharing them with a few loved ones and then deciding for ourselves.

Overall, we felt everything tasted delicious – and that all of it could use a little more salt.

Here’s what we ordered and what we thought of it.

Half-pound sliced brisket for $15.35: Nice crisp on the outside, not too fatty elsewhere with a well-seasoned melt-in-your-mouth tenderness.

Half-pound sliced pastrami for $12:47: Tender, good flavor, made a nice sandwich the next day.

Half-pound pulled pork for $10:54: Non-uniform pieces of meat, tender and well-seasoned.

Elote corn: $10: This hot Mexican-style street corn was hot, creamy, cheesy – with just the right amount of salt

Brisket chili: $10: A rustic chili with unpeeled tomatoes, black beans and chunks of meat. Light on salt and spicy. If you don’t like spicy food, this chili is not for you.

Pickles: This was free and worked well as its own side dish. It was more like a spicy pickled slaw, with chunks of peppers and onions.

Collard greens $10: Tender with nice chunks of meat and plenty of onions. This was a surprise as they are not listed on the carryout menu.

Cornbread with honey butter for $12: The cornbread had a dense top and a fluffy, sweet insides. The honey butter married well with it.

Apple crisp (which turned out to be peach crisp) for $5.99: The peaches appeared to be canned but that didn’t detract from its taste. The topping’s crisp actually held up all the way home and wasn’t too sweet.

Station One Smokehouse is currently offering modified hours due to the pandemic. You can order in person or online. Prices and menu items may differ from the in-person menu to the online menu - at least it did for us.

For instance, we didn’t see any desserts online. But we did see them listed at the restaurant, which is where we did our ordering.

And yes, we will go back – for a repeat of the stellar pastrami, brisket and collard greens.

• The Mystery Diner is an employee at Shaw Media Illinois. The diner’s identity is not revealed to restaurant staff when ordering or picking up the food. If the Mystery Diner cannot recommend the establishment, we will not publish a story.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Station One Smokehouse

WHEN: Place orders 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Pickup is 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Closed Mondays.

WHERE: 15025 S. Des Plaines St. Unit 1A, Plainfield

INFO: Call 815-271-MEAT(6328) or visit stationonesmokehouse.com.